THE STATE POST BUREAU has estimated that after this year's Singles Day shopping gala on Friday, 1 billion parcels will be delivered and the number of daily express parcels delivered will total 240 million at the peak. In Beijing alone, the number of parcels delivered is expected to peak at 25 million a day. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Monday:

Tmall, Alibaba's answer to Amazon, reportedly sold goods online worth 120 billion yuan ($17 billion) on Singles Day. Such figures make people think online shopping is the way to release the huge potential consumption in China.

But, as a matter of fact, in the face of people's increasing willingness to consume, the current e-commerce model is not in its ideal state as it ignores the potential of offline shopping.