Singles Day transactions in China rose 17.6% YoY to 1.7 trillion yuan ($240 billion), according to Syntun, marking a slowdown from last year’s 26.6% gain despite extended campaigns and heavy promotions from Alibaba and JD.com. Platforms poured billions into vouchers and discounts, but longer sale periods diluted urgency and limited impact. The event’s waning momentum highlights China’s broader economic challenges—rising frugality, youth unemployment, and deflationary pressures. To reignite excitement, platforms may need to move away from drawn-out promotions toward shorter, high-impact campaigns that restore Singles Day’s original urgency and appeal.

Digital’s rapid adoption in recent years has made it the dominant medium with which people spend time in China, Japan, and South Korea, with consumption booming in India.

PDD misses expectations as competitive pressures erode price advantage: The ecommerce company expects challenges to continue in the short-term as domestic and international rivals gain an edge.

Luxury brands are grappling with downturns in the US and China, the largest markets for personal luxury goods, and will have to seize opportunities for growth from new markets and product innovation.

China’s retail sales ticked up in October: But mixed results from JD.com and Alibaba show that retailers still face significant headwinds.

Alibaba and JD.com tout Singles Day successes, but the data is murky: While transactions rose 27% YoY, the sale was 10 days longer than last year, making it an uncertain gauge of consumer sentiment.

Like many other payment providers globally, Alibaba is opening up its walled garden to fight off antitrust scrutiny

No other market in the world comes close to China when it comes to ecommerce. Its highly competitive digital market has spurred retail innovations that are making their way around the world.

As the dust settles on luxury’s big post-pandemic rebound, high-end brands will have to become savvier and more flexible to meet evolving consumer demands.

Amid global economic gloom, Asia-Pacific remains a region of digital opportunities in 2023, highlighted by the increasing momentum of the metaverse in China, surging retail sales in India, and burgeoning livestream commerce in Indonesia.

Alibaba, Amazon, and Mercado Libre dominate retail ecommerce in different parts of the world. Here’s a look at how these marketplaces stack up, in seven charts and graphics.

Shein may soon directly compete with Alibaba and Amazon: The fast-growing fashion retailer is reportedly exploring evolving into an online marketplace that enables other merchants to sell on its platform.

China’s Singles’ Day continues to top the charts, but the vitality of the world’s biggest shopping event is being called into question amid lukewarm recovery of retail sales. As a result, participating brands are focusing on building sustainable customer loyalty with innovative shopping experiences.

The personal luxury goods sector is riding a wave of high demand in the US and China, buoyed by wealthier consumers who are relatively immune to the impact of price increases. But brands will need to appeal to the rising Gen Z consumer, as well as strengthen loyalty among their most important customers.

US retail mcommerce sales grew 41.4% during the pandemic year of 2020 and are set to double from this elevated base by 2025. This report looks at what’s driving this growth and how sellers should respond.

China continues to lead the world in all things ecommerce, including innovation. Social commerce livestreaming is just one of many new stories for 2021 and beyond.

For years, luxury brands around the world have been slow to adopt digital. But the pandemic has sped up the process, forcing many to pivot and innovate during a time when a large number of transactions are happening digitally.

Global retail ecommerce sales will decelerate to a 16.5% growth rate in 2020. Even as consumers transitioned en masse to ecommerce during the pandemic, the drag caused by multiple recessions internationally has reduced the overall outlook.

As shelter-at-home and quarantine measures keep consumers in China at home, brands ramped up their efforts to meet consumers' high expectations for digital services by offering free online tools and courses, streaming live events and adopting new ecommerce strategies.

When a B2B company is starting to build or assess its current marketplace strategy, understanding the different marketplace options is a first step. For our “B2B Marketplaces 2019” report, we analyzed the top three B2B marketplaces in the US—Amazon Business, Alibaba and Thomas—along with an overview of what makes their platforms work for both buyers and sellers.