China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba Group said it recorded "robust growth" in sales and a "record number" of shoppers over this year's Singles' Day sales period, a weeks-long event that ended at midnight on Monday.

The firm did not release total sales revenue for the period but said 45 brands - including Apple, Haier, Midea and Xiaomi - each surpassed 1 billion yuan in gross merchandising value (GMV), a commonly used measurement for online sales.

JD.com, China's second biggest e-commerce company, did not disclose information about sales but reported a more than 20 percent year-over-year increase in shoppers over the event.

Data provider Syntun estimated that sales across major e-commerce platforms rose 26.6 percent to 1.44 trillion yuan over the Singles Day event, which was 10 days longer than last year's.

Originally a 24-hour online shopping event held on November 11 each year in China, the Singles' Day festival - a nod to the digits in the date - has expanded into weeks of promotions across the country's major e-commerce platforms and in brick-and-mortar stores. This year's festival, which kicked off on October 14, is the longest edition yet.

This year, larger ticket household appliances performed better than last year, benefiting from a national 150 billion yuan trade-in subsidy scheme announced in July to help boost consumption.

According to JD.com, fast-growing home and appliance categories included energy-efficient air conditioners, robot vacuum cleaners and smart toilets.

Another consumer sector seeing unexpected growth was collectible toys and hobbies, a category that includes anime, comic and gaming-related goods popular with young people in China.

According to figures from Alibaba, designer and collectible toy brands including MiHoYo, Pop Mart, Paperpresented and Jellycat surpassed 100 million yuan in GMV. (Reuters)