China's multi-billion-dollar 'haitao' splurge

Shopping spree

"Single's Day" (Nov 11) set a new China record for online shopping. For Alibaba alone, online sales of Tmall.com, Taobao.com and its overseas outlets hit 57.1 billion yuan that day.

The stunning sales encouraged Alibaba, Amazon and other competitors to promote Black Friday, the big sales day after the US Thanksgiving holiday.

Amazon China announced Black Friday discounts enjoyed by US shoppers on its website. Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus and others had Chinese-language webpages, saying they accepted renminbi by Alipay.

IT news website PingWest reported Metao.com, a website dedicated to foreign goods, registered sales of more than 20 million yuan that day. Another haitao website, ymatou.com saw sales of 100 million yuan over five straight days around Black Friday.

Alibaba and Amazon declined to reveal their sales numbers, suggesting a worse-than-expected result. Some buyers found the offers too limited; others had reached their spending limits on "Single's Day".

Macys.com president Kent Anderson said he hadn't expected big Black Friday sales in China this time, but it would help sales growth in future. Macy's had selected about 100 items to sell online for its China debut.

For Cao Lina, Black Friday was fruitful. She bought US-made fish oil capsules and vitamin tablets for her parents, who live in Southwest China's Sichuan province. Ten days later they received the parcel sent from bonded warehouses in neighboring Chongqing.

"My parents are happy, and next time they want to do their own haitao," she says.