Closer Look: Sales Soar, but Alibaba Frets over Delivery, Time Zone Issues

(Beijing) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s annual e-commerce frenzy smashed last year's record, but company executives were not exactly ecstatic.

Instead they voiced concerns that the large number of sales its websites did on November 11 would overwhelm delivery companies and wondered how the company would grapple with rising sales in other countries.

Three minutes into November 12, Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, the capital of the eastern province of Zhejiang, announced the tally for the previous day's sales through its shopping websites Tmall and Aliexpress. The event was attended by more than 600 Chinese and foreign journalists.