This week, JD.com says it clocked a record high of USD$24.7bn (£18.62bn) in transactions from its recent mid-year sales event, which also marked the first time the Chinese e-commerce site integrated online, offline, and virtual shopping experiences.

Dubbed 'JD6.18', the annual sales spanned 18 days from 01 June and showcased products from 1,400 brands.

This year's event also featured pop-up stores located in 30 cities across China, which saw 43 million visits, JD.com said. One merchant, Ocean Spray Cranberries, clocked 400% more in sales during the 18-day sales festival compared to the previous month, while another, Century Mart, moved seven times more in sales than last year.

JD.com also pointed to the use of its augmented reality (AR) technology, which it said enabled online shoppers to assess how products looked on them before purchasing. For instance, 70% of consumers who purchased Johnson & Johnson's colour lenses had first tried the product using the AR Styling Station feature on JD.com's mobile app. Some 52,000 boxes of the one-day Acuvue Moist lenses were sold in just one day during the sale, it said.

JD.com added that the combination of online, offline, and virtual shopping experiences were part of its "boundaryless" retail strategy, which also tapped its smart supply chain and logistics technologies.

The e-commerce operator further noted that its logistics network was able to deliver more than 90% of the site's orders on the same or next day, including the days during the June sale. It worked with more than 110 warehouses outside of China during this year's sale, it added.

During last year's 618 sales event, JD.com clocked USD$17.6bn (£13.27bn) in transaction volume.

Meanwhile, Chinese rival Alibaba said its Tmall online marketplace also showcased 70 New Retail stores – which integrated online and offline shopping experiences – across China during its own 6.18 shopping festival from 01-18 June. These included 100,000 smart stores, Intime department stores, Hema supermarkets, and retail chain RT-Mart.

Amongst its sales highlights, Alibaba said 50 million bottles of beer and 20 million men's t-shirts were sold during the 18-day sales period, while the sales of women's jeans climbed 70% over the previous year.

Alipay Blockchain Powers Cross-Border Remittance Service

Alibaba this week also introduced a cross-border, e-wallet remittance service that it says is powered by its blockchain technology.

The launch was the result of a partnership between its e-payment business, AlipayHK, and micropayment services provider, GCash. The collaboration would enable real-time remittance services between Hong Kong and the Philippines via their respective e-wallet platforms.

Alibaba said: "This is the first blockchain-based cross-border digital wallet remittance service globally, offering a fast, secure, convenient, transparent, and low-cost way to transfer money directly between individuals in Hong Kong and the Philippines."

It said blockchain was deployed to "streamline" the remittance process, improving the delivery speed and transparency of the transfer process and slashing costs. It said the service offered lower transaction fees and enabled money to be transferred via AlipayHK's mobile app to a GCash user "within seconds".

"Based on the [blockchain-powered] smart contract, once a user submits a remittance application, all network participants, including AlipayHK, GCash, and Standard Chartered Bank – [which is] the first partner bank supporting this initiative – are notified. The segmented procedures of the remittance process can consequently take place in parallel, enabling the verification and execution of the transaction to occur simultaneously", Alibaba said.

It added that the blockchain-based platform would enable the fund's sender, as well as recipient, to track their money "every step of the way", from when the remittance application was made until the receiver successfully obtained the money. All data stored, shared, or uploaded through the remittance platform was encrypted.

Alibaba's founder Jack Ma said at the Hong Kong launch: "Blockchain technology can help overcome the challenges of security, sustainability, and inclusion."

Alipay Payment Services HK CEO Jennifer Tan said: "What used to be a long process of physically going to a remittance booth, queuing in line for hours, and filling out forms, is now easily and securely done over the mobile phone in just a few seconds. Together with GCash, we aim to provide Filipino expatriates a more convenient, seamless experience to transfer money back home to their families in the Philippines. We will also continue to provide tailor-made solutions for our customers as we aim to enhance their daily lives through our secure and fuss-free approach."This content was originally published in RetailTechNews.