The planet’s biggest online shopping splurge is being been blamed for the ongoing shortage of baby formula in Australian supermarkets.
“Singles Day” is a one-day online sale hosted every year on November 11 by China’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba. And despite a recent slowdown in their economy, Chinese shoppers handed over $20 billion (91 billion Chinese yuan) in only 24 hours at this year’s event.
That’s 60 per cent more than they spent last year. The cumulative national bill for the day-long commercial orgy overnight dwarfed Americans’ online spending over the five-day frenzy from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday last year.
Among the bargain hunters were fearful Chinese parents who have turned to Australian-made products after a number of deadly domestic formula scares, including one contamination incident in 2008 that killed six babies and made 300,000 others sick.
Overnight, thousands of listings for Australian baby formula products have sprung up on Taobao, China’s answer to eBay, in time for Singles Day.
Chinese tourists, students and relatives living in Australia had been bulk-buying during the past week to coincide with the November shopping frenzy.
Affluent families want high-end, Aussie-made formulas such as the a2 and Bellamy’s Organic ranges.
The tins, which usually retail for $25-30 in Australian shops, fetch prices of $150-$190 online.
The surge in demand has left many Australian mums complaining they can’t source the brands they’ve always fed their babies.
It has sparked reports of people stripping supermarket shelves of quality formulas, knowing they can be resold for enormous profit to Chinese buyers desperate for safe products.
The a2 Milk Company says demand for its products — which are manufactured only in Australia and New Zealand — has skyrocketed over the past six months, forcing it to ramp up production.
The company already exports to China, but some Chinese still prefer to source what they need from Australia because they fear counterfeit products.