(Yicai) Nov. 22 -- As Black Friday sales kick off in the West, Chinese online merchants are shifting their focus away from Amazon and spreading their presence onto a number of other e-commerce platforms, as the US e-retail giant’s dominance wanes amid stiff competition.

“We are selling garments on our own website and other online platforms such as TikTok and Temu,” one vendor said. “Before, most of our sales were on Amazon, but now Amazon only accounts for around 40 percent of our online sales.”

ChicMe used to mainly sell on its own website, but in the past two years the clothing retailer has joined a number of e-commerce platforms such as Temu, co-founder Wang Weiyu said. This year the firm’s Black Friday sales across all platforms should surge by between 30 percent and 40 percent from a year ago.

This year is the longest Black Friday in history. Black Friday, which falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving, usually marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US. Amazon launched its Black Friday promotions in the US, Canada, Singapore and Europe on Nov. 21 and they will run for 12 days, one day longer than last year, to Dec. 2.

The Black Friday shopping spree has been extended because Amazon recognizes that traffic has declined in the past two years, and the Arlington-based platform has become less important to merchants, said Mao Li, founder of electric skateboard firm Meepo. The company’s sales on Amazon were very good in 2022, but started to decline in 2023 and continued to slump this year, he added.

Many Chinese e-retailers have followed suit with extended Black Friday deals. TikTok’s online shopping service, TikTok Shop, launched its Black Friday deals as early as Nov. 14, and they will run until Dec. 3.

And AliExpress, Alibaba Group Holding’s international e-commerce platform, linked its Black Friday promotion with the Double 11 online shopping bonanza again this year. The Double 11 promotion ran for eight days from Nov. 11 to Nov. 18, swiftly followed by the Black Friday promotion which is being held for 12 days from Nov. 22 to Dec. 3.

The extension of the Black Friday promotional period is a reflection of how the Double 11 shopping gala was extended from one day to one month, Wang said. Platforms also want to make the Black Friday shopping season longer to widen the window for customers to make purchases.

A jump in promotion costs is also a problem faced by Chinese merchants. The efficiency of advertisements on e-retail channels such as Facebook and Google has declined a lot, Wang said.

Advertising costs are rising and Meepo will shift its focus to big e-commerce platforms, Mao said.

Editor: Kim Taylor