China’s Singles’ Day shifts to direct discounts and AI

China’s Singles’ Day shopping campaign is featuring simpler price cuts and a prominent push for artificial intelligence products, as early sales figures and shopper accounts point to cautious spending. The annual event is centered on November 11 but begins weeks earlier, and platforms have shifted away from layered coupons toward direct discounts.

Sales across major platforms reached 1.02 trillion yuan in the three weeks through October 31, up nearly 2.4% from the same period a year earlier, according to research firm Syntun. The estimate covers that three-week period and is not a final tally for the full campaign. Separate figures reported by Syntun put cumulative sales as of October 31 at just over 1 trillion yuan, broadly similar to the same point a year earlier.

Retailers have promoted AI subscriptions, tokens and devices alongside discounts. Alibaba said sales at its AI Token Centre, which bundles token packages from Alibaba Cloud, Z.ai and MiniMax, rose 450% month on month from October 1 to 20. JD.com reported AI token sales increased 167% year on year in the campaign’s opening phase. The figures were reported by the companies and were not independently verified in the...