ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd. lowered its full-year sales forecast Friday due to concerns about the economic impact of a U.S.-China trade spat, which the company expects will dent revenue ahead of its top sales season.

Asia’s most valuable public company said it will cut its full-year revenue forecast to between 375 billion yuan (US$54.4 billion) and 383 billion yuan, a 4-6 percent drop, while sales growth in its core commerce business for the September quarter slowed to its lowest rate since 2016.

In a call with analysts Friday, executives said big ticket purchases could be affected by economic uncertainty and that they will delay efforts to make more money on some aspects of its marketplaces in an effort to retain businesses on its platform.

“In light of current fluid macro-economic conditions, we have recently decided not to monetize, in the near term, incremental inventory generated from growing users and engagement on our China retail marketplaces,” said Alibaba in a statement.

The decision to take in less income from its platforms comes ahead of Singles’ Day, Alibaba’s annual mega-sale event, which peaks Nov. 11 and last year netted the company over US$25 billion in sales.

Alibaba competes fiercely for customers and merchants during the event, and has historically recorded much higher marketing costs around the event, which also eats into sales from the first and third quarter. (SD-Agencies)