Chinese ‘Singles Day’ sees wine sales surge

Online wine retailers recorded record sales figures on Singles Day in China last week, with buyers tempted by big discounts, including some on Bordeaux classed growths.

Singles Day on 11 November is a big day of gifting in China and has become the world’s biggest online shopping festival for wine and spirits.

China’s most popular wine retailer, the Shanghai-based business to consumer setup, Yesmywine, doubled sales from the same day 12 months earlier on its Tmall.com online outlet. It took in £4.2m in the 24-hour period.

Part of Yesmywine’s fine wine portfolio was sold off at major discounts, notably Graves first growth Haut-Brion 2010 and St-Estephe third growth Calon Segur 2006. Staff reported that the sales were “surprisingly heated.”

Other online retailers, such as JD.com, benefited from similarly high jump in sales. Jiuxian.com attracted the highest number of buyers, clocking up as many as 125,148, while Sichuan1919 was the top seller as far as value was concerned, netting over £15m.

According to Yesmywine’s official website, wines at or just under the £20 mark were the biggest sellers. The company’s executive vice-president, Wang Yang, told local media before the event that the aim was to make a profit despite the big discounts. “Unlike some other brands, we will not use extremely low prices to increase our sales.”