Black Friday Becomes a Thing in China

America's consumer celebration finds a home in China

Not content after having the largest Singles’ Day day in history, Chinese consumers are joining in on promotions offered on Black Friday.

A number of Chinese online retailers targeted Chinese consumers with discounted US imported products and cheap shipping costs. Ymatou.com, China’s Amazon.com subsidiary, and Alibaba’s Tmall Global all offered Black Friday promotions in China.

Furthermore, Chinese consumers weremore likely to get involved in Black Friday sales due to US vendors allowing payments to be made in using UnionPay and e-payment systems like AliPay.

Baby product bazaar mia.com CEO Liu Nan is one of the companies that experienced robust sales on Black Friday. “Black Friday targets a different group of consumer [to Singles Day],” said Liu. “Low-priced items sold on the internet can’t feed white-collar workers’ consumption appetite. Instead, they want high-end products from across the globe in order to achieve a better quality of life.”

Black Friday is an annual retail promotion the day after Thanksgiving, or the fourth Friday of November, in the United States that is distinguished by extremely discounted sales over which US shoppers fight over, even causing injuries and deaths.

 

Charles Liu

The Nanfang's Senior Editor