China’s Singles’ Day sales struggles amid slowing economy, with 77% of consumers not planning to spend more than usual, and dwindling discounts and lackluster sales.
Slow Sales for China’s Singles Day Bonanza
Beijing, China – China’s annual “Singles Day” sales bonanza wraps up at midnight on Saturday, but consumers this year appear largely unswayed by its flashy deals and discounts as the world’s second-largest economy slows. Conceived by tech giant Alibaba, sales for last year’s Singles Day reached 1.1 trillion yuan ($153 billion), according to a recent report by consultancy firm Bain.
Declining Interest in Singles Day Deals
Among consumers surveyed by Bain this year, 77 percent said that they did not plan to spend more than usual during the sales event. “These days people are consuming less, people don’t really have much of a desire to buy lots of things,” recent graduate Zhang Chuwen, 23, told AFP. Others say that this year’s Singles Day deals aren’t as good as in the past, and that some websites had raised prices beforehand, only to cut them for the holiday.
