Students pick up their express items at a warehouse at Jiangnan University on Nov 12. [Photo/wxrb.com]
Wuxi's online retail sales increased by 25.9 percent to a record 8.94 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) from Oct 20 to Nov 11, which was when the annual Singles Day shopping festival took place, according to data from the local commerce bureau on Nov 12.
According to the bureau, Wuxi's online retail sales in that time ranked third in Jiangsu province. The top three physical commodities in the Wuxi market were household appliances and audio-visual equipment, textiles like clothing, shoes, hats, and needles, as well as daily necessities.
The Singles Day shopping festival was first started by Alibaba's e-commerce platform on Nov 11 in 2009. It has since become one of the largest online shopping festivals worldwide and serves as a barometer for China's consumer confidence.
In an effort to find new sales promotion models, many local brands in Wuxi used livestreaming to showcase their products and communicate with consumers online.
Hodo Group promoted its men's wear by cooperating with top-tier livestreaming hosts like Viya. Data shows that Viya's livestreaming generated 4 million yuan in sales.
The local commerce bureau noted that during the Singles Day shopping festival, 4.32 billion goods were sold via 26,665 livestreaming events, amounting to 370 million yuan.
