Zhejiang sets record during Singles Day sales

An employee picks imported goods for sale during the Singles Day shopping season at a cross-border e-commerce bonded warehouse in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, on Oct 23. [Photo/China Daily]

The Singles Day shopping season brought record-breaking logistics to Zhejiang, with the province handling 2.243 billion parcels from Oct 21 to Nov 12, according to the State Post Bureau.

Of these, 1.024 billion packages were delivered, marking a major achievement in the region's logistics capacity.

Oct 22 saw peak parcel volumes, reaching 130 million shipments — 1.6 times the daily average and the highest single-day volume of 2024. The delivery peak followed on Oct 24 with 50.5 million packages, surpassing daily averages by 1.5 times and setting a new record for single-day deliveries.

The Singles Day shopping season, or Double Eleven festival, was just a 24-hour event on Nov 11 when it was unveiled by Alibaba in 2009, but has stretched into a weekslong shopping spree. Online retailers initiated the promotional event one week earlier this year than previously.

This year marks the 15th consecutive peak season for China's postal and logistics industry, with an earlier and longer peak driven by extended e-commerce promotions. To manage this surge, the Zhejiang Provincial Postal Administration coordinated resources across the industry, scaling up workforce, infrastructure, and vehicle fleets to ensure smooth operations.

Automated delivery options, including drones and driverless vehicles, were expanded to support last-mile logistics, with new routes added across the province.