The Double-Twelve shopping festival looks to be facing an awkward situation, as many consumers are finding themselves in a pinch. Coming right after several major year-end shopping sprees, that extra money for impulse buying... it's hard to find. Events like double-eleven and Black Friday have left consumers with empty pockets.

So this time the shopping festival has heavily shifted its focus from online buying, to retail locations and physical stores as an alternative.

2 million sellers have joined the festival, with half of them having an actual store location. Over the past three years, the number of physical stores participating in the double-twelve festival has gone up from 20 thousand to 1 million.

In every two super markets, four shopping malls, or ten restaurants, there is one that has joined this year's festival.

And in 2015, sales numbers reached 90 billion yuan on this very day, with this year's sales likely to surpass that figure.