Workers are busy distributing and packaging parcels in an e-commerce industrial park in Lianyungang, East China's Jiangsu Province on Thursday. E-commerce platform JD.com, which initiated the online "6/18 shopping festival" years ago, has seen a sales volume of about 239 billion yuan ($33.7 billion) by Thursday afternoon, media reported. Photo: IC

With China's Singles' Day, or Double 11, coming right around the corner on November 11, various e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com have begun launching a variety of events to promote the event, which in recent years has become a major online shopping festival akin to Black Friday or Cyber Monday in the US. 

In a move that has earned compliments from many Chinese netizens, JD.com has decided to try to make people laugh as a way to kick off sales leading up to the big day in 2020.

Instead of holding a traditional press conference to kick off its annual promotional events ahead of the festival, JD.com on Monday streamed a special episode of the popular stand-up comedy competition Rock and Roast, which just concluded its third season in September.  

The stand-up comedy show is usually called as talk show in China.

The special episode saw several popular competitors from past episodes return to share their amusing anecdotes about shopping online.

A man from Beijing performs at a talk show club. Photo: VCG

 Some routines jokingly took aim at the problems people often encounter while shopping online and waiting for packages to arrive, striking a chord with viewers. 

One of performers, Li Xueqin who ranked No.5 among 30 candidates this last season, shared her experiences purchasing a closet online.

"The closet shop promised fee delivery and installation included in the total price, but after sending the package to my home, the delivery person asked me to pay 100 yuan ($15) if I wanted the closet installed," she said. 

"I refused and insisted that I could install it myself. When my friend saw what I was assembling, she got angry and called the shop, saying that we bought a closet not a cat climber."

"I watched the livestream. Li joked about the extra charge during her set, which I have also experienced. Other performers were also very funny," a fan of the show surnamed Bao told the Global Times.

Judging from the reaction on social media, the show was well received, with many netizens commenting they found it a creative and interesting way to kick off the lead-up to the festival. Some netizens said they even downloaded the JD.com app to watch the stream.

The cooperation was seen as proof that stand-up comedy programs have come into their own in China.

Ding Daoshi, a veteran independent analyst in the internet sector, was on set during the filming of the livestream. He told the Global Times on Tuesday that many industry insiders have taken note of the event.

"The spring of Chinese stand-up is really here. Be it online or offline performances, they are very popular among young people," Ding said.

When speaking of why JD.com turned to stand-up for its promotional activities, Ding noted that the concept of stand-up and online shopping that JD.com wants to convey to consumers are the same, which is enjoyment. Listening to a stand-up routine can make audiences laugh, while buying what they want can bring them a kind of happiness.