In recent years in China, November 11th, also known as 11.11 or Chinese Singles Day, has become the world’s largest shopping day, dwarfing other major online shopping events, such as Cyber Monday and Black Friday, mostly thanks to e-commerce giants like Alibaba.
Chinese Singles Day started off as a joke in the 1990s between Nanjing University students, who transformed the date of 11.11, as it contains four single digits, into their own Anti-Valentine’s Day celebration. Gifts giving was an integral part of the holiday tradition and, as time went by, online retailers began to arrange sales on this date, turning the holiday into the major online shopping phenomenon that we know today.
The 11.11 became so ingrained in Chinese culture over the past few years that the pressure of this holiday, in some cases, leads to overbuying and to reckless spending; indeed, there are some risks which are worth to be discussed.
It often happens that, on November 11th, many sellers take an advantage of typical frenzy of the holiday and of the consumers trying to bargain the best price to sell counterfeit/fake goods. In such cases, for getting some reassurance, many savvy online shoppers would look to the comments section of previous buyers of the product they are interested in. However, for this reason, some sellers of counterfeit goods “buy” fake comments from other internet users in order to appear as trustworthy.
Actually, there is also another lighter form of fraud which occurs during Singles Day, when sellers advertise an item with a price higher than the original one, in order to let consumers bargain until they buy it at the actual price, thinking it has been already discounted.
With this article D’Andrea & Partners kindly reminds you to be aware of the potential risks of the holiday, and wishes you a safe and secure Singles Day. Should you have any further questions, please contact us via info@dandreapartners.com