For the annual one-day buying frenzy that falls on Nov. 11, Shenzhen ranked fifth in the country in terms of spending this year, following Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.
Shenzhen residents once again showed their great appetite for snapping up goods and services from home and abroad. As of 4 p.m. Sunday, the city was fourth in purchasing power.
Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu were the top three provinces in spending during the 24-hour shopping flurry. As of 4 p.m. Sunday, Guangdong had taken the first place in the country with an absolute edge in online transactions, which totaled 19.55 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion).
Shenzhen, which had ranked first in Guangdong Province in terms of Single’s Day spending over the past few years, was overtaken by the provincial capital Guangzhou this year and stood at second place as of midday Sunday.
In addition to online shopping, offline consumption also witnessed a significant surge. Among the goods purchased offline, Shenzhen residents spent the most on food, followed by beauty products, massage services and other leisure and entertainment items.
Sales on e-commerce giant Alibaba’s online shopping platform Tmall hit 213.5 billion yuan Sunday, with full-day sales setting a new record, according to statistics from the Hangzhou-based company.
Tmall smashed the 10-billion-yuan threshold in just two minutes and five seconds, trimming nearly one minute from the time it took to hit the mark last year. The platform broke 100-billion-yuan in one hour 47 minutes and 26 seconds, more than seven hours less than the time needed to hit that mark a year ago.
Cao Lei, director of the China E-commerce Research Center, said the shopping binge, which was celebrating its 10th year, exemplified the latent power of the current consumer market.
Those born after 1985, 1990 and 1995 have become the major force in the shopping frenzy, according to Cao.