China's 'Singles Day' shopping bonanza loses its lustre

BEIJING - China's annual "Singles Day" sales bonanza wraps up at midnight on Saturday, 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 ($153-billion), according to a recent report by consultancy firm Bain.

But among consumers surveyed by Bain this year, 77 percent said that they did not plan to spend more than usual during the sales event.

Others say that this year's Singles Day deals aren't as good as in the past, and that some websites had raised prices beforehand, only to cut them for the holiday.

Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of Beijing-based e-commerce consulting firm WPIC Marketing + Technologies, told AFP that Singles Day had "lost its lustre" thanks to a combination of trends.

"The proliferation of livestreaming and secondary shopping festivals... means that the relative attraction of Singles Day as a time to load up on discounted goods has been reduced," he said.

Livestreamers -- who draw in millions for e-commerce giants in China with marathon online sales pitches -- also say they are noticing a downturn compared to previous iterations of the shopping event.