Sales boom on mid-year festival

The potential of Chinese consumers' online shopping is far from being tapped. Apart from Nov 11, or Singles Day, the country's biggest shopping day, Chinese consumers are unleashing their spending power during the mid-year online shopping spree.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD Inc reported its sales during the mid-year online shopping festival reached 119.9 billion yuan ($17.6 billion). Other e-commerce heavyweights also jumped on the bandwagon to offer special offers and attract more consumers.

During the "6.18" anniversary sales event between June 1-18, which was launched by JD, the firm said more than 700 million items have been sold. The transaction volume increased more than 50 percent compared to the same period last year.

On June 18, JD reported its first hour of sales more than doubled from the same period last year, with its transaction volume surpassing 100 billion yuan at 2:11 am on Sunday.

It is noteworthy that the number of female consumers is continuously on the rise. The number of female first-time customers on JD during this year's event was nearly double the number of new female customers during the same period last year.

Women significantly outspent men in cosmetics, food & beverages, fresh food, baby & maternal items, as well as life and travel.

The top five items on the shopping list of JD consumers were smartphones, air conditioners, flat-panel televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. Consumers are more selective in terms of quality. JD has its advantage in sales of electronic devices and home appliances.

The e-commerce giant also employs robots, driverless cars and drones for deliveries during the shopping festival. Its intelligent logistics center "Asia No 1" and the sorting centers which use robotics have put into operation. Moreover, the unmanned vehicles have appeared in universities in Beijing, Zhejiang and Shaanxi.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Tmall said clothing sales reached over 1 billion yuan after just 10 minutes on June 18. Sales of products on Tmall's supermarket increased 13 times compared with the previous year. Fellow Chinese e-commerce heavyweight Suning saw its orders more than quadruple from a year ago.

Yang Yaqing, an analyst at market consultancy Analysis, said: "The June 18 anniversary sale has become the second-largest shopping event in China, next to Alibaba's Singles Day's 24-hour shopping blitz. However, the mid-year consumer event pays more attention to high-quality products, not just the price war."

He Wei contributed to this story.