Some may shun knockoffs, but they reportedly thrived in China's e-commerce. Fashion items and collectibles with wrongly-spelled brand names are being consumed by many on the massive annual "Singles Day" online sales event recently held in China on November 11.
Singles Day was an explosive success in China on Sunday, wherein sales reached $30 Billion approximately. Making up a huge chunk of the sale is the purchases made of cheap imitations on Alibaba's Taobao app. Sneakers with the brand name "Ababis" made to look like Adidas and underwear resembling Calvin Klein but spelled "Caiwen Kani" were particularly a hit among buyers.
On China's equivalent to "Black Friday," Chinese consumers went into a buying frenzy on troves of knockoffs found on the Taobao app. This, even though Alibaba is striving to curb sales of counterfeits. Unfortunately, despite the nation's yearly efforts to curb consumption of counterfeit goods, especially on every Singles' Day online sales event, consumers cannot be stopped. Even though original items are part of the sale, it seems that the general public cannot resist the knockoffs, especially since they cost only a fraction of the original ones.
According to Channel News Asia, "Balenciaga" sneakers, which are on the rage now because of the several celebrity sightings with them, including Kim Kardashian, only cost $US18, which people deemed a steal. A fake Louis Vuitton handbag is only being sold for $US17, considerably and undoubtedly cheaper than the authentic one.
Apart from being cheap, some consumers cannot resist counterfeit goods because they are done so alike with the authentic ones. Some consumers interviewed by the news outlet claimed they could not see the difference between the fake and real ones. Some asserted that as long as they are good quality, then they would buy.
"I would buy it," said Wang Yu, 37, told Channel News Asia. "I think all products are copying each other. I can accept it as long as it suits children. But under the condition that it's good quality."
Apart from fake items, consumers really went out with their shopping on this special day. Even before 4 p.m. Sunday, the sales already reached 168.2 billion yuan ($24.2 billion), which already went beyond the sales figure from last year's Singles Day.
Analysts rejoiced that this year's total sales are a far cry from the gloomy forecasts made. It was anticipated that sales would be somehow dismal because China is struggling with a tariff war with the US. China is also currently undergoing a stock market slump and slowing overall growth.
