(Yicai Global) Oct. 24 -- Couriers will deliver more than 1 billion packages to set a record during the Chinese Double-Eleven shopping festival, China Express Association (CEA) predicted.

Chinese delivery firms have recently announced price hikes. Some medium and small express companies as well as weak courier franchisees could face challenges in handling their deliveries during the high-volume retail event, an insider said.

Companies struggle to attract additional workers during this period -- even by offering high pay -- as a staff shortage exists in the industry.

Some e-commerce sellers who have their own logistics facilities in China have made it clear that they will not increase their prices. Guangzhou Vipshop Information and Technology Co. said that its logistics company Pinjun Holding Ltd. will not adjust express prices before or after the shopping festival. An officer at JD Logistics said that it will not change its rates and it will offer USD318 million (CNY2.1 billion) in logistics subsidies to merchants and operate its unstaffed warehouses during the period, increasing sorting and transporting efficiency by a factor of 1.5 to 1.8.

The Double-Eleven e-commerce festival that falls on November 11 (11/11) is also known as Singles' Day. It started as a counter-Valentine's Day male students at Nanjing University pioneered in the 1990s to protest and resist societal pressure to marry. They may have taken their inspiration from the four single digits in the date, which is the prevailing, if erroneous view as to the origin of the term. The celebration has since evolved into China's Black Friday.