China gears up for world's largest online shopping festival

HONG KONG (AP) — 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 country recovers from pandemic.

shopping festival, which is world’s largest and falls on v. 11 every year, is an annual extravaganza where China’s e-commerce companies, including Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo, offer generous discounts on ir platforms. Last year, shoppers spent $38.4 billion on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao.

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

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

“In last six months or so, wealthy households have actually spent more money,” said Sean Shen, customer and strategy competence leer for EY in Greater China. “We also see that purchases of luxury segment products are increasing because of international travel restrictions.”

Sales of electronic goods and health and wellness products are also expected to rise, as more people work from home and pay more attention to ir health amid pandemic, according to a report by consultancy Bain & Company.

To help merchants cope with impact from coronavirus, online platforms have extended shopping festival period this year in hopes of boosting sales.

Both Alibaba and JD.com, country’s two biggest e-commerce companies, began offering discounts on Oct. 21, three weeks ahe of v. 11. Some brands and merchants that slashed ir prices booked hundreds of millions of yuan (tens of millions of dollars) in sales just hours into shopping festival.

Tang Chenghui, an electrical engineer who lives in Beijing sees Singles’ Day as an opportunity to stock up on snacks and imported products such as milk from Australia. Ahe of festival, Tang pre-ordered 3 boxes of duck eggs, 10 packets of soybean milk powder, two boxes of yogurt, coffee and wine.

“I’m buying more snacks this year because I’ve just moved into a new apartment and have eugh stor to stockpile snacks I like,” said Tang. “Some of se products are really cheap during Singles’ Day discounts.”

Unlike Black Friday and Cyber Monday in U.S., Singles’ Day in China is t just about deep bargains. Alibaba pioneered concept of Singles’ Day and holds an annual gala on v. 11 with celebrity performances to entertain shoppers.

E-commerce sales via livestreaming and Alibaba’s annual gala are part of a “shoppertainment” trend which blends shopping with entertainment in order to become more appealing and engaging to shoppers.

Mini games within online shopping platforms entice shoppers with deeper discounts while encouraging m to spend more time within app.

“Because of COVID-19, brands and retailers have doubled down on e-commerce and livestreaming commerce to drive growth, and it will show strongly on (Singles’ Day) this year,” said Wang Xiaofeng, a senior analyst at Forrester.

But while millions of shoppers spend hours on mini games hoping to snag better bargains, some are irked by complexities required to win such discounts.

“Black Friday discounts tend to be better, and y are more straightforward,” said Liu Zhirou, a 27 year-old Beijing-based accountant. “w, I still ask my friends to help me buy things from U.S. during Black Friday.”

“ rules around Singles’ Day discounts w are getting more and more complicated,” she said. “I usually just spend my money on Black Friday, and buy less on Singles’ Day.”

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AP researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report.