Singles Day should not be excuse to trick consumers

Every year, shoppers eagerly wait for the Singles Day shopping gala on Nov 11, and this year is no exception. However, some of the discounts online portals are offering this year are so confusing that only shoppers with exceptional mathematical skills will know how to benefit from them.

A media survey found that this year some merchants first raised prices of products and then offered discounts on them, making the final price in most cases higher than the original.

In some cases, consumers cannot use the shopping coupons the first time, as they are valid for only the "next purchase".

Shoppers have complained that it is common for retail platforms to use such tricks during Singles Day, but this year some of them are so deceptive and misleading that they are not only ruining consumers' shopping experience but also violating their rights and interests, and disrupting the market order.

The Singles Day shopping gala attracts widespread participation from merchants and consumers, leading to record online sales every year.

The shopping event has become an engine for the growth of the e-commerce sector. Therefore, consumers are demanding that the e-commerce market's reputation be protected, especially during Singles Day.

The regulatory authorities and the China Consumers Association have urged e-commerce platforms and merchants to protect consumers' rights, and warned them against violating the rules.

These measures have to some extent regulated businesses' behavior. However, the regulatory authorities and e-commerce platforms need to take more effective measures to ensure consumers' rights and interests are not infringed upon.

Therefore, the market supervision departments and consumer protection organizations should strengthen their supervision and oversight to prevent marketing malpractices in e-commerce transactions.

They should launch a comprehensive investigation into marketing tricks and traps used by online merchants and publish a "positive list" and "negative list" for promotion activities, to ensure transparency, and strengthen the mechanism for monitoring promotional prices and help consumers to compare prices to avoid being cheated.

There is also a need to open new channels to allow consumers to lodge complaints about the inconvenience and malpractices they face.