Record 'Singles Day' online sales expected
- By Shi Jing
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E-mail China Daily, November 8, 2014
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An advertisement for retail promotion on Singles' Day |
This year's "Singles Day" shopping spee, which happens annually in China on Nov 11, is expected to generate record levels of online spending, according to the latest market predictions.
Of the 1,000 people polled by research consultancy Nielsen, more than 80 percent said they had serious shopping plans for the day, which this year falls on next Tuesday.
Just 17 percent of those surveyed said they are first-time participants in the retail phenomenon, and a mere single percent, maybe appropriately, of the online shoppers who joined last year's Singles Day, said they won't be buying anything this year.
The idea of Singles Day was first dreamed up by the recently floated e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd five years ago to encourage people without partners to comfort themselves with some retail therapy.
The company's two major online marketplaces, Tmall and Taobao, are expected to remain the most popular shopping sites again this year, according to 70 percent of those surveyed by Nielson, who this year are on average expecting to spend 1,440 yuan ($235). Just over half of those polled (57 percent) said they planned to spend more than last year.
Wan Lijie, 29, a sales manager with a multinational furniture company based in Shanghai, told China Daily it will be the first time she has taken part in the annual shopping splurge.
She is determined to stick, she insisted, to a sensible budget of 1,000 yuan, made up mainly of daily essentials such as toothpaste, tissue and laundry detergent－but she readily admitted she may weaken as the day goes on and splash out on more extravagant items such as expensive cosmetics, which could send her final bill spiraling.
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