JD reports sales of over 179 billion yuan during shopping carnival

JD, Chinese e-commerce heavyweight, reported its accumulated sales during the Nov 11 shopping carnival, which lasts from midnight of Nov 1 to 14:37 pm on Nov 11, reached a staggering 179.4 billion yuan ($25.6 billion).

Sales of air conditioners surpassed 100 million yuan within 20 seconds after the clock struck midnight on Nov 11, and more than 10,000 units of 65-inch televisions were sold within eight seconds, according to JD.

The turnover of mother and infant products surged 400 percent in the first 15 minutes, compared with a year ago, while sales revenues from fitness and healthcare products as well as cosmetics jumped 346 percent and 136.5 percent respectively within the first hour of Nov 11.

The consumer-to-manufacturer - or C2M - model leverages online retailers' big data and customer analysis capabilities to optimize a brand's products specifically to meet unique demands of the Chinese market. It gained momentum during this year's Nov 11 shopping festival and drove sales growth of home appliance products.

Major home appliance makers have launched more than 200 independent production lines for JD to offer over 30 million new home appliances products, among which 12 million units have adopted C2M model.

Chinese commercial giant Suning said orders within the first hour on Nov 11 increased 89 percent compared with same period last year, with sales of intelligent digital products skyrocketing 288 percent year-on-year.

E-commerce has become one key driver of China's retail market. Online retail sales rose 16.8 percent year on year to reach 7.32 trillion yuan during the January-September period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.