Deals of the Day

The Singles’ Day sales bonanza reflects recovery of domestic consumption in China

- Ge Lijun

The Singles’ Day, or Double 11, celebrated on November 11 in China, sparks a frenzy of online shop-ping each year. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, China’s e-commerce giant, was the first to seize this opportunity when he launched the shopping festival, an online shopping event equivalent to the U.S. Black Friday, in 2009.

This year the sales on the day broke a new record. Revenues on Tmall, Alibaba’s leading platform, reached 498.2 billion yuan ($75.98 billion). At the same time, JD.com, Suning.com, and some other leading e-commerce platforms also achieved strong sales performance.

The success of this year’s Double 11 shopping carnival, which took place in the shadow of the COVID-19 epidemic, revealed that the appetite and purchasing power of Chinese consumers remain very high.

China is currently promoting the “dual circulation” development pattern, in which the domestic and foreign markets complement and reinforce each other, with the domestic market as a mainstay. This year’s impressive sales figures demonstrate the country’s economic resilience and vitality. The Double 11 shopping festival is not just a nationwide online shopping event but also a driving force for the Chinese economy.