Hard at work on "Double Eleven" day [Photo by Liu Liyang in Nanyang Daily]

"Double Eleven", an annual shopping spree initiated by Alibaba over a decade ago, has enabled online shopping platforms to thrive.

The Nanyang branch of China Postal Express & Logistics lent a hand in this year's express services.

The Postal Express staff worked hard on deliveries after the Double 11 shopping festival to ease pressure during the delivery peak.

As e-commerce products delivery pressure drastically increased during the "Double 11" (Nov 11) shopping craze, the Nanyang logistics staff were not idly standing by.

Alibaba Group, which initiated the shopping carnival in 2009, had already netted 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) worth of gross merchandise volume on November 11 by just after midnight.

Enthusiasm for online shopping in China was vibrant once again during the Singles Day shopping extravaganza, which falls on Nov 11 each year, as merchants and e-commerce platforms accelerated efforts to launch more tailor-made merchandise and use livestreaming product promotions.

E-commerce has become a key driver in China’s retail sector. Nov 11, and e-commerce in general, is much more than an avenue for selling products. The Singles Day shopping gala, which is also the world's busiest online shopping day, has generated more online sales than the total revenues of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States combined.

Singles Day uses the date Nov 11, or 11/11, to symbolize the solitariness of the four digits to represent being uninvolved in a relationship.