Consumer spending up during festival

Chinese consumers are enthusiastically unleashing their massive buying power during the weeklong National Day holiday, with diversified, high-quality and personalized products and services gaining traction, experts and officials said.

According to statistics from JD Daojia, an on-demand retail platform of Dada Group, sales revenue from camping supplies, sportswear and sunscreen products surged by over 360 percent, 300 percent and 260 percent, respectively, from Oct 1 to Oct 3, compared with the same period last year.

Purchases of cooking appliances skyrocketed 340 percent year-on-year, while sales of rice noodles and wafer biscuits rose by 180 percent and 130 percent, respectively, during the same period, JD Daojia data showed. In addition, lychee, coconuts and watermelon witnessed fastest growth, with their sales doubling year-on-year during the first three days of the National Day holiday.

Moreover, sales of premium and intelligent home appliances were strong. Further, the sales volume of appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines jumped by 207 percent year-on-year on Oct 1, according to Chinese retail giant Suning's Beijing branch.

China's retail sales of consumer goods are expected to hit 44 trillion yuan ($6.8 trillion) by the end of this year, an increase of about 12.5 percent from last year, said Wang Bin, deputy director of the department of market operation and consumption promotion at the Ministry of Commerce.

Wang, who made the remarks during a news conference on Sept 26 in Beijing, also said the consumption market will maintain steady growth during the National Day holiday as Chinese consumers increasingly seek personalized, high-quality, mid and high-end commodities.

"The country's consumption will continue to steadily recover in October and in the fourth quarter," Wang noted.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed from January to August, the retail sales of consumer goods amounted to more than 28 billion yuan, up 18.1 percent year-on-year, indicating an overall positive recovery trend.

Wang said more efforts should be made to accelerate the development of new types of consumption, support traditional commercial enterprises to speed up digital and intelligent transformation and encourage new business models such as smart stores and contactless delivery.

Trip.com Group, an online travel booking platform, said the number of orders for travel on the first day of the National Day holiday rose by double-digits year-on-year.

"The weeklong National Day holiday has typically been peak season for consumption, and a domestic travel boom will inject vitality," said Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.

Zhou added the upcoming Singles Day shopping carnival and the fourth China International Import Expo will contribute to shoring up consumption and promoting domestic economic recovery.