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Alibaba, JD.com locked in brutal price war this Singles’ Day amid weak consumer spending in China

  • Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall platforms are set to give out cash coupons and match prices from rivals to win over reluctant consumers
  • JD.com’s pre-Singles’ Day promotion, themed ‘real cheap’, will see more than 800 million products go on sale for three weeks

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Advertisements for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping festival in Shanghai in 2021. Photo: Reuters
Tracy Quin Shanghai
Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao & Tmall Group is defending its dominance in China’s e-commerce market by offering consumers massive rebates and discounts during this year’s Singles’ Day shopping season, putting a brave face on a price competition against rivals JD.com and Pinduoduo.
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Taobao Live is handing out 1 billion yuan (US$137 million) worth of cash coupons from October 12 to 23, ahead of the start of the sales season later this month, according to a statement by the live-streaming platform operated by Alibaba’s e-commerce unit, which is battling short-video apps Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and Kuaishou.

Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, plans to win over shoppers with a promise to offer the lowest prices seen online, according to people briefed on the matter, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak with the media.

JD.com’s intelligent logistics park in Beijing. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song
JD.com’s intelligent logistics park in Beijing. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song

Merchants on Taobao and Tmall will be invited to participate in the platforms’ “good deals every day” campaign between October 24 and November 11, according to several Chinese media reports.

Taobao & Tmall, the only core business that will remain exclusively owned by Alibaba under a major restructuring, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Meanwhile, JD.com will start its Singles’ Day promotion at 8pm on October 23. Themed “real cheap”, the event will see more than 800 million products go on sale until November 13, the company said.

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