The long peak hour queues in restaurants along Dongmen pedestrian street in Luohu district, a commercial and consumption hub of Shenzhen, indicates that the city’s consumption is gradually getting rid of the influences of the COVID-19 epidemic, showing resilience, potential and vitality.
According to the Shenzhen commerce bureau, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 448.5 billion yuan ($69.38 billion) in the first half of this year, up 23.2% year-on-year, markedly above the national and provincial average.
Many department stores in Shenzhen have actively built e-commerce platforms, and, over the past half a year, they have seen tremendous growth in online sales. Many retailers resort have turned to livestreaming platforms to cushion the impact of the epidemic, and have effectively increased sales.
Statistics show the online retail sales in Shenzhen increased 79.4% from January to June compared with the first half of last year.
And thanks to the government’s subsidy, the total value of retail sales of cars in the first half of this year hit 61.3 billion yuan, up 43.5% year-on-year, which contributed to 5.3 percentage points of the growth of the total retail sales of consumer goods in the city.
A survey on the night economy by JD.com, a major e-commerce platform company, indicates Shenzhen is the most vibrant city in the night economy on the Chinese mainland.
In the first half this year, the total value of retail sales of the accommodation and catering industries reached 50.56 billion yuan, up 37.1% year-on-year. Despite resurgence of the virus on May 21 and June 14, the turnover of the accommodation and catering industries in June was 8.49 billion yuan. Although it dipped from May, it still increased 3.7% compared with June last year.