Infographic: Singles’ Day Category Growth and Contraction

Buzz around the recent Double-11/Singles’ Day shopping festival was subdued relative to previous years. With flat consumer sentiment, less novelty around the event, and Common Prosperity discouraging too much razmataz. It didn’t grow like other years for Alibaba, but there was more diversity in shopping across platforms:

• Alibaba didn’t publish results, but noted it was “in line with last year.” Sales were estimated to be $510-540b on Tmall.

• JD didn’t publish results, but said its “growth rate exceeded industry average.” Sales were estimated to be $310-330b.

• Douyin – the new 11-11 show in town – launched its new Mall and offered subsidies like Ali and JD. Sales were estimated to be $110-120b worth of goods.

There were reports of overseas brands performing well, with 1,009 brands on Tmall global achieving over 100% growth, and 500 brands on JD Worldwide increasing over 100%, with 87 international beauty brands growing over 200%.

Category growth points to Chinese consumer behavioural shifts

Perhaps the most interesting data from the event were the clear shifts in spending by category. This year’s data illustrates that there is a clear trend for Chinese consumers to spend less on personal appearance and more on their home environment. While Covid Zero policies persist, this trend is likely to continue…