Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 20th Title: Enhancing "New Vitality" Online and Returning to "Fireworks" Offline —— Perspective of Current Consumer Market
Xinhua News Agency reporters Kong Xiangxin, Yang Na and Ning Ji.
Introduce policies to promote consumption in many places to boost consumer confidence; Merchants distribute gift packages of coupons to drive consumption vitality … Near the middle of the year, with the effective prevention and control of epidemic situation, all parts of China continue to make efforts to promote consumption. What are the positive changes in consumer demand? How much is consumer confidence boosted? Reporters went deep into markets, platforms and enterprises to find answers.
Enhance consumption power: combining short-term and medium-term policies to boost consumer confidence
At the beginning of June, Ms. Zhang, a citizen of Beijing, bought a refrigerator in Suning Store using Beijing’s green energy-saving coupons, saving 400 yuan. Since April, Beijing has launched a policy to promote green and energy-saving consumption for consumers all over Beijing, involving more than 20 kinds of electrical appliances.
Cultural tourism "spree", consumer vouchers "family bucket", green energy-saving consumer vouchers, and new energy vehicles "trade-in" … Recently, various localities have issued consumer vouchers in innovative forms and introduced policies to promote consumption, covering a wide range of categories.
In accordance with the central government’s series of arrangements for promoting stable economic development, in response to the impact of uncertainties such as the epidemic situation, various localities and departments have successively introduced measures to promote consumption, further focused on stabilizing the basic consumption, implemented relief support measures for poor industries such as catering, retail, tourism, civil aviation, highway, waterway and railway transportation, and accelerated the organic integration of online and offline consumption.
The reporter found out that many regions are introducing their own policies to promote consumption. Shanghai made it clear that 40,000 new non-operating bus licenses were added during the year; From May to August in Shenzhen, consumers will be subsidized by 15% of the sales price for purchasing eligible household appliances, with a cumulative maximum of 2,000 yuan per person; Guangdong, Fujian, Shandong and other places rely on their own endowments to support special industries such as prefabricated vegetables; Sichuan, Hainan, Fujian and other major tourist provinces have taken measures such as subsidies, coupons and theme activities to stimulate consumption vitality …
"Consumer vouchers have a significant boost to our sales." Song Huasong, president of CP Lotus Hunan Region, said, "Since June, our online sales have increased by over 250% year-on-year. The combination of government, platform and the brand’s own subsidies has made the brand’s online orders and passenger flow to the store have increased significantly. "
The experts interviewed said that at present, all localities and departments have introduced a new round of policies and measures to promote consumption, which combines short-term and medium-term policies, including the use of consumer vouchers and tax reduction subsidies to promote consumption compensation, focusing on the poor industries and enterprises that have been hit hard by the epidemic, and also using medium-and long-term policy measures to tap the potential of urban and rural consumption.
Active online and offline: promoting consumption in the middle of the year.
At the beginning of June, Zhang Man, an employee of Xtep, a domestic sports brand, looked at the constantly beating figures in the background of the store and knew that the backlog of new products in Shanghai warehouse should be saved. Zhang Man, who is in charge of the flagship store of Pinduoduo Platform, said that the number of store orders has increased by about three times in recent months compared with April and May. With the further recovery of logistics, the current express delivery volume of Shanghai Warehouse has recovered to about 90% before this year’s epidemic.
"Recently, the global consumption of the platform, including beauty, home appliances, clothing, maternal and child, agricultural and sideline products, has ushered in a significant rebound." The relevant person in charge of Pinduoduo said that many brands have accelerated the layout of flagship stores and continued to deepen cooperation with platforms.
The reporter learned that since the beginning of this year, many e-commerce platforms have introduced support policies for some small and medium-sized enterprises that have experienced pressure such as slowing sales and rising costs due to factors such as the epidemic.
JD.COM, together with a number of banks, launched preferential activities in 23 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Dalian, and distributed relevant coupons in Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Changsha.
Just after 0: 00 on the 19th, major consumers showed the "transcripts" of the "618" promotion activities: the accumulated order amount in JD.COM exceeded 379.3 billion yuan, a record high; Xiaomi’s omni-channel cumulative payment amount exceeded 18.7 billion yuan; The total live broadcast of e-commerce in Tik Tok was 40.45 million hours, and the scene of Tik Tok Mall drove sales to increase by 514% year-on-year …
Online consumption continues to be active, and offline "fireworks" are also returning. With the epidemic situation in Shanghai, Beijing and other places gradually stable and controllable, offline market players are gradually recovering.
A BYD 4s shop in Yizhuang, Beijing, has welcomed many consumers who choose to book cars. Chloe Wang, a sales consultant, said: "Recently, Beijing has introduced policies such as trade-in, which has increased the sales of new energy vehicles to a certain extent."
At present, the phased halving of vehicle purchase tax implemented by the state and the coordinated efforts of local policies such as "trade-in" have gradually activated the domestic demand for car purchase. According to the latest data from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, domestic automobile production and sales increased by 59.7% and 57.6% respectively in May.
Demand gradually improves: strengthen confidence and continuously release consumption potential.
According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods in May decreased by 6.7% year-on-year, which was 4.4 percentage points narrower than that of the previous month. With a series of policies to promote consumption taking effect, the domestic market demand is gradually improving.
According to industry analysis, this year’s epidemic fluctuation has put pressure on the supply chain. The superposition of many policies and mid-year promotion activities have increased the consumer demand of residents, reflecting that the foundation of China’s consumption recovery is still there, which has enhanced the confidence of all walks of life in promoting consumption recovery.
"As early as May, I put the things I wanted to buy in the shopping cart. After studying and comparing the prices, I felt that it was very cost-effective to buy during the promotion period, and several purchases were even’ very profitable’." Ms. Hu from Beijing said, "I am used to shopping online now. Although the epidemic has had a certain impact, the consumption needs are still there."
Xu Zhengzhong, deputy director of the Department of Economics of the National School of Administration, believes that under the background of shrinking demand and expected weakening, although the total retail sales of consumer goods in China has declined to a certain extent, the long-term fundamentals of China’s consumer market have not changed. Especially after the epidemic, there is a replenishment period, and the consumer demand suppressed by the interruption of supply chain in the past can be compensated and satisfied to some extent.
Industry analysts pointed out that boosting consumption should take multiple measures and continue to advance. On the one hand, it is necessary to implement a number of policies from the central government to the local government to stabilize growth and employment, and accurately design and implement consumption-related measures according to local conditions to ensure the effect of stimulating consumption. On the other hand, enterprises should further strengthen the research and development of goods and services to provide consumers with more high-quality goods and services. In addition, ensuring the smooth supply chain is the basis for promoting consumption, especially online consumption. It is suggested to further promote the intelligent upgrading of the supply chain of the whole industry.
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