Opinion: Crazy shoppers, a potential market
Haoran Li
Haoran Li is a sophomore communications studies major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected]
This year’s Black Friday seemed to be not as crowded as before. Some stores opened earlier on Thanksgiving and stayed open through Black Friday, which might have caused less crowding. Online shopping may have also caused smaller crowds.
“E-commerce firm ChannelAdvisor reported that client sales on eBay.com jumped 35 [percent] through noon EST on Black Friday, compared to the same holiday last year. Client sales on Amazon.com rose 25 [percent] in the same period,” according to USA Today. The Amazon sales record, $1 billion, according to USA Today, even came close to the record of sales on last year’s Cyber Monday, $1.47 billion according to Washington Post.
Some people probably will say that Americans act crazy on Black Friday; however, Chinese people are even crazier than Americans.
On Nov. 11, Chinese urban people had their own online shopping day, which is called Singles Day. The four lonely 1s of 11/11 symbolize lonely singles, as it is a day for singles to celebrate. A company, Alibaba, launched this shopping day five years ago. This company recognized that some singles bought electronic devices in order to seek solace and took advantage of this day to persuade others to buy goods. This year, the New York Times reported sales of $5.75 billion on Singles Day.
It is true that $5.75 billion is small when compared with the $59.1 billion of in-store sales during Thanksgiving weekend in 2012, according to the National Retail Federation. However, it is no doubt that China is still an unexplored market although it has been the second largest economy.
The Global Center, Starbucks, Subway, Calvin Klein, Coach and other popular American companies have set up chains or stores in China’s cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. This not only means that China has become a capitalist country but also that China is a good place for American businesses.
America and American families have suffered economically since 2008. The recovery seems not to be very obvious so far. However, Chinese urban people could contribute $5.75 billion via online shopping just on one day. This means that the Chinese market is still going to grow into a bigger market. Chinese people are willing to know the world outside of China, especially America. Some Chinese people come to America to learn and then come back to China with knowledge and more opportunities. Americans could take their skills to China to earn more money.
America is the best place in the world, but there are other places that are good for Americans to earn money. Those places are developing and need new methods and skills urgently. People in those places are willing to buy modern and stylish devices and goods.
It is an opportunity for Americans to go to China, a potential market, to spread American methods and earn more money.