GUANGZHOU, China — The biggest shopping event in the world, Singles Day, is underway but China’s e-commerce giants will have to deal with economic growth potentially slowing as well as continued scrutiny from domestic regulators.

Singles Day — also known as Double 11 — takes place on Nov. 11 in China and is widely believed to have begun in the 1990s in universities as men celebrated being single. Chinese e-commerce became a global giant in 2009. Alibaba launched the first shopping event on that dayTmall Shopping Platform offers substantial discounts

Many of China’s online shopping companiesSingles Day is now bigger than Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the U.S.

Promos are now more frequent and not limited to 24 hours.

JD.com AlibabaOctober 20 marked the start of promotions that allow customers to deposit money for products and receive big discounts. For JD.com, further discounts were available on Sunday.

Concerns over the massive shopping event are present slowing growth in China’s economyRecent developments slew of sluggish retail sales data

However, there is evidence that people are still prepared to spend money on the shopping festival this year. In a 3,000 person survey carried out by Bain & Company and published last week, slightly more than half (52%) of respondents said they were planning to spend more than last year, while only 8% said they were planning to decrease their spending.

Singles Day, across all platforms, raked last year in gross merchandise worth 840 billion yuan ($131.3billion). GMV is a figure that shows the total value of orders across an e-commerce company’s platforms.

Bain partner Jonathan Cheng said that he anticipates strong participation and increased sales. JD and Alibaba are being challenged by Pinduoduo, a Chinese TikTok, Douyin, who is expanding into e-commerce.

The competition is stronger across all platforms. In an interview Cheng stated that it started as an Alibaba Festival, but has since evolved to a general shopping festival.

Bain’s survey revealed that more than half of respondents said they planned to shop at least three platforms this Double 11 year.

Cheng stated, however, JD and Alibaba’s Tmall platform have still strong loyalty among customers.

Alibaba and JD.com are both looking to continue their growth momentum by targeting customers in smaller Chinese cities beyond large metropolitan areas.

Bain’s survey found that Double 11 customers would prefer to shop in “tier-three”, four, and five cities over tier-one or two.

Cheng stated that “but at the same, they will still buy less and spend less in higher-tier cities.”

China introduced new laws in areas from antitrustYou can find more information here data protectionand has examined the business practices of ecommerce businesses. Alibaba was hit with a $2.8 billion fine in AprilA regulator probe into anti-monopoly found that merchants were forced to use one or two platforms by the e-commerce giant, rather than having both.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology asked ecommerce businesses to reduce marketing spam by text messaging last week.

Against that backdrop, this year’s Singles Day brings with it a new feel — one where Alibaba and JD.com are looking to align themselvesXi Jinping is committed to achieving “common prosperity” as well as progress in sustainability.

Common prosperityThis is government’s effort to promote moderate wealth for everyone. In the environment space. China is targeting peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030and carbon neutrality before the year 2060.

GMV was a main focus in Singles Day for years. Alibaba is known for its rolling figures and big celebrations of the last number.

Alibaba stated that the main focus of their business will now be sustainability and inclusion.

“I think the 11.11 value is worth it.” [Double 11]GMV numbers are not all that matters. “We are optimistic about Festival results but, more importantly, are committed to building future economy and online consumption,” Chris Tung (chief marketing officer at Alibaba) stated in a conference held last week. According to a press statement.

“11.11” is about how best to leverage Alibaba’s most recent technology to assist merchants and brands in driving sustainable, inclusive growth through more efficient methods.

Alibaba’s logistics unit Cainiao will focus on recycling, while the company will also offer 100 million yuan worth of “green” vouchers “to incentivize shopping decisions that contribute to an environmentally-friendly lifestyle.”

JD.com kept sustainability in mind, declaring that 2021 Singles Day is “the largest singles day where renewable energy will ever be used.”