Spring Festival holiday boosts consumption
Delivery sites and online retailers have reported a strong rebound in sales with a recovery of spending in a wide range of offerings and services.
Restaurants and popular tourist destinations also welcomed eager customers.
Meituan said daily average online spending during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday for entertainment venues, restaurants and tourist locations around the country jumped 66 percent from the same period in 2019.
The amount of payments for restaurants in Shanghai topped other regions in the country, with a 240 percent surge from a year ago in the first six days of the holiday.
Delivery sites saw a rebound in consumer spending.
Sanya, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dali and Beijing were among the top cities with the most diners from out of town.
According to hotel booking data from Meituan, accommodation at popular destinations like Dali, Lijiang, Xishuangbanna was fully booked.
Popular beverage stores and teahouses saw strong growth with new year related offerings.
Heytea said Shanghai was among the top 10 cities with the most sales together with Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing and Hangzhou during the weeklong holiday.
More than one million cups of its latest seasonal offering, the Red Hawthorn Cheezo drinks, were sold around the country during the Spring Festival break.
Selected outlets even recorded a five times increase of sales compared to a week ago.
Heytea's latest Red Hawthorn Cheezo drinks indicate festive spirit and auspicious New Year greetings.
The number of searches for tourist attractions on the Alipay platform increased by more than 2 times. Consumer spending on Alipay at tourist destinations more than doubled.
The number of searches for "hotel booking" on the Alipay increased by 6 times and hotel spending on the Alipay platform increased by 80 percent, according to data from January 19 to 25.
The number of searches for "helping feed pet at my home" on the Alipay also increased by 2 times compared with that of last year.
On-demand delivery on JD.com also surged 90 percent from the same period a year earlier with many choosing gift packages for family gatherings. On New Year's Eve the value of online orders jumped 1.7 times.
Cherries turned out to be the most popular fruit for gift-giving with a more than 100 percent increase, while sales of pet food and related goods also more than doubled.
