China’s Alibaba keeps sales results secret from Super Bowl of shopping days

China’s Singles’ Day is the Super Bowl of all shopping days, putting Black Friday and Cyber Monday to shame. It has fallen on Nov. 11 of every year dating back to 2009, but how last week’s extravaganza went is a mystery.

For the first time in the event’s 14-year history, e-commerce giant Alibaba failed to disclose its sales results. The company only said it “delivered results in line with last year’s [gross merchandise value] performance despite macro challenges and COVID-related impact.”

Alibaba’s 2021 performance over the event totaled $84.5 billion, an 8% increase from the year prior but the slowest rate of growth since its inception. Together, Alibaba and JD.com set a sales record in 2021 of $139 billion.

JD.com also stayed quiet on sales for 2022, but highlighted what it claims is a “new record in transactions” for the shopping event. That’s like Amazon claiming Prime Day went great without releasing actual data to back it up.

Alibaba did say this year’s sales demonstrated “strong growth momentum” in sports and outdoors, pet products, collectible toys and jewelry. It is possible the company could reveal further details when it reports earnings later this week.

The Singles’ Day event is one that analysts look at to gauge the strength of the Chinese consumer. The shopping holiday has now expanded to 11 days ending November 11 and targets China’s younger consumers.

The annual sale this year happened as China ramps up COVID-19 lockdowns ahead of a possible winter surge. Its zero-COVID policy has had major impacts on consumer confidence and growth in the country.

Last month, China inexplicably delayed the release of its third quarter gross domestic product data, only to announce an estimate-beating 3.9% annual growth figure one week later. Analysts polled by Reuters had initially anticipated 3.4% growth.

Year-to-date growth for the country is now at 3%, below pace for the official target of 5.5% for 2022.