Chinese consumers spend nearly 700b yuan during nationwide online shopping festival

BEIJING -- Chinese consumers spent 692.8 billion yuan (about $107.22 billion) over the course of a 15-day online shopping festival, official data shows.

This represents a year-on-year growth of 26.7 percent, commerce ministry spokesperson Gao Feng told a regular press conference on Thursday.

The online shopping festival, jointly launched by the Ministry of Commerce and other offices, is a nationwide campaign designed to boost quality consumption.

The sales revenue of physical commodities surged 25.9 percent year-on-year to 562 billion yuan during the festival, with Chinese brands accounting for 73.8 percent of total sales, the data shows.

Sales of travel packages soared 330 percent from a year ago during the online festival, and catering services sales surged 51.1 percent.