(Yicai Global) Oct. 18 -- With just 24 days left until shoppers storm China's e-commerce sites for bargains in the so-called Double Eleven event -- the world's biggest shopping festival named after Nov. 11, the day it is held -- retailers and couriers are deep in preparation.

Electric appliance store operator Suning.Com will launch Double Eleven promotions at 9,000 brick-and-mortar shops nationwide from Oct. 26. The Nanjing-based company targets record sales of CNY8 billion (USD1.1 billion) in eastern China over the 24-hour event, said Xu Lan, general manager at its Shanghai branch.

Revenue from Suning's flagship store on Alibaba Group Holding's business-to-consumer site Tmall reached CNY10.2 billion during last year's Double 11, while earnings from physical stores jumped 47 percent, data from China E-Business Research Center shows.

Total sales from the annual shopping carnival have broken records year after year since its creation in 2009. Turnover was a mere CNY50 million (USD7.2 million) then. Last year it reached CNY168.2 billion (USD24.3 billion), with transactions spanning 225 countries and regions and 90 percent of them made on mobile phones.

Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, a courier set up by Alibaba's Taobao e-commerce platform, has already launched a marketing campaign for this year's event. The Hangzhou-based company will promote overseas express services to Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.

Those packages will start out from cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Fuzhou and head to ports in Sydney, Taipei, Keelung, Singapore and Klang. After customs clearance, local partners will deliver ferry them on to their final destinations.

Editor: William Clegg