blog post 7

China ‘Cyber Monday’ sales smash record

Cyber Monday (Nov. 11), which began as a holiday for singles and morphed into an online retail frenzy, has become China’s busiest online shopping day. On that day, nearly all the sellers on Tmall.com (China’s version of Amazon, run by Alibaba) would offer a 50% discount on thousands of brands including Microsoft, Gap and Clarins, while competitor Tencent’s 51buy.com offer promotions on products from Apple, Samsung, Sony and more. Sales on Tmall reached $163 million in the first few minutes of the day. By the end of the day, sales on Alibaba’s shopping sites clocked in at $5.7 billion–nearly double last year’s total of $3.1 billion. Retailers have slashed prices to woo customers, and sales this year were expected to be bigger than ever, said Barclays analyst Alicia Yap prior to the Nov. 11 holiday.

China’s Cyber Monday reflects the rapid growth in the country’s online shopping market. A growing number of China’s 1.3 billion consumers are paying ever fewer visits to brick-and-mortar stores. A consumer said that she now makes 90% of all her purchases online–anything from blouses to mattresses and lamps. Therefore, holding the discount event on the singles’ holiday would be a wise decision for Tmall, as they are able to sell much higher quantities at that day, and thus make more profits and stay competitive in the industry.

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References:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/10/news/economy/china-cyber-monday/index.html