Jiangshan, a county-level city in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, achieved online retail sales 5.2 billion yuan ($745 million), a year-on-year increase of 103.8 percent.

The total amount of online retail sales in Jiangshan ranked first in Quzhou and the rate of increase ranked first in Zhejiang province.

Online sales and livestreaming product promotions have become an ideal alternative to boost the economy after the heavy impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

"I never thought I would lose money selling kiwi fruit," said Zheng Zhendong, chairman of an e-commerce company in Jiangshan which set a sales record on Alibaba's Taobao e-commerce platform.

Zheng was under great pressure when the epidemic hit local fruit sales hard. With the e-commerce park still in complete shutdown and more than 400,000 kilograms of kiwi fruit in freezers, Zheng was extremely worried.

In response to the sudden pandemic, Zheng found that local residents became increasingly health-conscious, so they quickly changed their business thinking, suspended sales of agricultural products and started selling products such as skipping ropes online. Home sports products immediately become the main sales items for the e-commerce company, and its first quarter performance grew by more than 200 percent year-on year.

The new e-commerce stores in Jiangshan contributed retail sales of more than 100 million yuan to the network in April, and are expected to contribute sales close to one billion yuan in 2020.