Xiaomi sold nearly 1.2 million phones during China’s 24-hour sales bonanza

November 11 saw a new record for the world’s biggest shopping day as Alibaba’s shoppers spent US$9.3 billion in 24 hours on the company’s two main ecommerce marketplaces, Tmall and Taobao. The top Tmall brand store on that sales bonanza day was Xiaomi, the budget smartphone maker. Today Xiaomi revealed that it saw a record high of 1.16 million phones sold during China’s Singles Day event.

Along with Xiaomi’s other gadgets, such as its new MiBand fitness tracker, Xiaomi pulled in RMB 1.56 billion – that’s US$254 million – in sales volume in that 24-hour period. The figure is well up from Singles Day in 2013 when Xiaomi’s customers spent US$89 million.

Xiaomi points out that it was China’s top-selling phone, TV, tablet, wearable, and a few other first-place distinctions during the day of discounts. Xiaomi discounted its new Mi4 smartphone by a relatively small amount compared to some other brands’ products on Singles Day, dropping it from US$325 to US$293.

In an open letter posted in English to Twitter, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun said the blowout performance “highlights our supply chain, logistics, and customer service prowess.” Xiaomi generally only sells its devices in limited flash sales – typically in batches of about 200,000 – so as to ensure it only manufactures what it’s sure to sell.

Open letter from CEO Lei Jun: "It's only the beginning of an amazing journey & we're aiming for the stars!" pic.twitter.com/Bptk0jLiGC

— Mi (@xiaomi) November 13, 2014

So Xiaomi’s big Singles Day sale shows that the company is capable of making a lot more phones when it needs to – which actually might annoy potential customers in other countries such as India where stock has been frustratingly short.

See: How Lenovo’s Motorola acquisition could help it take on Xiaomi