Shopping festival '618' registers record-breaking numbers

China's e-commerce platforms registered record high sales during "618" online shopping festival from June 1 to June 18 this year.

JD, the company behind the creation of the festival to mark its anniversary, saw 201.5 billion yuan ($31.53 billion) worth of orders to close the campaign on Wednesday, exceeding 159.2 billion yuan a year ago, a year-on-year increase of 26.57 percent.

Pinduoduo, a major online retail player focusing on low-tier cities and towns, reported its order volume surpassed 1.1 billion during this year's spree, with the gross merchandise volume, or GMV, surging 300 percent from last year.

Suning said its order volume jumped by 133 percent year-on-year during June 1 to 18 at 18:00 pm, with the home appliances order volume growing 83 percent.

Juhuasuan, Alibaba's group buying branch which serves as an entrance to online retail platform Tmall, grabbed market share in low-tier cities and towns. During this year's shopping promotion event, Juhuasuan recorded 86 percent growth in transactions year-on-year, and over 100 percent increase in the number of buyers and spending from third-tier to fifth-tier cites from a year ago, as well as registration of 300 million new users on Alibaba's platform after the promotion.

The sales figures recorded by the festival show a vibrant market and consumption upgrading trend in China.

Within the first minute of the shopping campaign, the sales of beauty care products broke through 100 million yuan; one hour later, the sales of eye cream, lipstick, and perfume rose 300 percent, 239 percent and 290 percent year-on-year, respectively; and the sales of baby and maternal products surpassed 500 million yuan at the 17th minute, according to Tmall's data.

The sales volume of 65-inch TVs or bigger, multi-door refrigerators and washing machines with drying function increased 211 percent, 77.8 percent and 97.6 percent year-on-year, respectively, Suning's data showed.

In addition, consumption in niche market also showed a boom, with sales of customized jewelry rising more than a tenfold, pet consumption by nearly 200 percent, and sales growth of Gundam toy models up more than 130 percent, according to Taobao's data.

On June 16, Hanfu, Chinese traditional clothing, sales also saw a year-on-year rise of 320 percent, based on data from Taobao.