Although this year's Singles Day online shopping spree stayed low profile without countdowns on platforms and headlines to showcase transactions, the parcel delivery sector has still witnessed notable growth.

According to the State Post Bureau of China, 4.78 billion parcels were handled from Nov 1 to Thursday, a year-on-year increase of more than 20 percent.

On Thursday, Singles Day, the network handled 696 million parcels, a record for the amount of parcels handled in one day.

Singles Day, which falls every year on Nov 11, is China's largest annual online shopping promotion. Online retailers usually offer large amounts of coupons to boost sales on that day.