China's Singles' Day shopping extravaganza loses luster
ABC News
China’s Singles’ Day, the world’s largest online shopping festival which falls on Nov. 11 every year, is losing its shine with less marketing hype and a crackdown on the technology industry
BEIJING -- China’s Singles’ Day, the world’s largest online shopping festival which falls on Nov. 11 every year, is losing its shine, with less marketing hype and a crackdown on the technology industry.
Singles’ Day has been viewed as the largest online marketing event of the year. It is heavily advertised for weeks ahead of time with brands and merchants offering deep discounts to attract consumers looking for bargains.
But shoppers say deep discounts of what is also called “Double Eleven" are now a thing of the past and experts are predicting lower sales as the economy slows.
This year, Alibaba, the e-commerce platform that pioneered the online shopping festival more than a decade ago, decided not to showcase a running tally of its real-time gross merchandise volume (GMV) — defined as the amount of transactions racked up across its platform — on its site for Nov. 11.