Chinese e-commerce platform JD said it hit a record high in merchandise volume and ??? ???? ??????? ????????order numbers for its recent mid-year shopping event 618, though it failed to provide specific figures. The company said more than 500 million users shopped via JD during the online festival, which began on the evening of May 31, adding that customers had responded positively to its theme of “cheap and good” this year. Small merchants serve as a common focus for JD and rival Taobao during the event, with the former saying that more than 150,000 such sellers saw their sales grow by over 50%. Alibaba’s marketplace provided similar data, with 1.9 million small- and medium-sized merchants on Taobao experiencing double their turnover year-on-year as of June 18, according to the company. [JD, in Chinese]