Alibaba Group Holding, the Chinese e-commerce giant said orders made during its Single's Day mega-shopping festival had exceeded $56bn by Wednesday morning, as consumers sought to cash in on a deluge of discounts. Alibaba launched the annual online blitz early this year, with two primary discount periods taking place from November 1 through November 3 and again on November 11. The company will calculate gross merchandise volume - GMV over the full 11-day period, as opposed to the usual 24 hours. As of 12:30am local time (16:30 GMT) on November 11, the campaign’s GMV had surpassed 372.3 billion Chinese yuan ($56.3bn) with the order rate hitting a record peak of 583,000 per second, Alibaba said. Alibaba, Asia’s largest company, blew past last year’s record $38bn at the beginning of Singles’ Day. Homebound consumers turned grocery delivery into the industry’s hottest arena, anchoring an unprecedented surge in online activity during the nationwide lockdown. Domestic trav...
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