Single Day online shop battle: Tmall 1st min. sales hit 116mln yuan
双11网上购物节 天猫一分钟交易额破亿

November 11th is known as China's "Singles Day." It's similar to Cyber Monday in the United States. For the fifth consecutive year, it's igniting a massive wave of online shopping nationwide pulling in more than 100 million RMB on the popular site "Tmall" in the first minute after the sale started.

Just one minute pass midnight on November 11th, the sales volume on Tmall had reached 116 million yuan, or some 19 million U.S. dollars. And the turnover in the first hour hit 6 billion yuan.

Tmall actually created the Single-Day concept back to 2009, with a strong sense that the stress and loneliness of being single can be easily shifted to addiction in shopping.

"Major sales booms can be found in Yangze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Rim. And orders placed in the central,southwest and northeast China are also soaring. Consumers are so enthusiastic," Yan Qiao, Director of Public Affairs of Alibaba Group, said.

The nationwide campaign also causes troubles for the whole country: extreme pressure on logistic system and complains for "what you see is NOT what you get" can ruin online retailers' reputation in minutes.

To sooth logistic pressures and generate more revenue, many online shops extend the sales period from few days to weeks.Dangdang.com, who dug its first bucket of gold by selling books, started promotion as early as mid-October this year. O2O, or online to offline is another new trend this year. Though this model may charge a higher price, offline stores are able to offer a full shopping experience to consumers. More than 30 thousands offline shops joined Tmall this year, but

Easyhome failed to join the parade. The furniture retailer pulled out after a failed negotiation with Tmall due to different ideas on profit distribution.

"O2O is a major trend for online business in the long run. But in the short term, conflict is unavoidable. I believe it will happen within three to five years," Guo He, Marketing Director of Dangdang.com, said.

Transaction volume in the fourth quarter usually takes as much as 40 percent in online B2C business. Last year, the promotion attracted 147 million unique visitors and 30 million of them logged out with a thinner pocket.