Will e-shopping cannibalize quality drive?

Media coverage of the Singles Day (aka Double-11 or 11-11) online shopping festival on Nov 11 suggests Alibaba's intervention, complemented by the behemoth's affiliates, and overseas subsidiaries and e-commerce firms it backs, has gone global, most notably in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Single-day online sales records have been set or broken. Online marketplaces, it would appear, want people to do nothing but shop, shop, shop.

According to a market report, Alibaba's competitor JD.com ran its own 18-day shopping festival called "618"around June 18 and sold goods worth $17.6 billion.