Online shopping platforms Alibaba, Taobao, and Tmall announced on Friday, November 24, 2023, that they have canceled the upcoming shopping festival on December 12. Instead, they will host another shopping event called 'Year-End Great Prices' starting from December 9.

"In comparison to the 12.12 festivals of previous years, the intensity of discounts, the scale of merchants, and the variety of commodities have all increased rapidly," stated Alibaba in a written statement provided to Reuters. However, the specific duration of the new festival was not mentioned.

The 12.12 shopping festival, held annually on December 12 since 2012, initially started as a lesser-known Singles Day sales event in November, usually falling on November 11. However, in recent years, it has evolved into a multi-week event starting at the end of October.

This year marks the second time Alibaba has refrained from releasing its sales results for the Singles Day festival period. Nonetheless, data provider Syntun estimates that the cumulative gross merchandise volume (GMV) across major e-commerce platforms increased by 2.08% to 1.14 trillion yuan ($156.40 billion), compared to a 2.9% growth last year.

Alibaba reported that 80 million products were offered with the deepest discounts this Singles Day.

Analysts view Alibaba's focus on discounts this year as an effort to compete with rivals such as Douyin and Pinduoduo owned by PDD Holdings (PDD.O), which have reshaped the Chinese e-commerce landscape by selling lower-cost and discounted products each year.

Chinese consumers are currently in a frugal mood amid the deepening crisis in the country's real estate sector, where much of the household wealth is parked. Government-mandated spending cuts in heavily indebted local governments, youth unemployment rates exceeding 20%, and wage declines in some economic sectors also contribute to this economic downturn.

"The macroeconomic hurdles make consumers more conscious of value," said Bain consultants in an early-month report focusing on Singles Day sales.