Global logistics company Maersk says it managed 8.15 million outbound orders during China’s Singles Day e-commerce event, a 26% increase on the previous year.

Singles Day, also known as Double 11, is a retail event that encourages single people to buy themselves gifts during a promotional period in November that now lasts several weeks. 

Citing data provider Syntun, Maersk says this year’s Singles Day generated USD56 billion in sales in China. 

Maersk says its Omnichannel-Fulfillment (OCF) capabilities supported the Double Eleven retail promotions of 56 key clients, including cosmetics company Erno Laszlo and fashion label Lacoste, across 16 OCF sites in China.

The teams at the OCFs handled 8.15 million outbound orders, comprising more than 16 million pieces.

Sophy Chen, Maerk’s head of OCF China account management for Jiangsu and North China says automation, as well as meticulous preparation, planning and collaboration, allowed the company to offer integrated services across multiple verticals for the shopping event. 

“During Double Eleven, the sales volume surges to unprecedented levels, reaching more than 10 times, or even 30 times of normal volume,” Chen says. 

Erno Laszlo China supply chain associate director Kiko Xu says Maersk had supported the cosmetics company through several supply chain transformations. 

“For instance, we have transformed from a 100% B2B (business-to-business) supply chain to also having a B2C (business-to-consumer) supply chain and we can get integrated management of products and inventory sharing through cross-border and domestic supply chain integration,” Xu says.

“These innovations and changes have propelled our company's turnover from CNY300 million to CNY1.5 billion in just three years. 

“In the high-end cosmetics industry, we have stringent packaging requirements and tight delivery timelines, therefore selecting Maersk as our logistics provider for Double Eleven was a natural decision. “