Consumption Craze Down, Business Verve Up

Cherry Wang, a 29-year-old designer in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, found herself not acting as impulsively during this year's Double 11 shopping festival as she had in previous years. The event was initiated by Taobao, an online marketplace of China's tech firm Alibaba, in 2009, and has become an annual shopping extravaganza that usually lasts for several days until November 11. Wang spent around 1,500 yuan ($235) this year, mainly on clothes, snacks, pet gear and car products. After receiving all the packages, she returned around a quarter of them. "The services of e-commerce platforms were user-friendly this year. The prolonged period made it unnecessary to stay up late to snatch the best goods and discount rules were simplified. Getting a refund was also easier," she told Beijing Review.