China to host online shopping festival to boost economy impacted by coronavirus
Participating stores are expected to offer sales and better services
China is hosting an online shopping festival from April 28 to May 10 in an effort to boost the country's consumption, state newspaper The People's Daily reported Thursday, citing the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
The decision to host the nearly two-week-long festival comes after China's gross domestic product fell 6.8 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
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The festival is the second of its kind in China and will include 100 e-commerce companies selling a range of goods from agricultural products to electronics, The People's Daily reported.
In this Tuesday, March 10, 2020, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping talks by video with patients and medical workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua v
Participating companies are expected to offer discounts and better services in an effort to entice more sales, according to the outlet.
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The festival is similar to Singles Day, the world's busiest online shopping day organized by Chinese tech giant Alibaba. The company broke its record in Singles Day sales in November 2019 when gross merchandise volume reached 268.4 billion yuan (more than $38 billion).
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Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu and other e-commerce giants have expanded into consumer finance, entertainment and offline retailing.
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FOX Business' Ken Martin contributed to this report.