Jump in online holiday spending
ONLINE spending surged during the Labor Day holiday while the nighttime economy picked up as leisure expenditure rebounded.
China UnionPay said total transactions over the five-day holiday period reached 1.57 trillion yuan (US$221 billion), up 7.7 percent compared with the three-day Qingming Festival break in early April and 16 percent higher than average weekend spending in April.
Shanghai marketing consultant Sherry He said she bought clothes and a cooking stove online.
“It’s a good opportunity to make use of the discounts for family purchases during the Labor Day break and I plan to return to the department store next week to check out more deals,” she said.
Shanghai retail conglomerate Bailian Group said sales between April 26 and May 3 had reached 1.92 billion yuan, with 290 million yuan coming from digital shops.
Bailian’s River Mall in the Pudong New Area and popular shopping malls and business districts such as the Longement Zhongshan Park Shopping Mall and Metro City Plaza in Xuhui District were among the top areas for the fastest growth in spending after 8pm, according to data from Alibaba’s lifestyle services unit.
Average spending on Alipay on the evening on May 1 in Shanghai rose 40 percent compared to late last month. The number of orders after 8pm were up 30 percent.
Nationwide, Meituan Dianping said spending at food and snacks vendors between 9pm and 2am during the first three days of May were up by more than 440 percent compared to a month ago.
Up to 91 percent of lifestyle services merchants on Meituan Dianping had returned to business as of Monday, with beauty and skincare salons and gyms seeing the biggest rebound in spending.
WeChat’s total offline payment volume during the holiday picked up 30 percent from a month ago with the fastest growing segments including entertainment, dining and retail.
Sales at Alibaba’s Freshippo stores in Shanghai were at record levels on Tuesday. More than 50 Freshippo outlets in the city usually have combined average daily sales of 50 million yuan.
Tmall said Shanghai merchants’ sales on May 5 more than doubled from the same period a year ago and the number of Taobao livestreaming hosts and viewers also doubled from Friday to Monday.
Tmall Global reported 72 percent jump in nationwide sales over the holiday, and the launch of Shanghai’s Double Five shopping season pushed sales of imported goods to soar 239 percent on May 5.
Sunscreen, beauty gadgets, home electronics and nutritional supplements were the top selling items.
JD’s overall sales during the holiday were up 45 percent year on year with the top selling categories being home appliances, sportswear, fresh food and agricultural products.
JD-backed delivery platform Dada Group said a recent livestream tie-up with Shanghai’s TV shopping program Oriental CJ attracted over 350,000 viewers. Nearly 90 percent of viewers placed orders through its digital store.