Sales at China‘s Singles Day festival rose 4.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.78 trillion yuan, or 267 billion dollars, according to data provider Syntun on Thursday. The China Singles Day sales reach record total came as platforms leaned on chatbots to sell artificial intelligence products and other discounted goods during the world’s largest shopping event. The final tally gives one of the rare overall measures of spending at the festival, which stretches across several weeks.
The estimate covers sales on the major online shopping platforms during the promotional period from 7 October to 11 November. Growth was well below the 14.2 percent recorded last year, in a context of cautious consumer confidence, a prolonged property crisis, weak income expectations and job insecurity. Chinese shoppers are still spending, but they are spending more carefully, and the festival’s once explosive growth has cooled into a steadier, more modest rise.
Artificial intelligence played a larger role this year. JD.com says it sold more than 50 million AI related products and generated more than 300 million service orders during the promotional period. The China Singles Day sales reach record result was helped by that shift, as shoppers bought AI personal computers, AI workstations, AI cameras, AI glasses and AI recording devices. Transaction value for those categories more than doubled from a year earlier, showing how quickly the technology has moved from novelty to mainstream purchase.
China Singles Day sales reach record as AI shopping surges
Searches for the word token rose more than 13 times, and sales of large language model token packages rose more than tenfold. Tokens are units of computing bought to use AI models, and their surge shows that Chinese consumers are not only buying AI hardware but also paying to use AI services. The China Singles Day sales reach record story is therefore as much about a change in what people buy as about how much they spend, with AI moving to the centre of the festival.
Alibaba and JD.com no longer publish an overall gross merchandise value figure, preferring to highlight categories, brands and selected indicators. That change makes independent estimates like Syntun’s the main source for a total figure, and it reflects a festival that has become harder to summarise in a single number. The platforms now compete on the performance of chosen categories rather than on a headline total that once dominated coverage of the event.
Growth slows as the festival loses some urgency
An independent analyst in Beijing notes that the event, spread over several weeks and competing with promotions all year round, has lost some of its excitement and sense of buying urgency. The China Singles Day sales reach record total of 1.78 trillion yuan is still enormous, but the festival no longer feels like a single day of frenzied shopping. Discounts are available throughout the year, and shoppers have learned to wait for the next promotion rather than rushing to buy on one date.
The slower growth also reflects the wider economy. A property crisis that has dragged on for years, uncertainty about jobs and modest expectations for income growth have made households more cautious. The China Singles Day sales reach record figure shows that consumption has not collapsed, but it has not roared back either. For policymakers in Beijing, the festival is a useful barometer of household confidence, and the reading this year is steady rather than strong.
For the platforms, the lesson of this year is that AI sells. Chatbots helped shoppers find products, compare prices and complete purchases, while AI gadgets gave them something new to buy. The China Singles Day sales reach record outcome suggests that the next phase of growth for Chinese e-commerce will come from technology that changes how people shop, not only from deeper discounts on the same goods. Whether that is enough to restore double digit growth remains an open question for next year’s festival.