November 11 is a date made up of four one’s, and “double eleven” has always been considered a special day for single men and women in China.

 

Chinas e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd aims to expand its reach across borders by upgrading its upcoming Nov 11 shopping festival into a global online shopping carnival.

 

"Globalization" is one of Alibabas main strategies for this years double 11 online shopping festival, which falls on Nov 11 every year. The online shopping festival last year was Chinas largest and ended with two of Alibabas marketplaces Taobao and Tmall ringing up 35 billion yuan ($5.75 billion) in sales over the 24-hour period.

 

JD.com is trying to attract more third-party vendors by offering them free delivery service for a month. Alibaba itself has for the first time invited some 30,000 offline stores to participate in the online shopping spree. More than 20,000 vendors on Alibaba’s sites - Tmall and Taobao – are promising 50 percent discounts on the day.

 

As annual online shopping festival "Double 11" or "Singles Day", an equivalent of "Cyber Monday" approaches, online shoppers in China are getting ready to go on a spree.

 

However, there are some things different about the "Singles Day".

 

High pressure on courier companies

Followed by Dec 12, Christmas and New Year, "Singles Day" is the start of two-month-long peak time for courier companies. Being a courier during this period often means having to work from early morning to late night. Even though many courier companies offer competitive salaries, fewer and fewer are willing to work as a courier during this period.

 

Safety concerns

According to a Post Bureau prediction, 500 million packages will be delivered between Nov 12 and Nov 16, a 50 percent increase from 2013. Many local warehouses lack fire-fighting equipment, some of which are makeshift shacks.

 

Alibaba can, you cannot

"Double 11" is now a registered trademark of Alibaba, parent company of Taobao, and since then online shop owners on other platforms cannot use "Double 11" in their promotions and slogans. Therefore, online shopping sites beside Taobao are starting to use "11.11" in their promotions.

 

No more lowest price online slogans

State Administration of Industry and Commerce has urged online shop operators not to use misleading slogans such as "lowest price online", "lowest price in history" and "No 1 sales online", etc.

 

Overseas buy gains popularity

Earlier this year, Taobao and Amazon both started to offer direct shopping from overseas vendors. Taobaos Tmall has over 200 brands from more than 20 countries and Amazon claims that it offers over 80 million products from the US, Germany, Spain, France, Britain and Italy. However, only consumers can judge which company can offer the best deal.

 

Beware traps

"Double 11" is also a high time for online fraud cases, as many consumers are trapped by steep discount and false positive reviews, often falling victim to fraud. Consumes are recommended to exercise caution when encountering unusual steep discount offered by online shops.

 

After-sale nightmare

Since consumers make their purchase mostly depending on pictures and descriptions from online vendors, often online shoppers find themselves buying wrong size or defective products but many vendors refuse to refund or to provide a replacement for the product. Adequate after-sale services have been recognized as vital part of online shopping industry, but there are still some operators that do not provide any after-sale service.

 

Note:

This article is transfered from the internet. 

For more details about the double-11 festival, you could step into the internet.

Very interesting article in our country recently started shopping online, there is still fear of cyber fraud, but these publications contribute greatly to clarify and give confidence to dare to do this kind of business, congratulations !!

Yes, we should pay more attention when buying items in the internet.But this form of commercial really convenient our life.