First Greater Bay Area online shopping festival kicks off

The opening ceremony for the first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area online shopping festival takes place on Sept. 2. (People’s Daily Online/Liu Jieyan)

The first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area online shopping festival kicked off on Sept. 2.

The shopping event involves 298,000 brands in food, cosmetics, home appliances, and other industries from the bay area, offering more than 13 million products on Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Tmall under Alibaba Group, an organizer of the event.

Consumers in Hong Kong and Macao can buy 6 million products from the Chinese mainland online, and over 80 percent of their packages will be delivered on the next day or the third day after they place orders. Alibaba also allows cross-store orders to be shipped together and offers free shipping for orders above 199 yuan (about $30.8) in Hong Kong and 49 yuan in Macao.

The bay area ranks among the most open and economically vibrant regions in China, said an official with China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

Through the launch of the shopping festival, the bay area can fully display its distinctive national brands and innovative products, the official said, adding that the event is conducive to promoting the integration of the bay area and driving consumption upgrading.

The shopping event is being backed by MOFCOM, the Guangdong provincial government and the liaison offices of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

Along with the shopping festival, a Mid-Autumn Festival concert will be held in Shenzhen, Guangdong, on Sept. 21. Highlighting the bay area and the theme of reunion, the concert will invite filmmakers and musicians from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan province to join.