Express companies benefit from sales promotions

Domestic express companies like Shentong Express and YTO Express will also benefit from the Singles' Day online sales promotions, an industry insider surnamed Dou told the Global Times Sunday.

According to China Express Consulting Website, in the first half of this year, domestic express businesses generated a total of 48.9 billion yuan ($7.84 billion) in revenues, 38 percent of which was from online shopping deliveries.

However, the surge in deliveries from the Singles' Day sales promotions could also put a burden on the express companies' warehouses, forcing the companies to hire more staff and increase transportation facilities, said Dou.

Tmall planned to deliver its goods via chartered airplanes that will fly from Shanghai to Guangzhou on Sunday evening in order to let the buyers receive their goods Monday, according to Qilu Evening News.

Tmall could not be reached for comment by press time.

YTO has increased both the number of its transportation vehicles and the number of delivery staff by 30 percent, enabling the company to deal with 5 million parcels per day, 50 percent more than last year, e-commerce information provider ebrun.com said Saturday.

"On last year's Singles' Day, the parcels piled up in our warehouses in Shanghai due to the lack of staff and even our managers joined us in unloading the parcels," a member of staff at Shentong told the Global Times Sunday on the condition of anonymity, adding that the company advised its branches around the country to receive at most 300,000 parcels per day around this year's Singles' Day.

But most delivery staff hope to receive as many parcels as possible in order to make more money, the staff member said.