China's national holiday sees strong consumer demand

HANGZHOU - China saw strong consumption during the seven-day national holiday, which concluded on Sunday, with an upsurge in online shopping, according to Alibaba, China's leading e-commerce giant, and other online retailers.

Spending on smart products was the highlight, and intelligent appliances were the most popular online products, according to data released by Alibaba's Tmall. For example, the sales of smart robots and portable translators rose 332 percent and 361 percent respectively year-on-year.

"Consumption during the national holiday was in line with Alibaba's market expectation since 2018," said Jin Ke, director of Alibaba's Taobao. "Online spending remains robust."

Chinese people also spent more money on cross-border online shopping. NetEase, China's leading cross-border e-business platform, continued its double-digit growth. Maternal and baby products, cosmetics and household products remained the best sellers. Tmall's cross-border turnover grew over 100 percent year-on-year during the holiday.

Chinese consumers pay close attention to the quality of products when placing orders. A survey of 4,000 NetEase users showed that 34 percent only buy high quality products while 66 percent consider price only after quality.

In offline shopping, Yintai department store, a famous retail chain, saw surging sales. In the first three days of the holiday, customer volume and sales of Yintai's department stores across China grew by 30 percent annually.

Freshhema's store in Hangzhou, a national seafood retail chain, welcomed 80,000 visitors on Oct 1. Total sales of Freshhema's stores across China were up over 500 percent.

In addition to food consumption, other recreational spending across China also increased. For example, money spent on indoor amusement parks rose by 50 percent.

Chinese people's spending during the holiday was geared towards younger consumers, diversified consumption and quality-driven shopping, according to Alibaba.