Singles Day a good sign for China's consumption

China's consumer market recovery is accelerating, with transactions on major shopping platforms breaking records during the 11-day "Double 11" shopping festival period this year.

Online shopping platforms have sped up integration with offline stores. This not only creates a better shopping experience for consumers, but also stimulates greater potential for the consumer market during the shopping festival period, People's Daily said.

From Nov 1 to Nov 11, Tmall and JD reported total sales revenue of 498.2 billion yuan ($74.1 billion) and order value of 271.5 billion yuan, respectively.

Suning announced its online order volume surged 72 percent year-on-year during the period, and in the first hour of Nov 11, the sales of top beauty and makeup brands increased 4.7 times compared to a year earlier. Sales of gold and jewelry, sportswear, health and nutrition products, and 5G smartphones jumped 2.6, 3.5, 2.2 and 10 times, respectively.

Intime, a traditional retail department store company, held nearly 100 offline shopping events to provide quality consumption experience to customers, with 4,740 sellers participating in more than 4,000 livestreaming sessions during the period according to People's Daily. In addition, from Nov 1 to 9 the company's 15 cloud stores' sales increased 2.5 times from the same period last year.

With logistics and distribution infrastructures improving, people in rural areas also joined the "Double 11" event to buy more high-quality industrial products. According to Tmall, the order volume of micro diggers increased 150 percent year-on-year, and transaction volume grew 140 percent year-on-year.

This year, the sales of upgraded goods, service consumption and imported produce saw rapid growth.

Auto sales also set a new record this year, with more than 13 million people looking at cars on Tmall to conclude over 330,000 orders from Nov 1 to 11.

Medical and health items have become a new hot spot. Masks, thermometers, flu vaccines and online medical consultations have become the most in-demand healthcare items at JD this year.

Middle and high-end short-distance vacations have been warmly received by the market.

The customer-to-manufacturer model was used by manufacturers to realize customization based on online customer demand data, technology, and ideas. The model helped manufacturers to promote innovation, reduce costs and strengthen areas of weakness during the shopping festival period.

According to JD, the sales of customized products through the C2M model increased 1.7 times compared to a year earlier.

This year, a total of 1.2 million merchants and 300,000 factories in China participated in the C2M process to take advantage of cost reductions and efficiency increases brought by digital transformation.

The more merchants are accelerating digital transformation to improve the consumption experience during the "Double 11" event, the greater the momentum for the consumer market to continue its improvement.