Chinese businesses gear up for Singles' Day sales

Retailers, shopping malls and express delivery service across China have geared up for a sales boom on Singles' Day on Wednesday.

Widely recognized as the anti-Valentine's day, November 11 has become the country's biggest annual commercial holiday, Xinhua news agency reported.

China's State Post Bureau estimates that the number of express deliveries will reach 760 million from November 11-16, about 42 percent more than last year. Daily volume is expected to top 160 million.

Wang Chaobo, senior operation expert of Alibaba, China's largest online retailer, said it has expanded volume of its cloud computing system, which enables 4 million orders for a single online retailer on a daily basis.

The volume has been enlarged by 62 percent from last year, he said, adding that preparations started in June.

For the last Singles' Day sales, Alibaba raked in 57.1 billion yuan.

More than 10 million items, most of which were bought by Chinese buyers through the pre-sales scheme, have been shipped in customs clearing of the Hangzhou Economic and Technological district. Goods include food items, diapers and cosmetics from the US, Australia, South Korea and Germany.

Express delivery services like EMS, S.F. Express, Zhongtong and Yuantong have made necessary preparations for the hike of deliveries.