Chinese retailers are stretching their annual “Singles’ Day” sales bonanza to as long as five weeks this year, as the likes of Alibaba and JD.com try to drum up interest from shoppers in a struggling economy, reports Reuters. Weak consumption has dogged the world’s second-largest economy this year as policymakers grapple with US President Donald Trump’s trade policies, fierce domestic competition, extreme weather and a lingering property crisis.
At a launch event in Shanghai on Thursday, Alibaba touted an “unprecedented” investment in the industry’s biggest sales event of the year, including RMB 50 billion ($7 billion) of subsidies for its top spending 88VIP members.
Its sales period began on Wednesday evening and will run like the rest of the industry until November 11, the original Singles’ Day—named after the digits in the date.