China's Singles' Day wraps up with e-commerce firms reporting growth in shoppers

China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba Group said it recorded "robust growth" in sales and a "record number" of shoppers over this year's Singles' Day sales period, a weeks-long event that ended at midnight on Monday.

The firm did not release total sales revenue for the period but said 45 brands - including Apple, Haier, Midea and Xiaomi - surpassed 1 billion yuan ($138.62 million) in gross merchandising value (GMV), a commonly used measurement for online sales.

JD.com, China's second biggest e-commerce company, did not disclose information about sales but reported a more than 20% year-over-year increase in shoppers over the event.

For last year's sales period, data provider Syntun estimated sales across major e-commerce platforms rose 2.08% to 1.14 trillion yuan. Third-party estimates for this year's festival have not yet been released.

Originally a 24-hour online shopping event held on Nov. 11 each year in China, the Singles' Day festival - a nod to the digits in the date - has expanded into weeks of promotions across the country's major e-commerce platforms and in bricks-and-mortar stores. This year's festival, which kicked off on Oct. 14 is the longest edition yet.

Expectations for sales growth for the festival, which is viewed as a gauge of consumer confidence, were subdued this year as confidence in the world's second-largest economy remains low in the wake of a prolonged property crunch and macroeconomic slowdown.

According to a Bain & Company survey conducted before the beginning of the Singles' Day event, about three-quarters of respondents said they would spend the same amount or less on Singles' Day promotions in 2024.

Major Chinese e-commerce platforms, which once unveiled their yearly Singles' Day results amid much fanfare at celebrity-fronted gala events, have been much more low key in recent years and have not released total GMV figures since 2022.

This year, larger ticket household appliances performed better than last year, benefiting from a national 150 billion yuan trade-in subsidy scheme announced in July to help boost consumption.

According to JD.com, transactions for 519 home and appliance categories increased by 200% year-on-year, with best-sellers including energy-efficient air conditioners, robotic vacuum cleaners and smart toilets among the popular categories.

Another consumer sector seeing unexpected growth was collectible toys and hobbies, a category that includes anime, comic and gaming-related goods popular with young people in China.

According to figures from Alibaba, designer and collectible toy brands including MiHoYo, Pop Mart, Paperpresented and Jellycat surpassed 100 million yuan in GMV.

Shan Yin, a 23-year-old student from Hangzhou, bought gaming products related to titles including 'League of Legends' and collectibles from the 'Noragami' and 'Banana Fish' anime series totalling 3,200 yuan. These are products she says help her cope with the stress of her engineering studies.

"Cosplay and buying this merchandise are ways for me to regulate my emotions," she said.