By Casey Hall and Sophie Yu
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese retailers are stretching their annual “Singles’ Day” sales bonanza to as long as five weeks this year, as the likes of Alibaba and JD.com try to drum up interest from shoppers in a struggling economy.
Weak consumption has dogged the world’s second-largest economy this year as policymakers grapple with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies, fierce domestic competition, extreme weather and a lingering property crisis.
At a launch event in Shanghai on Thursday, Alibaba touted an “unprecedented” investment in the industry’s biggest sales event of the year, including 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) of subsidies for its top spending 88VIP members.
Its sales period began on Wednesday evening and will run like the rest of the industry until November 11, the original Singles’ Day – named after the digits in the date.
COMPANIES BET ON AI AND INSTANT RETAIL
According to Alibaba, 35 brands including Nike, L’Oreal and local firms Anta and Proya sold more than 100 million yuan of merchandise in the first hour of the sale.
As well as subsidies and coupons, Alibaba has embedded artificial intelligence tools into search and recommendation functions. The new AI-powered system is expected to lift click-through rates by about 10%.
Instant retail – one-hour delivery of online orders – is also a focus this year. Alibaba and JD.com have poured billions into subsidies to attract shoppers to rapid delivery channels, which have been growing faster than e-commerce overall.
SHOPPERS PICKY AS DEMAND PATTERNS SHIFT
JD.com launched its campaign on October 9, coinciding with China’s return to work after the eight-day Golden Week holiday, while ByteDance’s Douyin, the domestic sister app to TikTok, also began its promotions that day.
Spending during Golden Week fell to a three-year low even though travel increased — a worrying sign ahead of Singles’ Day promotions. And longer promotions this year may not persuade shoppers to spend more.
“It has been less exciting than ever,” said Deng Lei, a 49-year-old who runs a meditation studio in Beijing. “The only thing I’m looking for is a pair of comfortable sports shoes, but I haven’t spotted any I really like yet.”
At a press briefing on Tuesday, JD.com said it would list over 100,000 “hit” products at its lowest prices of the year and sell 50,000 pairs of thermal long johns at 2 yuan ($0.30) each, shipping included.
Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, said products that help consumers “look good, feel good” – such as beauty brands, outerwear and packaged food and drink – are likely to outperform this year.
But home appliances, which boomed in 2024 amid government subsidies, are expected to decline. Nomura analysts forecast home appliance sales will fall 20% in the fourth quarter.
“Maybe people don’t buy that appliance this year, but they upgrade their phone,” Cooke said, citing new Apple models as likely to drive demand.
($1 = 7.1249 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Casey Hall in Shanghai and Sophie Yu in Beijing. Editing by Mark Potter)
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