During this year's Singles' Day shopping festival from Nov. 1 to 11, the volume of online and offline sales for China's retail market has reached a new high, witnessing accelerated consumption recovery in China.

The giant screen shows sales on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall hitting 498.2 billion yuan (about 74.10 billion U.S. dollars) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) during the annual Singles' Day online shopping spree at Hangzhou Future Sci-Tech City in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, on Nov. 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

After years of integrated development, Singles' Day has become a festival for both online and offline promotional sales. During this year's shopping festival, e-commerce platforms have accelerated the integration of offline stores, which have also proactively embraced digitalization, so as to create a better shopping experience for consumers and stimulate greater potential in the consumer market.

According to data released by JD.com, China's e-commerce giant, from 00: 00 on Nov.1 to 24:00 on Nov.11, the cumulative amount of orders placed on the platform exceeded 271.5 billion yuan (about $41 billion), again setting a new record.

There are a total of 250,000 brands, 5 million merchants, and 16 million discounted goods involved in this year's Singles' Day shopping festival. From 00: 00 on Nov.1 to 24:00 on Nov.11, the platform's turnover exceeded 498.2 billion yuan, according to data released by Tmall, Alibaba's third-party platform for brands and retailers.

Offline sales have also been as hot as online sales.

During this year's Singles' Day, Intime, China's leading department-store chain, created nearly 100 offline carnivals, so that users can enjoy a comprehensive high-quality consumption experience of eating, drinking and entertainment.

Among other features, 4,740 shopping guides from Intime participated in retail live-streaming. From Nov. 1 to 9, sales of Intime's 15 online stores were 2.5 times higher than in the same period last year.

With the continuous improvement of logistical and distribution infrastructure, the Singles' Day shopping festival has also entered the rural market. For instance, on the first day of pre-sales for the Singles' Day shopping festival, the number of orders for miniature excavators on Taobao, a major online shopping website in China, increased by nearly 150 percent year-on-year, and the transaction volume increased by about 140 percent compared with the same period last year, according to data from Tmall.

In the past, the express delivery industry in rural areas was relatively underdeveloped, but now, infrastructure such as roads continues to improve. At the same time, the transport capacity of the express logistics industry is also constantly being upgraded, thus enabling more high-quality industrial products to enter the rural market more efficiently.