China’s ‘Singles Day’ shopping bonanza loses its lustre

BEIJING: China’s annual “Singles Day” sales bonanza wraps up at midnight on Saturday (Nov 11), but consumers this year appear largely unswayed by its flashy deals and discounts as the world’s second-largest economy slows. Conceived by tech giant Alibaba, Singles Day – which this year spanned well over a week – was launched in 2009 and has since ballooned into a yearly blockbuster retail period. Sales for last year’s Singles Day reached 1.1 trillion yuan (US$153 billion), according to a recent report by consultancy firm Bain. But among consumers surveyed by Bain this year, 77 per cent said they did not plan to spend more than usual during the sales event. “These days people are consuming less, people don’t really…