Alibaba said that total gross merchandise volume (GMV) reached 540.3 billion yuan ($84.5 billion) through the first 11 days of November, culminating in the holiday on Thursday. That’s an increase of 8.5% from a year ago — far lower than the top end of a forecast recently given by analysts at Citi, who expected as much as a 15% increase, or 578 billion yuan ($90 billion). It’s also below the low end of that analyst forecast, some $86 billion.
This year’s figure is a big slowdown from the 26% jump Alibaba posted last year, compared to 2019.
The Citi analysts wrote Friday that while this year’s numbers were worse than they predicted, “it was not entirely unexpected” given tough competition, a slowing economy and softening consumer sentiment.
Inflation headaches
Since that first occurrence, Singles Day has ballooned into a shopping frenzy observed not just by Alibaba, but also by other e-commerce companies that offer their own steep discounts and promotions. Deals take place over several days or even weeks. It has also spread outside of China, with Alibaba’s Southeast Asia subsidiary Lazada offering deals in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
It’s an incredibly lucrative event, but consumer sentiment may be taking a hit this year because of headwinds facing China’s economy.
Source : cnn
