HONG KONG (AP) — Early signs suggest China ’s biggest online shopping event is struggling to persuade anxious consumers to spend more, despite discounts.
The Singles’ Day festival, a major discount campaign comparable to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S., centers on Nov. 11. But it begins weeks earlier and is seen as a barometer of the broader economy.
Retail data platform Syntun said cumulative sales as of Oct. 31 totaled just over 1 trillion yuan ($154 billion), broadly in line with the same period last year.
Retailers have increased sales mainly by extending the festival. Total Singles’ Day sales in 2025 reached a record of almost 1.7 trillion yuan ($254 billion).
Consumer demand in China remains subdued, however, as a prolonged property downturn and other pressures weigh on confidence.
“Optimism over a recovery in domestic demand has faded,” said Max Zenglein, Asia Pacific senior economist at The Conference Board. “Improvements in sentiment have repeatedly proved short-lived.”
E-commerce giants such as Alibaba have turned to artificial intelligence to encourage frugal shoppers to spend more. Alibaba integrated its Qwen AI into its Taobao and Tmall platforms to help shoppers place orders and find products.
Plans offering AI tokens are also being prominently promoted during Singles’ Day for the first time. This month, a livestream by Li Jiaqi, dubbed the “Lipstick King” for his huge lipstick sales, sold plans covering roughly 2 trillion tokens within half an hour, according to Chinese media.
Singles’ Day originated as “Bachelors’ Day,” a celebration of being single. The nationwide shopping festival began in 2009 and now targets everyone.
While China’s broader economy continues to grow at a relatively robust pace, expanding 4.6% from a year earlier in January-September, much of that momentum came from a boom in exports. Retail sales of consumer goods rose just 1.1% over the same period.
China’s vast domestic market has struggled as a yearslong real estate downturn has left households feeling less wealthy. Home prices have fallen roughly 20% or more from their 2021 peak, with smaller cities and the resale market seeing steeper declines.
Although home prices appear to be stabilizing in larger cities, many homeowners remain concerned they could fall further, said Andy Rothman, founder and CEO of the advisory firm Sinology.
In the southern furniture manufacturing hub of Foshan, 24-year-old Gabby Liang said she was feeling cautious.
“I’ve been buying much less online, especially when it comes to non-essential items,” she said. “During the Singles’ Day festival last year, I bought quite a bit of skincare products. But this year I expect to buy fewer.”
Other shoppers are also reining in spending.
“I’m perhaps not as keen on pursuing famous or high-end brands as I used to be,” said Beijing resident Kong Min, referring to this year’s Singles’ Day.
Middle-class Chinese consumers have lost confidence, and many festival discounts are less generous than they once were, said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.
More shoppers are experiencing “discount fatigue,” said Yaling Jiang, founder of market research company ApertureChina. With discounts available year-round, Singles’ Day may be losing its power to boost spending, she said.
“Looking at what Singles’ Day originally was: a shopping festival where people used to expect the largest discounts of the year,” she said. “That is not true…
