Comparison of 2022 Chinese and American shopping festivals: This time, "Cyber ​​Week" beats "Double 11"

It is learned that the two largest shopping festivals in the world, Black Friday in the United States and Singles Day in China, have quietly ended. This year, both Chinese and American consumers are in a state of consumption downturn, so the sales results announced by the two shopping festivals are far lower than the performance in previous years.

The latest data shows that the growth of Black Friday in the United States exceeded that of Double 11 for the first time. With the inflation rate in the United States exceeding 7%, the online sales in the United States during the Cyber ​​Week from Thanksgiving to Cyber ​​Monday reached 35.27 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 4% over last year.

Although the growth of the US shopping festival has declined significantly, it still exceeds the 2.9% growth of China's Singles' Day. In previous years, China's Double 11 has far exceeded the US Black Friday shopping festival in terms of sales and growth rate.

From 2014 to last year, Singles Day sales grew at an average annual rate of about 34%, compared with an average of 17% for Cyber ​​Week, according to consulting firm Bain and Adobe Analytics, which bases its data on 85% of purchases at the top 100 U.S. internet retailers.

According to analysts, the sales growth during Cyber ​​Week in the United States was a surprise given that many retailers began offering early holiday discounts as early as October and Amazon also held a large Prime Day promotion in October.

During the two major shopping festivals in China and the United States, there are also significant differences in consumers' purchase categories and spending levels.

Chinese consumers spent 934 billion yuan ($130.51 billion) online on vitamins, supplements and pet health products during Singles’ Day, according to consultancy Syntun. Alibaba’s sales were flat from last year, while newer short-video e-commerce platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou saw bigger sales growth, Citi analysts said.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., deep discounts encouraged consumers to do more shopping, with the most in-demand products including Pokemon toys, TVs, footwear and air fryers. Retailers’ promotions and discounts were mainly on consumer electronics and apparel.

Jane Hali, CEO of retail research firm Jane Hali & Associates, said overall U.S. holiday sales are expected to be flat after adjusting for the impact of inflation.

It is worth noting that in the United States, Black Friday shopping has always been a social event, with people mainly buying holiday gifts for family and friends on Black Friday to give out at Christmas, while Singles Day is mostly about buying goods for oneself, with a greater emphasis on immediate delivery.

Analysts pointed out that China's Singles' Day was affected by the epidemic lockdown, and it was unfair to compare it with the U.S. Cyber ​​Week. At the same time, Cyber ​​Week is only part of the U.S. holiday shopping season, and the upcoming Christmas will continue to drive online shopping up.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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