Online orders surge after China spring holidays

Beijing - Online retailers were overwhelmed by a flood of orders in the week following the spring holidays in China, a media report said Saturday.

They were mainly those who were unable to access online stores due to holiday closures. The spring holidays fall around Chinese Lunar New Year Jan 23.

Four employees in Shang Feike's store on Taobao, China's largest online shopping platform, had to work four hours overtime a day to pack goods and send them by courier.

"We have had about 100 orders every day after the holiday, which is almost double our normal amount," said Shang, whose store sells skin care products and cosmetics.

The store closed Jan 19 and restarted business Jan 29, the first working day after the holiday, the Global Times reported.

She said that she usually makes sure the orders placed before 5 p.m. are sent out on the same day. However, the employees still could not manage to pack all of the orders despite the extended work hours.

The sudden increase in the number of packages has also kept courier companies busier than usual.