Chinese online retailers have reported record-beating sales on this year's Single's Day shopping spree, as consumers scramble for discounts and deals on the world's largest online shopping event.
As of 8:30 on Wednesday, sales at Alibaba's Tmall marketplace had hit 78.3 billion yuan(12.3 billion U.S. dollars), surpassing last year's Single's Day record of 57.1 billion yuan.
Alibaba's payment service Alipay processed 117 million transactions during the first hour of Wednesday.
Alibaba's chief rival JD.com said consumers have placed more than 20 million orders on its online marketplace as of 5:00 p.m, 70 percent of which came from mobile devices.
The online retailer said food has seen strong sales growth on Wednesday. Domestic-produced milk sold 12 times as much, while fresh food orders grew by nine times.
The retailer also revealed that televisions have so far proved the most favorable item among rural buyers.
