Chinese Shoppers Tighten Wallets... Poor Results for '6·18' Shopping Festival

The '6·18 Shopping Festival,' considered China's largest online shopping event, appears to have generated sales below expectations. This is interpreted as a result of Chinese consumers remaining reluctant to open their wallets, despite the transition to a post-COVID-19 era, with little improvement in consumption tendencies.

According to local media such as China Securities Journal on the 19th, JD.com recorded a record high of 380,000 participating online merchants during this year's 6·18 Shopping Festival. This represents an 80% increase compared to last year's event. Same-day and next-day deliveries in the order regions also increased significantly, accounting for about 95% of the total.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, sales figures were not disclosed. This is the first time since JD.com launched the 6·18 Shopping Festival in 2010 that it has not revealed sales data. Foreign media outlets such as CNBC interpreted this as a sign of poor performance despite aggressive discount offers, diagnosing that "consumer confidence remains weak."

Sean Lane, Managing Director of a China market research group, stated, "Chinese consumer sentiment remains weak due to a combination of factors including the ongoing economic slowdown caused by COVID-19, geopolitical issues (US-China tensions), and domestic political matters." He added, "Since many discounts were already offered during the COVID-19 period, it is unlikely that consumers will spend more during the '618 Shopping Festival'." He further explained, "The transaction situation has not improved significantly compared to before."

Meanwhile, global investment banks are continuously lowering their economic growth forecasts for China this year. Goldman Sachs lowered its GDP growth forecast for China from 6% to 5.4%. JP Morgan reduced its growth forecast from 5.9% to 5.5%, and Swiss UBS also lowered its estimate from 5.7% to 5.2%. The UK’s Standard Chartered cut its growth prediction from 5.8% to 5.4%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.