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Festivals have become online retailers' favorite days of the year to get sales skyrocketing in China, with tempting promotions...
Sometimes, even if there's no festival, they create one.
December 12th, or "twelve - twelve", is such a day... Chosen by Chinese e-commerce giants to launch an online shopping bonanza.
PKG
Just one month after "eleven - eleven" Singles' Day, China's e-commerce companies, including Taobao.com, Suning.com and dangdang.com, launched another online shopping promotion to attract consumers.
But this time, they're using an unusual sales promotion.
On Taobao.com, discounts aren't decided by the company, but by both buyers and sellers.
It also sets up different theme sections, for different consumer groups.
According to an e-commerce expert, the so called festival is a trial, for taobao to let consumers and buyers create new online shopping experiences - rather than simply scoring bigger sales.
SOUNDBITE: LU ZHENWANG, E-commerce expert
"'twelve - twelve' is a testing ground for taobao to try consumer-to-business e-commerce style."
A new online style that's attracted more consumers than usual...
According to online shopping platform provider Alibaba Group, turnover of Tmall and Taobao surpassed 160 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months of the year.
That's up from 101 billion last year.
The group says its e-commerce now equals nearly 5 and a half percent of China's total retail sales, last year.
Other Chinese e-commerce companies, including 360buy.com, suning.com and dangdang.com also had promotions on the same day.
But high trade volumes also caused problems.
SOUNDBIET: MISS YANG, Consumer
"I once ordered three articles of clothing online during sales promotions. But When I got them, I found one piece missing. They told me the missing was in short supply. But they didn't tell me in advance."
SOUNDBIET: MISS YANG, Consumer
"I ordered one product for several days, but they always delayed to send it to me. I asked why, they said the goods was oversold."
Experts say the 'festive' sales frenzies are damaging, long term:
SOUNDBITE: LU ZHENWANG, E-commerce expert
"Sales promotions in Singles' Day have exposed many problems, including bad consuming experience and disability of logistics distribution. It will affect the brand's development."
Although Chinese retailers rolled various sales gimmicks on "twelve-twelve" day, Chinese consumers were a little more cautious:
E-commerce giant Alibaba says it cashed in more than 3.04 billion U.S. dollars during its "Singles' Day" promotion...
But didn't see the same success on "twelve - twelve".
Suggesting as more consumers catch on, the good times for festival shopping stunts could fade in future.
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A report by iResearch Consulting Group says China had 187 million online shoppers, last year...
