Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – In the midst of an economic slowdown, consumers in China remain eager to surf the internet to look for discounts and shop carefully for this year’s Singles Day shopping event, which falls on Saturday (11/11/2023).
This condition encourages intense competition among large online retailers. E-commerce giants JD.com and Alibaba, which have launched artificial intelligence features that are described as being able to quickly generate product images, are also intensifying advertising via live streaming and offering massive discounts in various product categories and coupons to attract buyers.
But these efforts may produce only minimal results. Shoppers are increasingly looking for value, looking for cheaper brands in today’s economic climate.
Quoted from the Japan Times, more than three-quarters of buyers surveyed by Bain and Company said they planned to reduce spending or hold back spending.
Most shoppers are looking for added value from an item, and many of them are looking to reduce their spending or take advantage of bulk deals. Of those surveyed, 48% said they chose cheaper brands or switched to private label products.
The survey also showed that 71% of shoppers plan to cut or maintain retail spending throughout the rest of the year.
Bain & Company partner James Yang said the macroeconomic headwinds driving more value-conscious purchasing decisions have been well publicized, so the results are not surprising. He noted that large e-commerce platforms are struggling to get the ‘lowest price’ tag this year.
Chinese consumer confidence is at a historic low, according to Deloitte’s White Paper China Consumer Insight and Market Outlook 2023, which also found that the growth rate of retail sales for Chinese consumer goods is declining.
This is because customers are reducing their willingness to spend on non-essential items. items such as luxury goods, toys, alcohol and tobacco.
More than 40% of consumers said they had reduced their spending on luxury goods, while 20% had more than halved their spending, the report said.
Another mid-year shopping event typically held by Chinese retailers, 618, also received a lukewarm response from consumers.
Singles Day, which is sometimes compared to Black Friday in the US, is also known as “Double 11” because the characters for 11 resemble Chinese slang for unmarried people who have not added a “branch” to their family tree. It is said that Singles Day was established in opposition to romantic calendar events, including Valentine’s Day.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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