New signs to be seen at the annual Double Five Shopping Festival
The 4th annual Double Five Shopping Festival will focus on new customer groups, supplies and shopping experiences, with over 300 new shopping areas and activities to be launched.
After being held for three consecutive years, the shopping festival has become a major event in Shanghai, promoting consumption and successfully creating a number of iconic events, such as the Global New Product Launch Season and the Shanghai Night Festival.
Zhu Min, director of the city's Commission of Commerce, which is a major organizer of the festival, has announced that this year's fourth session will coordinate major activities including the promotion of overseas brands, newly released products and big savings.
It's to integrate the five major areas of shopping, culture and tourism, cuisine, sports and exhibitions, encouraging consistent consumption potential and highlighting the three "news" – new customer groups, new supplies and new scenarios, Zhu said.
To attract new customers, in particular the two major customer groups of foreign visitors and younger Gen-Z shoppers, this year's festival will introduce an art season and a global cuisine festival. A series of events that appeal to young consumers, such as a nightlife festival, a digital life festival, and a coffee culture week are on the agenda.
Groups of visitors are seen at Shanghai's Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall in this file photo.
Meanwhile, campaigns promoting imported goods and new product launches are also set to take place as scheduled. Last year, Shanghai saw a total of 1,073 new flagship stores open.
In the first quarter of this year, 290 new flagship stores were established, among which a large number were international brands.
The Ministry of Commerce has designated this year as "the year to boost consumption." Under the priority of revitalizing and expanding consumption, Shanghai has deployed city-wide promotional activities throughout the entire year.
Since the beginning of the year, Shanghai's consumer market has shown a stable and warming trend.
According to data from the Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory, the total offline consumption in the city reached 261.7 billion yuan (US$38.09 billion) in March, a year on year increase of 6.9 percent and up 10.8 percent from the previous month.
The online consumption in March amounted to 136.1 billion yuan, a growth of 17.4 percent year on year, among which the online retail sales of physical goods rose 6.7 percent to 113 billion yuan.
