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Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com kicks off Singles’ Day shopping season amid intense price war to win over consumers

  • JD.com said user orders and overall transaction volume grew over four times last year’s figures within 10 minutes of its promotion’s start on Monday
  • The firm eschewed the traditional presales period, making its vast inventory of over 800 million products available for immediate purchase

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The initial results of JD.com’s Singles’ Day promotion this year augurs well for the shopping festival, following the subdued environment in 2022 when Covid-19 control measures were still in place across China. Photo: Shutterstock
Iris Dengin Shenzhen
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com on Monday kicked off its Singles’ Day campaign this year, firing the first salvo in the world’s largest shopping festival, amid an industry-wide price war to win over consumers as the domestic economy turns a corner.
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Within 10 minutes of its promotion’s 8pm start, JD.com’s user orders and overall transaction volume skyrocketed to achieve over four times last year’s figures, the Beijing-based company said in a statement. Its Singles’ Day campaign runs through November 13.

JD.com eschewed the traditional presales period, making the firm’s vast inventory of over 800 million products – backed by a more than 30-day price guarantee – available for immediate purchase. The guarantee promises to compensate consumers for the difference in price if they find that items they bought on JD.com are more affordable elsewhere.

Popular smartphones from major vendors like Apple, Xiaomi Corp and Huawei Technologies surpassed 100 million yuan (US$13.67 million) in sales in mere seconds, according to JD.com’s statement. It also said more than 100 top-tier home appliance brands saw a tenfold year-on-year sales jump.
Shoppers at a mall in Beijing walk by a Singles’ Day advertisement on November 9, 2022. Photo: AP
Shoppers at a mall in Beijing walk by a Singles’ Day advertisement on November 9, 2022. Photo: AP

While groceries and daily necessities such as cooking oil and rice were among the fastest-selling categories, products under JD.com’s 10-billion-yuan discount programme exceeded 100 million yuan in sales within the first 5 minutes of its promotion, the company said.

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Stand-out categories included toys, growing by 200 per cent; Suqian hairy crabs, which saw a 30-fold sales boost; and jewellery and accessories flash sales that crossed the 100-million-yuan mark. JD Worldwide, the company’s import division, also doubled its year-on-year sales across more than 280 imported categories.
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