Anne Zhang, Henry Xiao

    zhangy49@gmail.com

    SHENZHEN residents spent more than 1.6 billion yuan (US$261 million) on Tmall during Singles Day on Monday, nearly double the amount spent on the same day last year, the Nanfang Daily reported.

    Alibaba, which runs two of China’s largest online shopping sites — Taobao and Tmall — made 57.1 billion yuan during Monday’s shopping spree, a 57.7-percent increase from last year’s 36.2 billion yuan.

    Guangdong was the province that spent the most on the Chinese mainland, followed by Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Shenzhen was the top consumer among cities in Guangdong Province. Nationally, Shenzhen ranked third in spending, following Beijing and Shanghai.

    The sales volume of 18 major online retailers in China, including Tmall, Taobao, JD, Amazon.cn and Suning, totaled 80.5 billion yuan, and there were 409 million packages to be mailed, according to U.S.-based data-analyzing company Syntun. Nearly 68 percent of the packages were from Tmall.

    On Monday, 90 million packages were delivered across the country.

    Local express shipping companies have geared up for one of the busiest seasons of the year.

    It’s estimated that Shenzhen International Airport will handle more than 13,000 tons of packages between Nov. 10 and 16, a 7.6-percent increase from the same period last year and a 14.5-percent increase from a week before. The airport has opened an express lane for packages to reduce the delivery time.

    Alibaba’s logistics company, Shenzhen-based Cainiao, which means “rookie,” has hired an additional 250,000 delivery workers to handle the large number of packages.

    Shenzhen SF Express hired 36 cargo aircraft to deliver at least 1,800 tons of packages per day. A local employee with the express giant who insisted to remain anonymous said that the number and type of packages have both increased and that his company had hired many temporary delivery workers. “This type of peak in deliveries also occurs during holidays like the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival,” he said. “It’s not too much work for me. I can totally handle it.”

    Shanghai-based Yunda Express delivered more than 20 million packages across the country on Singles Day. An employee of the company’s Shenzhen branch surnamed Yan said the company didn’t see a huge increase in its business volume in Shenzhen yesterday, but she expects to see a peak in one week.

    “We hired many temporary workers and will make sure packages are delivered one day after they are sent within the Guangzhou and Shenzhen areas,” Yan said.

    SF Express offers a service to ensure packages are delivered within a certain period of time, otherwise the company compensates its customers.

    Sto Express, another express shipping company in Shanghai, has also raised its maximum compensation amount for insured packages to 50,000 yuan during the Singles Day delivery peak.