Online retail sales in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, amounted to 3.068 billion yuan ($472 million) during the 618 online shopping festival which took place from June 1 to June 18 this year, local media reported, citing statistics from the Huzhou municipal bureau of commerce.

The figure also represented an uptick of 9.4 percent when compared with the same period last year.

During the shopping spree, a total of 84.95 million pieces of commodities from the city were sold online, with maternal and infant products, home furnishings and clothing being the top three bestsellers.

Wuxing district generated 1.755 bilion yuan during the shopping festival, the highest among all districts in Huzhou. The figure accounted for 57.2 percent of the city's total and was a year-on-year increase of 21.71 percent.

Meanwhile, Nanxun district, Deqing county and Changxing county registered double-digit growth in sales compared with last year.

Nanxun issued 2.53 million yuan worth of coupons during the festival to spur local consumption.

Ten enterprises saw their online retail sales exceed 5 million yuan during the festival, two more than the same period last year.

Livestreaming proved to be an effective tool for both online and offline stores to seek business growth.

Official statistics show that 46,000 commodities were promoted via livestreaming promotions, which garnered more than 100 million viewers and 200 million yuan in sales.