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INTRO
Chinese netizens clicked their way through a 24-hour online shopping frenzy on Monday.
It highlighted a booming online retail sector after companies slashed prices and offered massive discounts that led to record-breaking sales figures.
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China's e-commerce giant Alibaba has seen sales at its two online platforms Tmall.com and Taobao.com rise more than 83 percent compared to last year.
Sales reached 35 billion yuan, or 5.75 billion U.S. dollars as the Chinese version of Cyber Monday ended at midnight on Monday.
Alibaba's founder and chairman Jack Ma said if the company wished to seek a higher turnover, that number could reach 100 billion yuan, that's about 16.4 billion dollars.
He said he valued the celebration behind the figures and hoped November 11th could become a holiday for Chinese consumers.
SOUNDBITE: MA YUN, ALIBABA'S FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN
"Besides the figuers and sales, I think the reflection on this phenomenon is also important. How to improve our service and management is crucial for the sustainable development of China's domestic economy."
The shopping spree falls on November 11th, or Singles' Day, each year, as young Chinese either celebrate their independence or pray for an end to their singledom.
Thirteen hours into this year's Singles' Day, Alibaba had beaten its own sales record of 19.1 billion yuan logged on the same day last year at around 1:00 p.m. That's more than five times of its last year sales.
SOUNDBITE: Hangzhou citizen
"I made full preparations this year. I put all the products I wanted into the shopping box earlier, and made the payment once it passed 12 p.m. on Sunday."
Statistics from Alibaba showed the 24-hour shopping spree got off to a strong start as sales at Tmall and Taobao hit the 100 million yuan mark 55 seconds after midnight and grew more than 67 times about an hour later.
Products ranging from milk powder and diapers to cellphones and clothes easily crossed the 100-million-yuan sales threshold.
SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) FANG JIANHUA, Founder & CEO, Inman Craftsmen for Linen & Cotton:
"This year, we're fully prepared for the shopping spree. To handle an explosion of orders, we'll dispatch goods from two warehouses in Hangzhou and Guangzhou. Last year, we only employed one or two delivery firms. But this year, 60 percent of the orders will be sent by Express Mail Service, and the rest will go to four to five courier companies."
SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) ZHAO XUEFEI, Customer service director, Inman Craftsmen for Linen & Cotton:
"We have more than 300 people in the customer service team. We also have a supporting volunteer team consisting of 100 students. These online and telephone service staff have received professional training. All of them have a good understanding of our products, rules and how to serve customers."
Xiaomi, a company that sells Android smartphones at budget prices, became the first company to hit the 100-million-threshold.
More than 500,000 cans of milk powder and 66 million diapers had been sold on Alibaba's platforms as of 10:30 a.m.
Alibaba's business-to-consumer platform Tmall.com launched its first Singles' Day online shopping campaign in 2009.
Sales at Tmall and the consumer-to-consumer Taobao.com on the day have since ballooned from 52 million yuan to 19.1 billion last year.
More than 20,000 concessions on Alibaba's online platforms promised massive discounts, mostly offering 50 per cent discounts, across 30,000 brands.
In addition to discounts, Alibaba has worked with a number of bricks-and-mortar retailers to allow consumers to try out their products before making a purchase on Tmall.
However, this new marketing strategy has caused a backlash from 19 home furnishing retailers.
Tenants at these stores have been warned against completing transactions over Alibaba's third-party payment service Alipay amid fears of losing revenues to online sales.
There was applause as revenues topped 10 billion yuan at 6 a.m., after more than 100 million consumers placed orders via the online portal.
On the same day last year, it took 13 hours for the company's sales to top the 10-billion yuan benchmark.
Alibaba's data showed that 13.7 million buyers placed orders in the first minute of the holiday sales.
