A cruise down fifth avenue, with little to show for it

"Buy more, save more," one website said. Another way of saving more is by buying big-ticket items. So, I thought, perhaps designer watches are the go. But I found most of the websites in question do not sell luxury watches.

I did find several brand names on the Nieman Marcus website with several watches available. However, under the picture of every item was a note saying the timepiece was "pre-owned". Yes, that sounds slightly better than "used" or "second-hand", but still ...

Like most Chinese, I am not going to spend thousands of dollars on a second-hand watch. But I have to give the website credit for being honest. It also makes it clear that it is not an authorized watch dealer, and only sells used upmarket watches.

In contrast, many of China's e-commerce websites sell everything you can imagine, including luxury watches and handbags. They claim these are authentic, although many luxury product manufacturers say they have not granted rights to any Chinese online stores.

Prices the online stores charge are 70-80 percent of the regular prices one finds in an authorized, physical store. But consumers have no way of knowing whether the watches are used, fake or smuggled. Many say they have trouble when they need to have their watches repaired because the warranty card they get has no date on it.

And in all that lies one reason why I did not spend a cent on Nov 11. That day, Tmall, part of the Alibaba online behemoth, sold more than 90 billion yuan worth of products online. Sales of other e-commerce companies were also brisk - no thanks to me.