China’s Singles’ Day stumbles as frugal shoppers scale down the world’s biggest sale

BEIJING — Preliminary figures from China’s biggest shopping event of the year showed sales slumping as consumers tightened their purse strings amid weak economic growth.

According to Chinese consumer research firm Xintun, this year’s Shuang 11 Shopping Festival recorded sales of 1.695 trillion yuan (approximately $238 billion) across all platforms, an increase of 14.2% from the previous year. This is slower than last year’s year-on-year growth of 26.6%.

According to a Google translation of the report, consumers were “more rational, willing to pay for actual value, and exhibited characteristics of a ‘needs-based tiered system.'”

Singles’ Day, also known as Double 11, is China’s biggest shopping event of the year, far surpassing Black Friday in the US in terms of product sales.

But as China’s economic growth has slowed, companies have increasingly extended promotional periods and stopped reporting total circulation, an indicator of the industry’s long-term sales.

Last month, Chinese leaders signaled they would step up efforts to support consumption. Rather than handing out cash, the Chinese government has preferred to subsidize consumer purchases of eligible goods such as electronics.

Retail sales in the country are expected to rise 2.8% from a year ago in October, according to a Reuters poll. This will be a decline from September’s 3% growth.

Jacob Cook, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps Western consumer brands sell online in China, predicted overall sales growth this year would be “low single digits to low double digits” compared to 2024.

Still, more than 10 major online stores selling everything from fashion to health products had orders at least 30% higher than expected, Cook said.

“That’s really unusual for us,” he added. “We don’t want to underestimate or overestimate our internal numbers.”

During the sale period, e-commerce platforms received a boost by integrating artificial intelligence into their supply chains.

JD.com reported a record deal for this year’s Singles’ Day as of late Tuesday night, without disclosing the amount. The consumer electronics-focused platform reported a nearly 60% increase in orders and over 40% more users placing orders.

The Chinese giant started the promotion this year on October 9, a few days earlier than last year.

Alibaba, by contrast, has postponed its shopping event to November 14 this year after launching the promotion on October 15.

According to Syntun data, the two companies and Tiktok Shop recorded 67 billion yuan in instant retail alone, an increase of 138.4% year-on-year.

In contrast, community group purchasing, where consumers form groups to buy groceries in bulk, brought in 9 billion yuan, down 35.3% from a year ago, the report showed.

As of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Chinese smartphone and consumer electronics giant Xiaomi said it had sold 29 billion yuan worth of products on its online platforms and physical stores during Singles’ Day.

Last year, Xiaomi launched the campaign a day early and reported sales of 31.9 billion yuan.

According to Syntun’s records, among all product categories, home appliances ranked first with 16.5% of total sales (266.8 billion yuan), followed by mobile phones and digital products (14.6% of total sales), and apparel (14%).

WPIC Marketing + Technologies’ Cook said the Singles’ Day numbers are a key indicator of fourth-quarter spending trends that will help determine how consumer brands position themselves over the next two quarters of next year.

Consumption trends during the sales period showed that growth could be uneven across categories.

Cook said the mother and baby category underperformed during Singles Day, but pet supplies was in line with expectations. Meanwhile, toys for the elderly, which soared in popularity last year, are “coming back to reality,” he added.

According to Syntun data, the mother and baby category ranked ninth in sales, bringing in about 61.1 billion yuan, while pet food reached 9.4 billion yuan in sales across four e-commerce platforms: Alibaba, JD.com, TikTok Shop, and Kuaishou.

Syntun’s report also showed that consumers are placing more emphasis on health, convenience, and purchasing from brands that reflect their values.