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U.S. was top seller to China during Singles Day

Jennifer Pak Nov 12, 2020
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Workers sort packages for delivery at a warehouse of China Post Group in Hengyang, in central China's Hunan province on Nov. 12, 2020, a day after the end of the Singles Day shopping festival. STR/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. was top seller to China during Singles Day

Jennifer Pak Nov 12, 2020
Heard on:
Workers sort packages for delivery at a warehouse of China Post Group in Hengyang, in central China's Hunan province on Nov. 12, 2020, a day after the end of the Singles Day shopping festival. STR/AFP via Getty Images
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COPY

Consumers in China spent more than $100 billion online during the country’s largest e-commerce sales splurge, Singles Day, which this year ran from the first of the month until yesterday.

The Singles Day shopping event is bigger than online sales in the U.S. during Black Friday, Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday combined. In terms of imported goods, the U.S. was the top seller to China.

But don’t get your hopes up just yet American brands. Yes, online sales have been increasing the first nine months of the year by nearly 10% compared to the same period in 2019, but, overall, retail sales from January to September are still down 7.2% because of the pandemic.

The newly unemployed because of the pandemic have not had any government cash handouts. China has a very weak social safety net.

Families there have to save a lot for housing, children’s education, health care and retirement.

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