Alibaba Group announced that during this year’s Singles Day sales period, which ended at midnight on Saturday, its Chinese e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao had “positive” year-over-year growth.

Competitor JD.com reported that during the sales period, its festival GMV (gross merchandising volume) reached a “record high”.

The ‘Singles Day’ celebration, named after the digits in the date, began as a 24-hour online shopping event on November 11 every year in China and has since grown into weeks of promotions on the nation’s top e-commerce sites as well as in physical stores.

during the second year in a row, Alibaba has not revealed the precise yuan worth of its sales during its historic event, which is commemorating its 15th anniversary this year.

The first was last year, when China’s ongoing COVID restrictions negatively impacted sales.

The festival is a key indicator of consumer confidence, and this year’s sales growth prospects have been muted due to the economy’s erratic recovery and flirtation with deflation.

Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce player by market share, announced at the beginning of the festival in late October that it would offer 80 million products at their lowest prices this year for the blockbuster event. Alibaba’s announcement put pressure on merchants to offer extremely low prices on Singles Day.

This action was perceived as a countermove to competitors like Douyin and PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo, which have altered the Chinese e-commerce scene in recent years by offering year-round, lower-priced merchandise.

As a result, steep discounts of 40–50% were far more prevalent than in prior years.

According to a Bain and Company survey conducted last week, 77% of the 3,000 respondents said they intended to spend the same or less on Singles Day than they did the year before.

Bain observed consumers buying less in big-ticket or discretionary categories like furniture and appliances and more on basics like Kleenex, hand soap, instant noodles, and pet food.

According to Bain, the entire amount of merchandise sold during the shopping spree last year came to 1.15 trillion yuan ($157.97 billion).

The final sales picture will take longer to materialise, despite some consultancies’ predictions that Singles Day GMV growth across platforms would reach anywhere from 14% to 18%, returning to double-digit growth for the first time since the epidemic.

The sum that will be refunded later is not included in the GMV calculations, which account for the total value of all orders placed. Industry executives and analysts predict increased return rates this year as customers purchase more to receive greater discounts at the register, only to return the unnecessary items.

Products for outdoor enthusiasts and those interested in health and wellbeing were predicted to do well, with international names like Nike (NKE.N) and Lululemon projected to do well in sales. Road bike sales increased 300% in the first hour of sales, according to Alibaba.

Colour cosmetics were predicted to struggle this year since make-up demand is still low nearly a year after China repealed harsh COVID-19 restrictions. Historically, colour cosmetics have performed well during the Singles Day shopping period.

(Adapted from ThePrint.in)

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