Singles Day racks up big sales numbers

Alibaba Group's Nov 11 global shopping festival, which started Nov 1, has generated 498.2 billion yuan ($74.1 billion) in gross merchandise volume by end of Nov 11.

Delivery orders generated by the festival exceeded 2.25 billion as of 11pm on Nov 11, which is close to the total number of packages generated in China in 2010.

Alibaba said some 2.1 million smaller physical stores have participated in the campaign, covering some 410,000 agricultural products from 1,406 counties. Over 380,000 shops from impoverished counties were involved.

The festival has helped 105 industrial clusters each generate at least 100 million yuan in transaction volume.

A total of 31,766 overseas brands have also participated in the campaign.