中国消费者参与黑色星期五购物

Alongside Americans' madness to score low price goods at the annual "Black Friday", Chinese online shoppers are also snapping up foreign bargains through the click of a mouse.

Only hours after the kick-off, servers at some overseas shopping sites have broken down for a couple of minutes, due to overload by the sheer volume of traffic from China.

And Sharon Li is just one of these eager buyers.

"Yeah it is the first time I bought on Black Friday. I bought a bag and a wallet, much cheaper than in Hong Kong, especially electronics and bags,. This like these are much cheaper! "

Unlike Double 11, "Black Friday" remains a new trend for Chinese consumers, with its influence still limited to the young people.

"I think Double 11 is more popular in Hong Kong that people are more crazy. I think Double 11 is more convenient because I just get the access to the Taobao, but Black Friday will be more complicated. For me, I have to find some bought (to buy) for me."

Usually, people choose to use overseas shopping agents acting as a transitional platform.

But this year these traditional "Haitao" agents are a little stressed as Chinese e-commerce firms and U.S. retailers start to join hands to promote the American shopping carnival.

E-commerce giant Amazon's China branch "Amazon.cn" has also launched a 'Black Friday' overseas shopping window for Chinese consumers for the first time this year.

And the e-commerce giant Alibaba is launching an 'overseas direct purchasing' service.

Thanks to cooperation with the online payment service Alipay, consumers can now purchase products directly through U.S. retail giants, including Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Given these, Grace An, a frequent Haitao user, says she notices something different for this years' Black Friday.

"So they have offered special price for special deals for Chinese customers. They have used Chinese language, and they have special deals targeted at Chinese."

Though the impact of ''Black Friday" has gradually penetrated into Chinese market, China boasting anything resembling the American shopping festival is still a long way off.

Liu Baocheng, a professor from University of International Business and Economics, says U.S. retailers still need to do more to compete with their Chinese counterparts.

"One is to customize the message to Chinese people, because Black Friday is not very much popular yet among them. So therefore, to have more cultural element that is understandable to Chinese people will be very helpful. The other is really they not only need to customize the message but rather to customize products to attract more Chinese consumers made for China is also a very appealing message."

Since "Black Friday" lies between the double 11 and the Chinese New Year Shopping Season, the timing may be ideal for Chinese retailers to take advantage of a lull in the country's traditional shopping season calendar.

For CRI, I m Wang Mengzhen.