To buy or not to buy

                          TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY 

China splurges $14.32 billion on one day -- 11 November, Singles' Day shopping festival.

In China, ''11 November'' is called '' Singles’ Day'', which was started in 1993 by the students at Nanjing University. Then it became very popular among young Chinese people as an entertaining festival. On that day, people celebrate the fact that they are proud of being single. And the date ''11.11'' is chosen because of its symbolic meaning -- the number ''1'' looks like a bare stick, which means single in China. Nowadays it’s more like an online shopping festival. Actually, on the Singles’ Day people usually buy themselves some presents as a way to console themselves—like couples do on Valentine’s Day. Just as Valentine’s Day was embraced by some corporations in America, this Chinese anti-Valentine’s Day was co-opted by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which had seized this business opportunity and turned it into a day of massive online sales in 2009. Sales on Alibaba’s sites Tmall and Taobao are quite incredible: $ 5.8 billion in 2013, $ 9.3 billion in 2014 and over $14.3 billion in this year. Alibaba's sales data indicates that  the Chinese purchasing power is increasing very fast.

Alibaba, the number one player in the Chinese e-commerce market, who had created the specially-timed  ‘’Double 11’’ to promote its commodities on Singles’ Day since 2009. And this year, Alibaba added the sales from new overseas channels like Aliexpress, Taobao international etc. This strategy has been a success—as we can see from this year’s sales which is up 60% from last year. The success of Alibaba can be marked in the history of China’s e-commerce, but personally, I think this event could be a risk.

Of course, '' Double 11''  boosts the Chinese economy, and it symbolizes the spirit of the Internet. However, as an ordinary consumer, I think this shopping day is a trap for consumers. First of all, consumers are consumed by the culture of Singles’ Day. That is to say,  consumers may be misled by the advertisements and the promotions, and become impulse buyers. Take myself for example, I used to be crazy about ''Double 11'', I spent all my day deciding what to buy and waited till midnight in order to grab the products which would be sold out in just a few minutes. But in the end, I usually found that most of my purchases were useless, like some clothes which were not in my size. Actually I got nothing but wasted my time and money, then I suddenly realized that I just lost myself in this shopping campaign and I wanted to be a reasonable buyer. Then I find the  ''3/7/14 shopping rule'' is a good suggestion: if you are not excited to wear your new purchase within 3 days,  then you are probable not wear it. 7 days later, if you are still not considering wearing it, then you’ll never wear it. Thus make sure you will return your purchase within 14 days (the return policy limit). Just think about it, we can be smart consumers.

The second reason I am opposed to ''Double 11'' is that it may cause social chaos. That means the huge stress of logistics will lead to some problems. On the one hand, according to my own experience, if you buy something during the period of Singles’ Day, then you may wait for a long time to receive your packages. That won’t be a pleasant experience for customers. On the other hand, couriers have too much pressure. They must work over 10 hours per day to distribute the packages and they receive complaints by the clients for the delay. The relationship between the logistics companies and their clients are getting worse. I think the original intention of online shopping is to get convenience, but with such enormous orders, that will be a challenge for both sellers of Alibaba and their logistics partners. Nobody really gets convenience during this period.

Finally, I think that ''Double 11'' may become malicious price competition. Alibaba owns almost 80% market share in the Chinese e-commerce industry, and the situation for its competitors and the physical stores is getting more and more difficult. Thus, during this shopping campaign they may reduce their price to attract customers while not to offer their customers with the relative service and quality. The victims of this price competition will be the consumers who are confused and misled by the different advertisements. Therefore, I don’t think it will be a good choice to consume during Singles’ Day.

BAO Mengwei