Alibaba said it sold 2.1 billion items on its marketplaces over the course of its new Ali Chinese New Year Shopping Festival, which ran Jan. 17 through Jan. 21.
The e-commerce giant, which posted a 34.5 percent surge in sales for its most recent quarter, has been promoting the New Year’s shopping event in the hopes of re-creating the success it has seen with Singles’ Day in November.
The company said the new sales event aims “to make international goods more accessible to rural Chinese shoppers while promoting the sale of agricultural products in the country’s big cities.” As reported, Alibaba placed a large emphasis on the development of its business in rural areas in 2015 and it plans to continue those efforts as well as expand its influence in major cities like Beijing.
Alibaba did not disclose gross merchandise volume figures for the sales event but it specified that apparel was the best-selling product category among rural buyers. It also said that sales of food and clothing accounted for more than half of all sales. Alibaba said that 70 percent of all orders were completed on mobile devices.