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Alice Yan

Mainland consumers and websites are embracing Black Friday, the American shopping extravaganza in which retailers offer deep discounts leading up to the fourth Friday of November.
Tempting prices for foreign brands, vendors’ acceptance of payment methods such as Unionpay and Alipay, and the participation of Chinese e-commerce companies have been contributing to this year’s robust sales, underscoring the purchasing power of Chinese consumers.
Yang Qian, an office worker in Beijing, started to follow “Black Friday” promotions two weeks ago.
The 36-year-old has splashed out nearly 20,000 yuan (HK$24,000) – about a month’s pay – on boots, snowshoes, bags, beauty products and lingerie for herself and her family on foreign shopping websites including Amazon US.
READ MORE: Singles Day shopping spree sees sales soar 60pc to 91 billion yuan, raising hope that online sector will boost China’s slowing economy
“They are really good deals that cost you one third or even half the level of retail stores in China, and you are able to snap up some of the latest designs,” Yang said.
“It’s now easy to pay as credit cards and Alipay are both available on many shopping websites,” Yang said. “Compared with last year’s [Black Friday promotions], more websites have opened international shipping services.”
Yang bought a few daily necessities and household appliances during China’s Singles Day shopping extravaganza on November 11, but she said the deals were even better on Black Friday, especially for foreign brands.
Chinese e-commerce companies are also getting involved.
Over the past two weeks, advertisements by these online shops about discount offers on popular overseas-originated products to be sold on Black Friday have been displayed in subway stations and office buildings in mainland metropolises.
Charlwin Mao, founder and CEO of the social e-commerce shopping app Xiao Hong Shu, said they launched Red Friday – altered to fit in with Chinese traditions that hold red as auspicious – hoping to help local buyers enjoy big discounts for foreign goods without going abroad.
The app will be selling cosmetics, personal care products, health items, food, small-sized home appliances and household goods at discounted prices from Friday evening to Tuesday morning.
Another platform, Ymatou.com, which only sells foreign goods, began its Black Friday event last Friday. On that day alone, consumption was over 1,000 yuan per head, the China Business News reported.
The company had been preparing for the day since half a year ago, by adding an overseas logistics centre and upgrading its software system.
Wen Qi, a 38-year-old Shanghai marketing company manager, said she did not plan to buy anything before she was lured by a Ymatou reminder on her mobile phone.
“Don’t sleep, it says. Or your favourite UGG shoes will be snapped up,” Wen said.
“I didn’t hesitate and bought a pair of shoes at 499 yuan. The promotion advertisement is everywhere, you just cannot resist the temptation.”
Wen is one of millions of internet users who went on a buying spree for Singles Day, lured by the massive price cuts.
Online giant Alibaba saw its sales for Singles Day surge 60 per cent year-on-year to 91.2 billion yuan – more than four times the United States’ earnings last year from its Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events combined.
Liu Nan, CEO of baby product shopping bazaar mia.com that offered special discounts from Wednesday to Friday, said they were confident of a good takings for Black Friday.
Don’t sleep, it says. Or your favourite UGG shoes will be snapped up
Wen Qi, consumer
“Black Friday targets a different group of consumer [to Singles Day],” she said. “Low-priced items sold on the internet can’t feed white-collar workers’ consumption appetite. Instead, they want high-end products from across the globe in order to achieve a better quality of life.”
Sharing the optimism, Mao of Xiao Hong Shu, said his company aimed to serve consumers born after 1985 as these people were not well served by e-commerce platforms.
Dr Neil Wang, global partner and greater China president of Frost & Sullivan, said the success of such events was due to increasing incomes on the mainland and the development of the internet.
“As the total number of internet and mobile internet users has increased significantly, related hardware equipment, applications, and technologies have witnessed great progress,” he said. “Lots of experienced brand owners and also aspirational brand owners have combined innovative online retail channels with their traditional marketing methods so as to dynamically meet market demands.”
Li Guoqi, an analyst from industry consultant Sootoo Research Academy, said as long as there were discounts, Chinese consumers would flock to buy.
“That’s why most online shopping festivals have achieved good results. Consumers have saved money and commercials made money. I think such shopping movements will be held regularly,” he said.
However, prices touted on these websites as very low could be misleading, said Lu Yao, who lives in San Diego, California, and had worked as a procurement employee for a mainland shopping website until several months ago.
“It’s a gimmick by mainland e-commerce giants that in their advertisements, they fabricate high prices for foreign products’ original prices and then offer extremely big discounts, like 70 or 80 per cent,” she said. “Therefore, the final prices are not cheap compared with their price tags in the US.”
Liu Chen, a 35-year-old woman in Beijing who has been buying baby-related stuff for her son from American shopping websites since he was born three years ago, said she was indifferent towards mainland websites’ version of Black Friday and she would rather make orders by herself on foreign websites on this day.
“I doubt the prices on mainland shopping websites are low enough, because their goods will definitely be charged tariffs by the customs authority,” she said. “The products I bought these years were never charged, thanks to my good luck.”
Additional reporting by Laura Zhou


Chinese consumers embrace American shopping extravaganza Black Friday

No Caption Available.

Workers at an Amazon centre work during the Black Friday deals week, an American tradition that is being embraced by the Chinese. Photo: Reuters

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