I have always been a Singles' Day shopper, but this year I'm swearing off the livestream sales events because they're anxiety-inducing, overwhelming, and annoying
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Cheryl Teh
Nov 10, 2021, 13:02 IST
Taobao's livestreams can be exciting and informative, but they stretch on for hours and can be exhausting to keep up with.
Tian Ming/VCG via Getty Images
I have always been a fan of the discounts I get on China's Singles' Day shopping festival, the equivalent of America's Black Friday.
But this year, I'm swearing off Alibaba's livestreams on its Taobao Live platform.
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For years, I've been delaying purchases from makeup to stationery and waiting to get them during China's Singles' Day sales.
Singles' Day sales this year are also expected to be a landmark event. So many shoppers flocked to the app during its pre-sale period on October 20 that the app crashed for around an hour.
While I'll still be checking off items on my shopping list on Singles' Day, there's one thing I won't be doing: watching livestreams on Alibaba's Taobao Live, an online e-commerce platform that is part of the company's Taobao app. Alibaba did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment for this story.
How Singles' Day deals and livestreams work
Unlike Amazon, Alibaba has integrated a video streaming platform into its selling process. Livestreamers turn on broadcasts and hawk their wares in shifts throughout the Singles' Day sales. During the streams, models interact with their viewers, demonstrating how makeup and skincare products work, trying on outfits, and answering questions posed to them via the live chat.
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To keep viewers hooked throughout the 24-hour livestreams, Taobao Live has deals with crazy-low prices on limited quantities. Viewers can "grab" cash vouchers that drop at unannounced times, and they get the chance to win prizes ranging from free items to an online store footing your entire shopping bill.
And then there are the fan rankings. The more hours of the livestream you watch, the higher your fan rankings. The higher your fan ranking, the better the deals. So if you're looking to get the best price on an item, the Taobao livestreams are the place to be, particularly if you're willing to put in the hours to get your fan ranking up.
Why I'm opting out of Singles' Day livestreams this year
This year, I won't be watching Li's livestreams - or any other livestreams. The streams are loud, exciting, and colorful. They also provide an informative preview if you can't make up your mind on what shade of lipstick to get or which handbag to pick up.
But I've found that keeping up with livestreams on Taobao Live is an anxiety-inducing and exhausting experience that takes the joy out of shopping. It's frustrating to see products being snapped up in a second after waiting for them for an entire hour, particularly when only 10 to 20 pieces are available for the tens of thousands of viewers tuning in.
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Lipstick King Austin Li has famously used a gong to "wake shoppers up" to signal a good deal. It's gimmicky and entertaining - but other streamers have since co-opted similar selling techniques, and it's jarring when done too often. In short, it just makes the shopping experience annoying.
Designed for excess
Due to the nature of some streams, shoppers may also find themselves buying way more than they expected. Consider makeup as one example.
While the average price on cosmetics packages can be slashed below their usual retail prices, those prices often do not apply until you hit a minimum spend at each online store. Last year, I ended up buying items like makeup brushes, anime fan goods, and scrapbooking kits that I had not initially planned on purchasing. Despite having a shopping list I swore I would stick to, I spent a few hundred dollars more than I had budgeted after makeup livestreams advertised "bundle deals," where you'd get exclusive, "11.11-only" products if you chocked up enough to meet the store's various spending thresholds. That's a mistake I don't plan on repeating.
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