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China’s 618 shopping festival loses its shine, as Alibaba and JD.com avoid sales figures for more flattering data

  • E-commerce firms avoided discussing gross merchandise value numbers, once a key indicator of success, after China’s second-largest shopping festival concluded
  • Alibaba said it had a record number of merchants selling on Taobao and Tmall, while JD.com said business growth was better than expected

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The mascot for Alibaba’s Taobao e-commerce platform near the company’s headquarters in Hangzhou on February 21, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg
Tracy Quin Shanghai
China’s e-commerce firms experienced a relatively quiet 618 shopping festival, as the absence of total gross merchandise value (GMV) numbers signalled that weak consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy might be taking a toll on the country’s tech giants.
Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao & Tmall Business Group said a record number of merchants on its namesake platforms participated in the midyear shopping festival.

Just after midnight on June 18, the day for which the festival that now spans two weeks is named, 305 brands racked up sales of more than 100 million yuan (US$14 million) on Alibaba’s premier shopping sites. The combined GMV of 2.56 million small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) topped last year’s festival, according to Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Beijing-based JD.com, which started the 618 shopping festival, said its business growth for the event this year was better than expected, with total transaction volume reaching a new high. The number of products available in a company programme doling out 10 billion yuan in subsidies increased tenfold compared with March, the company said in a statement.
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New products listed on JD.com contribute more than 30 per cent of total sales, and 95 per cent of districts in China are eligible for next-day delivery, according to the company.

Conspicuously missing from the announcements were the actual GMV figures, which companies have used in the past to trumpet their success at moving product during major shopping festivals.

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Alibaba shares fell 2 per cent in Hong Kong on Monday, while JD.com’s shares dropped 1.9 per cent.

The 618 event is China’s second-largest shopping festival, after Singles’ Day in November. It now runs from late May until mid-June, with this year’s festival being closely followed by market analysts for signs of rebounding consumer spending in China since Beijing started relaxing pandemic controls.
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