Heading full-swing into the holiday season???
Greetings everyone,
Entering the final quarter of 2024, we saw varying conditions across regions — US growth is strong and EU growth did fairly well, but both regions continue to deal with inflation, an important factor around the December holidays.
?China’s growth has slowed due to poor domestic demand, but the economy has remained on a fairly even keel thanks to a strong export market.
Peak season performance was stronger than expected this past month, as shoppers in the US and EU spent a little bit more than expected. Moderate to mild growth in e-commerce was the trend in many regions, with the exception of regions like Latin America and Southeast Asia.
How are we looking heading into the holiday season? Let’s find out.
Low Expectations for China’s 11/11
Retailers are expecting very little in terms of increased sales surrounding China’s famous “Single’s Day” discount holiday (11/11). While the holiday has in the past been a prosperous season for most Chinese retailers, this year looks to be a bit more disappointing.
There are many different factors for this, most evidently the economic cooling. China is facing both low domestic demand and a property market crisis.?
But putting aside economic woes, many experts think that the overabundance of discounted items for sale all year round, plus the ever-increasing length of discount holidays (single’s Day has grown from a day to a multi-week-long event) gives shoppers less of a reason to wait for discount holidays to buy.
Black Friday trends
Is Black Friday waning in popularity too??
According to stats from this past month, people are still turning up for Black Friday sales in a big way. In a recent poll, 20 percent of those polled said they would spend $1,000 or more on holiday shopping in 2024.?
Of course, the situation with Black Friday is a little different than that of Single’s Day.
?While Single’s Day was designed as an antithesis to Valentine’s Day for single people, a day for them to treat themselves instead of waiting for a loved one to do so, Black Friday craziness is driven by the need to purchase gifts ahead of Christmas, Chanukah, and other December month holidays.
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Canada’s west coast ports see a strike coming
Once again we are seeing a port shutting down after union communications broke down.
In response to an expiring union contract, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foreman Local 514 (ILWU 514) filed a 72-hour advance notice for a strike on November 4.?
The strike has halted trade across Canada’s busiest and third-busiest ports and is estimated to impact more than 500 million USD in daily trade.
Temu Jumps the gun in Vietnam
You may have heard about Temu’s recently announced entry into the Vietnamese market. Since early October, the platform has been advertising and selling goods to Vietnamese consumers.?
The problem is the Vietnam E-Commerce and Digital Economy Agency didn’t even receive Temu’s application to sell in the country until October 24th, meaning that Temu was selling goods without a license for a couple of weeks.?
Vietnamese officials worry about the loopholes this exposes in the nation’s law enforcement, particularly the ease with which a foreign entity was able to operate illegally for so long.
Temu’s actions stir already existing fears that the platform will ignore Vietnamese laws or take advantage of certain loopholes to dominate the market, particularly by pricing out smaller local players.
From CBIP
We’ve published the following blogs this last month. Give them a read if you have a couple of minutes.
Want daily updates from CBIP? Make sure to follow me via Twitter (@Nbartlett_CBIP) and CBIP (@CBIPLogistics) for thoughts and conversations on the industry every week.
Until next month,
Nick Bartlett