Chinese shoppers splurge in world’s largest shopping fest

HONG KONG » Chinese consumers are expected to spend tens of billions on everything from fresh food to luxury goods during this year’s Singles’ Day online shopping festival, as the country recovers from the pandemic.

The shopping festival, which is the world’s largest and typically begins in November, is an annual extravaganza where China’s e- commerce companies, including Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo, offer generous discounts on their platforms.

By 12: 30 a. m. ( 1630 GMT, 11:30 a.m. EDT) on Wednesday, consumers had already spent 372.3 billion yuan ($56.3 billion) on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall e- commerce platforms since the company kicked off the shopping festival on Nov. 1.

Rival JD.com also reported cumulative sales of 200 billion yuan ($30.2 billion) since Nov. 1, nine minutes after the clock struck midnight on

Wednesday.

The shopping festival got its name as the main shopping day falls on Nov. 11 every year. Also known as 11.11 or Double 11, the numbers look like “bare branches”, an expression referring to those who are single and unattached in China. The day thus later became known as Singles’ Day.

This year’s festival will be closely watched as a barometer of consumption in China, which is just beginning to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic after months of lockdown earlier in the year.

Analysts expect Chinese consumers to spend more on imported products and foreign luxury brands, since many Chinese tourists were unable to travel internationally due to the coronavirus pandemic and tightened travel restrictions.

A survey by consulting firm Oliver Wyman found that 86% of Chinese consumers are willing to spend the same as or more than during last year’s Singles’ Day festival.