BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) — China’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, a carnival for online shoppers, has turned out to be a bonanza for global brands, as more Chinese consumers choose to spend more on imported goods and services.
Initial sales numbers from major e-commerce platforms showed robust growth for overseas brands, and also revealed changes in the taste of Chinese consumers as they focus more on their health, hobbies and quality of life.
A bustling fete for buyers and sellers alike, the Singles’ Day shopping festival, also known as “Double 11” as it falls on Nov. 11, is proving to be another event besides the China International Import Expo (CIIE) to meet the country’s strong appetite for imports.
BONANZA FOR GLOBAL BRANDS
“‘Double 11’ is a big annual event for us. We cooperate with multiple e-commerce platforms, and various promotions are also in line with the shopping atmosphere of this festival,” said Li Xiao, chief executive of Greater China for New Zealand’s dairy giant a2 Milk.
“It’s truly an opportunity for us,” Li said, adding that the company’s sales in China have witnessed strong growth in recent years.
Data from Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com showed that on its first day of presales for this year’s shopping festival, the value of orders for products on its global brands platform surged 178 percent year on year.
Another major market player Tmall said that more than 1,600 new overseas brands participated in the “Double 11” festival for the first time, bringing thousands of limited editions of new products.
A staff member distributes parcels at the workshop of a logistics company in Lanshan County of Yongzhou City, central China’s Hunan Province, Nov. 10, 2022. (Photo by Peng Hua/Xinhua)
“Chinese consumers have a strong demand for imports, and global brands are paying more and more attention to the online shopping festival,” said Yu Huanhuan, marketing director of Tmall Global.
Despite global headwinds, China’s foreign trade has displayed strong resilience. Figures from China’s General Administration of Customs showed on Monday that trade in goods logged steady expansion in the first 10 months of this year, climbing 9.5 percent year on year to 34.62 trillion yuan (about 4.79 trillion U.S. dollars).
Consumption of imported goods, in the meantime, enjoyed a further boost from events like the just-concluded CIIE and the “Double 11” shopping festival.
The rising purchasing power of Chinese consumers is of growing significance for overseas brands.
Raviteja Neralla, consumer analyst of British consultant company GlobalData, told Xinhua that a series of factors have hampered British consumers’ disposable income and discretionary expenditure, which in turn threatened British brands’ domestic revenues.
“As a result, more multinational companies and startups in the UK are turning to overseas markets to recoup their losses. China’s domestic market with its considerable consumer spending power and appetite for luxury products makes a compelling proposition for these brands,” Neralla said.