Shanghai launches consumption campaign

Shanghai officially launched a massive consumption-boosting campaign on Monday as merchants gave shopping coupons to spur spending and resuscitate the economy temporarily hampered by the novel coronavirus.

Dubbed "May 5 Shopping Festival", the fair attended by the city's Party Chief Li Qiang also kicked off the Global Promotion Convention of Shanghai as an international shopping magnet.

The event, under the municipal government, will run through the entire May and June, spanning key festivals such as Labor Day, Children's Day, and the Dragon Boat Festival.

"During this critical period of rebooting the economy, we decide to host this festival covering all online and offline businesses …… to unlock consumption potential and boost consumption confidence," said Acting Mayor Gong Zheng during the opening ceremony.

Business executives from 20 companies including Tesla, L'Oreal, Alibaba and Tencent also shared their special offerings throughout the gala.

Joined by commercial enterprises, e-commerce platforms and major local brands, the shopping spree will see more than 130 key campaigns and over 700 special activities.

Retailer Suning.com Co Ltd has promised to hand out 2 billion yuan worth of vouchers to consumers in Shanghai, and offer a string of perks like installments and online-to-offline shopping, said vice-chairman Sun Weimin.

It will also invite vendors and shopping assistants to recommend merchandise via livestreaming, where hosts talk in front of a phone camera and promote products (usually with discounts) that customers can purchase via their mobile gadgets in real time.

Also jumping on the livestreaming bandwagon is e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, which pledged to host 10,000 broadcasting sessions throughout the campaign.

The platform offers discounts and distributing large-sum shopping coupons involving 1,000 local lifestyle brands and 420,000 Shanghai-based merchants on Taobao and Tmall. Company data showed that the number of orders placed by Shanghai-based customers during the first three days of the Labor Day holiday have already jumped 2.4 times compared with a year ago.

Shanghai has maintained its position for three years in a row as the nation's top city for sales of consumer goods. In 2019, the metropolis reported total sales revenue of 1.35 trillion yuan in consumer products, according to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

In the first quarter, however, retail sales plunged 20.4 percent year-on-year, totaling 306.03 billion yuan. Online sales bucked the overall trend, surging 4.4 percent to stand at 54.3 billion yuan in the first quarter.