Chinese e-commerce copany JD.com is finalizing its preparations for this year's Single's Day shopping event in China. The company said that it is preparing to offer discounts of up to 50% on more than 200 million items on its platform to encourage consumers to shop during the country's largest online shopping event next month.
JD.com added that it is prepared to give out subsidies and consumption coupons to its platform's merchants worth more than 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) to make this year's shopping extravaganza even larger than that last year. The company said that it will be launching hundreds of millions of new products on its platform during the event.
JD Worldwide, the e-commerce company's cross-border unit, said that it plans to introduce at least 500,000 imported goods on the online platform during this year's shopping bonanza. To market the products, JD.com is planning to further promote the use of livestream selling. The method of selling has become one of the most popular ways of selling products online in the country, with companies hiring influencers and celebrities to join live broadcasts.
The Chinese company is aiming to continue its online success back in June. During the 618 June shopping event, the second-largest online shopping festival in China after Single's Day, JD.com reported sales of more than 269.2 billion yuan. This represented a record 201.5% increase when compared to the sales the company generated during the three weeks last year.
Apart from JD.com, other e-commerce companies in China are also busy preparing for the massive event, which far eclipses the United States' Black Friday sales event in terms of sales. Alibaba Group still leads the market in terms of sales during the Nov. 11 event. Last year, the e-commerce giant generated sales of more than $38.4 billion, shattering its 2018 record.
Analysts at data analytics firm Nielsen had noted that this year's Single's Day event could be even larger given the recent shift in consumer behavior. Analysts at the company said that the global pandemic has converted a lot of offline shoppers into online shoppers. Consumers also now prefer to buy products online as opposed to visiting physical shops.
