China's express delivery industry expects to surpass 860 billion yuan in revenue this year, with the industry reaching its peak in the middle of this year, People's Daily reported on Monday.

According to the State Post Bureau, China's express delivery firms handled 7.38 billion parcels in May, surging 41.1 percent from one year earlier, with their business revenues rising 24.9 percent year-on-year to 77.19 billion yuan. Moreover, the business volume expanded 38.4 percent from the same period last year to 181.25 billion yuan.

The seasonal agricultural products sold online, boom in e-commerce livestreaming, and online mid-year sales promotion are the reasons behind express delivery business setting a new record, the newspaper said, citing industry experts.

The e-commerce platforms and deliver companies have provided important help for the sale of agricultural products since the beginning of the year, and the new rural business also drove the industry to usher in a new growth point.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, some deliver firms have launched businesses to help famers sell products, and also have obtained a lot of shipping orders.

The deliver firm Best Express offers sales channels and convenient transportation to farmers in more than 30 regions of China with its earnings reaching over 43 million yuan. Deppon Express has signed contracts to provide cold-chain transportation for growers to sell fruits

As China's consumption model accelerates transformation, and the large consumer demand accumulated during the epidemic is released online, the development momentum of delivery industry will be further strengthened, said an industry insider.

In addition, with the express network expanding, the delivery service quality optimizing, and the terminal delivery methods diversifying, the online consumption experience will be greatly improved, the industry insider added.

The boom in livestreaming is heating up the consumer market, which is also conductive to the express delivery industry.

The size of e-commerce livestreaming in China will double in 2020 from a year earlier, to surpassed 900 billion yuan, which will bring massive demands to express delivery, according to iMedia Research, a mobile Internet consulting firm.

The State Post Bureau said the business volume of express delivery industry would be over 74 billion parcels, and the revenue would surpass 869 billion yuan in 2020.

The logistics industry is also actively exploring livestreaming to sell products. Recently, Lai Meisong, chairman of Shanghai-based ZTO Express, tried out livestreaming with sales reaching 15 million yuan.

JD Logistics also carried out livestreaming and saw orders increasing. Recently, the company held four livestreaming sessions and obtained nearly 20,000 orders with the turnover reaching 1 million yuan.

The shopping spree ignited consumers' enthusiasm, and also drove rapid growth in express delivery industry.

At recent online shopping festival initiated by several government departments, the sales hit 380 billion yuan.

The express enterprises have taken measures to respond to logistics peak from the online mid-year sales promotions.

SF Express said its per day business volume saw a year-on-year increase of 150 percent during mid-year sales promotion period, and it had taken some technologies such as intelligent storage, terminal, voice, and map to ensure its service quality during the logistics peak.

STO Express launched fast delivery business from March with its overnight delivery rate reaching 96 percent after final payment during "618" online shopping festival from June 1 to June 18 this year.