Offline shopping leads vigorous spending over holidays

Consumption in Shanghai grew vigorously during the seven-day National Day holiday, with a notable recovery in offline shopping.

The robust consumption was boosted by recent promotions during the autumn shopping and tourism festival, including over 200 featured activities since September, said the city's commission of commerce.

The city's total spending between October 1 and October 7 was 76.588 billion yuan (US$11.87 billion), surging 16 percent from a year earlier and 12.8 percent higher than in the same period in 2019 – before COVID-19 – according to data from the Shanghai Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory.

Offline consumption totaled 51.10 billion yuan, soaring 23.4 percent year on year and up 11.3 percent from two years ago, with the monitored 36 commercial districts attracting over 6.37 million visits, a significant rebound.

Online spending topped 25.49 billion yuan, an increase of 3.5 percent year on year and up 16.2 percent from the same period in 2019.

Among the hottest commercial areas during the holiday were Nanjing Road W., Nanjing Road E. and Lujiazui, which saw the highest volumes.

Approximately 12.48 million visitors from outside the city contributed a total of 12.77 billion yuan of spending in Shanghai, 10.1 percent higher than a year earlier and, accounting for about 25 percent of the overall offline spending.