Two hosts promote goods on online streams in Huzhou during the 2020 Singles Day shopping festival. [Photo/WeChat account:huzhoufabu]

Official data from the Huzhou municipal bureau of commerce shows that the city's online retail sales reached 82.19 billion yuan ($12.64 billion) in 2020, a year-on-year growth of 26 percent.

Online consumption of local residents amounted to 47.49 billion yuan, a yearly uptick of 11.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the city's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume stood at 14.95 billion yuan, up 100.9 percent year-on-year.

Livestreaming has emerged as an effective approach for local enterprises to promote products online.

In the Yongxing cross-border e-commerce industrial park in Zhili town, Wuxing district, more than 100 children's wear enterprises have tapped the boom in livestreaming to generate handsome profits.

Zhao Jun, general manager of the industrial park, revealed that the park's sales volume last year registered a year-on-year rise of about 30 percent.

Statistics show a total of 138,400 livestreaming sessions were hosted in Huzhou in 2020, generating 6.66 billion yuan worth of online sales, up 158.5 percent year-on-year.

In April last year, Huzhou received approval from the State Council to establish a comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce.

The city has already inaugurated the facilities, which include a cross-border e-commerce public, to better serve enterprises in the sector.

In mid-September, a total of 17 markets nationwide, including Huzhou (Zhili) children's clothing and consumer goods trading management center, were designated as national pilot zones for market procurement trade.