Global Times: By creating a variety of new shopping patterns during long holidays, retail market to get a boost: experts

BEIJING, Jan. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- New terms such as the "goods economy," ice and snow tourism festival, small-town charm, "wellness tea" and healing classes are making headlines and becoming focal points for businesses to capitalize on the upcoming Chinese Spring Festival which falls on January 29.

The incessant emergence of new consumption models in China is actually fueling another year of sustainable economic growth, analysts said.

Putting on new dresses for the holidays symbolizes a fresh beginning to 2025. As the younger generation embraces a cultural heritage with growing confidence, celebrating the New Year in traditional Hanfu has become a vibrant and adorable way to experience the impending festival season.

"I usually opt for Chinese-style clothing during holidays. Many brands have released special Spring Festival collections, and I'll choose similar styles to wear during the holidays," Bin Yanping, a fan of neo-Chinese-style clothing, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Based in Xi'an city, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Bin is a regional manager for a French footwear brand. When traveling abroad for business, she often opts for Chinese-style clothing.

"Wearing items with iconic Chinese elements is a powerful expression of confidence and national pride," Bin told the Global Times.

New Year celebrations

During the first Spring Festival after winning the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status, donning a traditional Chinese dress, feasting friends and guests, and joining a series of Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations have become the top choices for many in China.

Culturally rich destinations such as Quanzhou in East China's Fujian Province, Chaozhou in South China's Guangdong Province, and Datong in North China's Shanxi Province have seen a surge in tourist popularity, according to data from online travel agency Trip.com.

And, it is worth noting that 2025 marks the peak of the solar activity cycle, offering good opportunities to see the aurora in northern places where it was previously rare. As a result, "domestic aurora trip" has become highly popular among young people.

Online bookings for trips to Mohe in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has seen increase of 17 percent, while Altay in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has seen increase of 67 percent, Trip.com data showed.

Also, immersive experiences, digital consumption and personalized customization are highlights of the coming Spring Festival shopping season, Zhang Yi, CEO of the iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday.

A wave of the ongoing technological revolution is sweeping across industries and transforming the society, creating new ways for digitalization and socializing. Regarding the consumption sector, the global landscape is undergoing profound changes, fundamentally reshaping consumer behavior and preferences.

At the same time, the relationship between business brands and consumers is experiencing unprecedented transformation and change, Zhang explained. Interest-driven consumption has become a major driving force for the younger generation.

Factors such as product aesthetics, collaborative IP designs, commodity functionality, and elements of Chinese cultural trends have all emerged as key considerations for the young generation while shopping, Zhang noted.

Consumption trends

Nowadays, shopping districts and tourist attractions across the country are tapping into Chinese people's emerging consumption trends, competing to offer specified products and services.

An ice-and-snow travel photography-themed train recently made its debut. On the K5197 train from Heilongjiang Province's Harbin to Yabuli, passengers dressed in vibrant outfits and enjoyed travel photography experiences in uniquely themed carriages, according to a statement sent to the Global Times by China Railway Harbin Group on Sunday.

The train features a variety of cultural settings such as Harbin Street scenes, European-style charm, fantasy adventures, ice and snow encounters, and folk culture. And, the train offers a variety of travel photography outfits - Chinese or Western, traditional or futuristic -- all provided to the passengers free of charge.

Traditional industries are embracing these new opportunities too. For instance, a jewelry distributor with over 30 stores across the country has seen impressive sales of its traditional craft jewelry series, a collection of neo-Chinese-style gold jewelry, which now makes up more than 60 percent of their total sales, despite their relatively high prices.

"Neo-Chinese-style has become a prominent selling point in the market. An increasing number of young customers are opting for the latest chic, which will remain a key focus of our development, both in the past couple of years and moving forward," the distributor, who asked not to be named, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Home consumption is a vital and indispensable engine in driving the country's economic development, which still has a bigger potential to tap in the country, Zhang said.

The Central Economic Work Conference convened in December noted that more efforts are needed for innovating diversified consumption scenarios, expand services consumption, and promote the development of cultural tourism in China.

Pan Helin, a member of the Expert Committee for the Information and Communication Economy under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, echoed the sentiment that Chinese New Year presents a perfect opportunity to ramp up consumption. By creating a wide variety of new consumption patterns during the coming long holidays, the retail market is to be reactivated.

This article first appeared in the Global Times: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202501/1326304.shtml