[1/5] People wait for bus near a billboard of JD.com advertisement for the "618" shopping festival, in Beijing, China June 12, 2023. Retail sales growth in May slowed from the previous month, missing forecasts. In 2022 China's online retail sales amounted to 13.8 trillion yuan ($1.93 trillion), according to Ministry of Commerce data. "Everyone's making excuses but at the end of the day, it's a super-soft retail market." Last year, JD.com posted 10% annual growth in total 618 sales, its slowest ever.

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Persons: Tingshu Wang, Josh Gardner, JD.com, Trudy Dai, Jason Yu, Kantar, Yu, Iris Zhang, Gardner, Data, Casey Hall, Sophie Yu, Marius Zaharia Organizations: REUTERS, HK, of Commerce, Kungfu, Burberry, Apple, Alibaba, Jefferies, Citi, Thomson Locations: Beijing, China, SHANGHAI, Tmall