Xinhua Insight: Shoppers more cool-headed over Singles' Day promos

Subway platforms, bus stations, sidewalks -- all have been plastered with ads by online marketplaces since the start of November, many urging shoppers to check their phone apps for early promotions.

But not everyone is answering the call of e-commerce retailers who are gearing up for the upcoming shopping craze on Singles' Day on Friday.

Shoppers are increasingly more aware that they do not have to wait until Singles' Day to bag themselves a deal, with many questioning what actually constitutes a "deal."

Meng Jia, 35, from Beijing, said she has no interest in the supposed discounts and is ignoring all proclamations of deals or offers.

"Why should we be involved in this online shopping mess? " she said. "It's a waste of time buying online. More often than not I put something in my cart but never go through with buying it," Meng said.

Moreover, she told Xinhua, bricks-and-mortar stores allow you to see and touch the products. "I can see firsthand if the items I want are good quality," Meng said.

Zhang Yao, a citizen of Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, prefers to buy things when she needs them, and she is adamant that she will not be swayed by "discounts."

Deliveries are arriving on people's door steps faster than ever before and couriers now ferry parcels between cities, counties, and even villages. A downside of Friday's shopping spree will be slower deliveries, Zhang said, "You have to wait so long to get anything you buy on 11/11."

This year, delivery services are expected to handle over 1 billion parcels in one week, with 2.68 million people tasked with making sure those parcels arrive where they should, according to predictions by China Courier Association and Alibaba's logistics arm, Cainiao.

COUNTERFEITS, FAKE PROMOTIONS TOP CONCERN

When asked about Singles' Day online shopping bonanza, Zhang Min admits she will be more cautious this year than in the past.

"My main concern is that there has been a noticeable rise in the number of fake products," Zhang, 29, from Beijing, said. "And the 'promotion' prices are often negligible."

Singles' Day is a day of online shopping "deals," apparently, and while adverts run by online platforms scream at customers to engage in a no-holds-barred shopping spree, many Chinese are reticent to join the shopping carnival.

Year after year, counterfeit products and bogus promotions have continued, much to the disdain of shoppers.

Of all the complaints related to last year's Singles' Day, 44.82 percent were about counterfeit products, an increase of 18.2 percent from 2014, according to research by the State Information Center, the search engine Baidu and the credit rating company CCXI.

In a race to secure sales, certain online sellers have turned to some very questionable practices.

According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, Gome, the Beijing-based electronic and IT product retailer, was recently fined 200,000 yuan (29,437 U.S. dollars) for its misleading promotion of over 30 products.

One Gome ad claimed that a washing machine on "special offer" was "just" 1,598 yuan, down from 2,098 yuan. Upon closer inspection, however, the actual original price was 1,198 yuan, lower than the so-called promotion.

The Gome case is in no way an isolated incident, as statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission show. Complaints related to online shopping from May to September this year increased by 1,200 percent each month, year on year. June and July, a high season for promotions, saw complaints increase by 2,447 percent and 2,622 percent year on year, according to the commission.

"It is likely that fake products and promotions will still sully the reputation of this year's Singles' Day," warned Jin Xuejun, executive dean of the public policy research department at Zhejiang University.

SOMETHING NEW

People born in the 1980s and 1990s are not so easily blinded by the dazzling offers of consumerist events such as Singles' Day. Their focus is more on quality and safety, according to Zhang Lei, CEO of e-commerce platform Kaola.com.

Friday will be the eighth Singles' Day. Many online marketplaces are aware that as the event has matured so too have consumers, pushing them to explore new ways to entice China's increasingly penny-wise generation to part with their cash.

Alibaba's online marketplace Tmall will launch the world's first virtual reality (VR) shopping store, Buy +, on Friday.

Buy + allows customers to shop and experience far away places with nothing more than a smart device, according to Alibaba. For example, shoppers can enjoy the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo's Odaiba, or tour Times Square, New York, in a 1965 vintage car, all while browsing the online marketplace on their cellphones.

An evening gala has also been organized by Alibaba, featuring a star-studded guest list, which includes basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, and American producer David Hill as the show's director. Alibaba said it has also recruited 300 online celebrities to interact with the audience.

"It's our eighth year so we must continue to innovate," said Yang Jianhua with the Chinese Sociological Association. "These new activities are designed to connect us to our customers." Endi