The weeklong holiday of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, is not only an important occasion for family reunions but also a peak season for consumption.
Shenzhen’s online and offline consumption reached 19.7 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion) during this year’s holiday that ended Sunday, according to data released by the city’s commerce bureau Monday.
With strict pandemic measures in place and sufficient goods supplies, alluring discounts and shopping coupons offered by e-commerce platforms, brick-and-mortar shopping malls and commercial banks boosted residents’ enthusiasm to shop throughout the holiday.
Catering consumption accounted for 18 percent of the total. The city’s recent COVID-19 flare-up led to the contraction of group meal consumption at restaurants, while prepared foods consumption went up as more people chose to stay put for the celebration, holding reunion dinners at home on Chinese New Year’s Eve.
It is a tradition for Chinese families to sit down together for a big dinner on Lunar New Year’s Eve, with some spending a long day cooking meals or going out to restaurants.
Data showed local residents’ spending on nianhuo, or New Year’s goods, remained robust, with daily necessities and clothing consumption contributing 24.11 percent and 16.9 percent, respectively, to the total.
To purchase and wear new clothes is one of the oldest traditions in the Chinese Spring Festival celebrations. This is symbolically in line with many other aspects of the festival, which emphasize the idea of change, new beginnings, and ridding of the old.
The consumption of jewelry, home appliances and automobiles demonstrated a strong growth momentum, with a year-on-year increase of 18.06 percent, 330.24 percent and 33.45 percent, respectively.
A new consumption trend — the night economy — also boomed across the city, up 7.87 percent year on year.
Futian District boasted the largest proportion of consumers, followed by Nanshan District, data showed.
People aged 35 to 44 were leading consumers, whose consumption payments accounted for 35 percent of the total. Of all consumers, 54.32 percent were male and 45.68 percent were women.