Siblings across the strait catch the shopping bug

As one of the earliest e-shopping sites to follow the mainland craze, Yahoo launched a similar campaign last year and reported total sales nearly four times the average.

Mainland e-commerce companies also wooed overseas consumers. Taobao launched a special platform for the day for shoppers in Singapore and Malaysia as well as regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan, promising fast and reliable delivery.

Taiwan customs has even set up a special squad to cope with the increase in imported goods during and after Singles Day, the agency said late last month. Last year, the agency's Taipei office received about 1.51 million applications for customs clearance of small imported goods, believed to be caused by Singles Day shopping.

However, some local consumers were reluctant to buy from mainland websites. A survey conducted by the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute, a Taipei think tank, showed that 37 percent of 313 respondents said they were interested but cautious about shopping on mainland websites, while 33 percent said they would purchase and 30 percent said they would not.

The survey showed 30 percent of them would shop on Taiwan e-commerce websites on Nov 11.

Lyu Mei-rong, a civil servant, said that she will shop on local websites, but is hesitant to use mainland platforms.

"Singles Day shopping is big news. Everybody in my office has been talking about it today," she said. "But I have not shopped on Taobao before, and I worry about how to get the goods delivered to Taiwan." But Lyu said she might try since some friends had bought things from mainland sites without any trouble.

The mainland and Taiwan signed the landmark Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement in 2010, which reduced tariffs on goods moving between the two sides and encouraged more small businesses in Taiwan to set up shop on Taobao.

Ant Financial, Alibaba's financial service affiliate, announced last month that Alipay, the electronic payment platform owned by Alibaba, received approval to launch a payment service in Taiwan in the fourth quarter of this year. Its launch is expected to facilitate cross-Strait online shopping.

China Daily contributed to this story.