Photo: Tu Lei/GT

The biggest online shopping gala has closed the curtain, as those giants have grabbed a strong sales result, a milestone showing robust consumption by Chinese consumers.

Alibaba said sales during the just ended Double 11 global shopping festival from November 1 to 11 stood at 498.2 billion yuan ($74.1 billion).

In 2019, the Double 11 shopping festival, which falls each year on November 11, saw sales revenue of 410.1 billion yuan.

Alibaba said there are 31,766 overseas brands attend the event, and over 450 brands have surpassed 100 million yuan in sales.

As of 11pm Wednesday, the number of delivery orders exceeded 2.25 billion, equivalent to the total number of packages generated in China in 2010.

Another giant JD.com said from 0:00 on November 1 to 23:59 on November 11, 2020, the cumulative order amount exceeded 271.5 billion yuan, setting a new record again. The volume of its logistics business orders increased by 102 percent year-on-year, the volume of personal express orders increased by 164 percent.

Xiaomi said its sales on all the online platforms hit 14.3 billion yuan during the shopping festival.

Alibaba said 35 minutes past midnight on November 11, more than 340 brands had surpassed 100 million yuan in sales, with 13 brands surpassing 1 billion yuan.

Consumption patterns show a strong demand for imported products as a result of restrictions on overseas travel due to the pandemic. Consumers are also consciously spending to improve and support their personal health. 

Apple, L'Oréal, Haier, Estée Lauder, Nike, Huawei, Midea, Lancôme, Xiaomi and Adidas are among the brands that exceeded the100 million yuan in sales.

The top three categories of imported products ranked by sales are food supplements, facial beauty tools, and infant and toddler milk powder as of 09:00am on November 11.

Chu Yin, a professor from University of International Relations told the Global Times that a big difference for this year's shopping festival is the extended shopping period, which makes the consumption more sustainable, and a big improvement in sales after COVID-19 epidemic.

China's Double 11 is becoming increasingly attractive to global consumers. The sale of goods in AliExpress' overseas warehouses in the first minute of November 11 was equivalent to the amount sold the first hour of last year's November 11.

More than 2,600 new brands and 1.2 million new imported products were for sale during this year's event. From November 1 to November 11 at 12 noon, Tmall's international import commodity turnover increased 47.3 percent year-on-year, of which the turnover of 207 brands exceeded 10 million yuan.

Data from National Bureau of Statistics showed that in 2019, the contribution rate of consumption to economic growth was 57.8 percent, driving GDP growth up by 3.5 percentage points to become the driving force for economic growth for six consecutive years.