China’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba has said over a million orders were placed and paid through voice command through Tmall Genie, the smart speaker created by Alibaba A.I. Labs on 11.11.

According to the e-commerce giant, 810,000 eggs, 1.4 million tons of rice and 76 tons of liquid detergent were sold through voice shopping on  its platforms in the recent Singles Day, also known as 11.11.

In total, RMB268.4 billion (US$38.4bn) of gross merchandise volume (GMV) was recorded by Alibaba at the end of its first 11.11 without its recently retired founder, Jack Ma.

This is an increase of 26% compared to 2018 and helped by more than 200,000 participating brands that launched more than a million new products just for 11.11.

“As the number one smart speaker in China, Tmall Genie has become an essential part of many families’ daily life,” said Miffy Chen, the general manager of Alibaba AI Labs.

“As we continue to enhance the product features and increase the offering of infotainment services – from entertainment and news to children’s books, food delivery and elderly care, we hope the use of a virtual assistant will help people across age groups to embrace a digital life that is simple, fun, informed and connected.

Alibaba claimed over 40% of Tmall Genie users have tried voice shopping, while research from Euromonitor concluded that Tmall Genie is ranked as the number one brand in terms of sales volume of smart speakers in the first three-quarters of China.

This is after Euromonitor found a total of 10.47m Tmall Genie units were sold during the first three quarters of this year, accounting for a 38% market share in China, which saw the total sales of smart speakers reaching approximately 27.56 million units in the same period.

In the third quarter of 2019, Tmall Genie recorded over three million sales units, making it the most popularly purchased smart speaker brand in China for three consecutive quarters.

A brand that has integrated voice ordering and delivery capabilities within Tmall Genie is Starbucks, which means customers will now be able to order Starbucks beverages and food by using their voice for delivery within 30 minutes.