China’s biggest ecommerce platforms issued a welter of numbers showing robust growth during the country’s biggest online shopping event of the year, belying concerns about consumer malaise dogging the world’s No.

The Singles’ Day shopping festival is looking less shiny this year as e-commerce firms look abroad for growth HONG KONG — Merchants and consumers alike found the Singles’ Day shopping festival Monday less shiny than in years past as e-commerce firms look abroad for growth.

SHANGHAI >> China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba Group said it recorded “robust growth” in sales and a “record number” of shoppers over this year’s Singles’ Day sales period, a weeks-long event that ended at midnight on Monday.