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 travel is acce
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