'Made in China' products dominate Black Friday worldwide, data shows

Employees of Incheon Regional Customs inspect directly purchased overseas goods at a logistics center in Incheon on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Products stamped with the "Made in China" tag and known for their low prices dominated overseas shopping consumers' wallets this Black Friday, one of the year's largest e-commerce events, according to data published on Tuesday.

In an analysis comparing overseas shopping sales growth rates by region this month, sales from Korean customers directly buying from China rose 801 percent, compared to the 136 percent rise in purchases from Europe and 79.8 percent from Japan, according to online shopping platform WeMakePrice.

For e-commerce platform 11Street, purchases in the tablets and video games category made from Wednesday to Sunday jumped 27 times compared to last year, boosted by the popularity of Lenovo's tablet devices.

China's leading computer manufacturer, Lenovo, is famous for its tablets, which are regarded as good-value products among consumers.

Over five billion won ($3.9 million) worth of Lenovo tablets, in the low 100,000 won range, sold this month through TMON, another e-commerce platform.

"As new Chinese home appliances and digital products, famous for their cost-effectiveness, flooded the market, the trend of direct purchasing from China during Black Friday sales got even stronger," an e-commerce industry insider said.

The popularity of Chinese home appliances and digital goods also saw the difference in the gender ratio accounting for sales in this year's Black Friday sale.

Where last year saw more purchases in the fashion and accessories category, women took up 52 percent of customer sales compared to 48 percent by men. This year, 70 percent of purchases were made by men.

BY JEONG HYE-JEONG, KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]