Double 11 shopping spree breaks record

A giant electronic screen shows the total GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) from online shopping on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's marketplaces Tmall and Taobao on November 11 reaching RMB 213.5 billion yuan ($30.8 billion U.S. dollars) during the Tmall 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 2018 at the media center in Shanghai, China, 12 November 2018.[IC]

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba set yet another record for the Double 11 shopping festival, hitting 10 billion yuan ($1.44 billion) in sales just 2 minutes and 5 seconds after the annual November 11th online shopping spree began at midnight Saturday.

In 2017, it took shoppers on Alibaba's Tmall 3 minutes 1 second to rack up 10 billion yuan in sales, breaking the previous year's record of 6 minutes and 58 seconds.

By noon Sunday, 167 brands reported sales 100 million yuan during the shopping spree. By 15:49 pm, total sales broke the record of last year's entire-day sales for the Double 11 shopping carnival.

The gross merchandise volume increased 27 percent from last year to CNY213.5 billion (USD30.7 billion), the Hangzhou-based firm said on its website.

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