Consumers shop for pet products at an exhibition in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province. File photo: VCG

The sales volume of China's top 100 retail giants surpassed 7 trillion yuan ($983.75 billion) for the first time in 2018, with seven among 100 firms hitting a sales volume of over 100 billion yuan, industry data showed on Saturday, hinting that the country's retail market is unleashing more potential amid the consumption upgrade trend.

The data, jointly released by the China Chamber of Commerce and China National Commercial Information Center, showed that China's top 100 retail firms reached a sales volume of 7.35 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.5 percent year-on-year. Sales of the top 100 firms accounted for 19.3 percent of China's social retail sales, an increase of 2.7 percentage points compared with 2017.

Seven companies, led by Alibaba's Tmall, JD.com, and Pingduoduo, achieved a sales volume of over 100 billion yuan. Tmall and JD.com topped the list with a sales volume of 2.45 trillion yuan and 1.68 trillion yuan, respectively.

China's retail market remained robust with improved quality in 2018. China's social retail volume reached 38.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 9 percent year-on-year. The role of consumption in driving the country's economic growth has also become more consolidated, contributing  76.2 percent of China's GDP growth in 2018, the data showed.

Through structural reforms and consumption upgrading, China's economy has moved on from its past reliance on trade and investment. During the first quarter of 2019, China's GDP maintained a growth rate of 6.4 percent, with consumption accounting for 65.1 percent of total growth.