China remains the world’s largest online retail market for the 11th consecutive year amid booming consumption recovery. China's online retail sales in 2023 recorded a year-on-year increase of 11% to reach CNY15.42 trillion, as the country's efforts to promote high-quality development of the e-commerce sector showed positive results, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in a statement. The steadily progressing digital economy contributed significantly to China's consumption in 2023, which is poised to further spur consumption in the coming year, experts said, highlighting the culture and tourism industry as a major sector sharing the dividends. Online retail sales of physical goods accounted for 27.6% of the country's total retail volume, setting a new record.
The MOFCOM statement outlined multiple new consumption trends in the service sector in 2023, including online tourism, entertainment, and catering. The three sectors together contributed 23.5% to the growth of total online retail sales last year while driving up the sector's growth by 2.6 percentage points. Specifically, online tourism sales surged by 237.5%, boosted by popular destinations such as Harbin in Heilongjiang province and Guizhou province. Harbin saw 3.05 million tourist visits during the three-day New Year's Day holidays and generated CNY5.91 billion in tourism revenue, both new records.
In addition to the direct e-commerce sales that have shored up economic growth, the continued integration of online and offline resources has also helped stimulate consumption, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times. Taking the tourism sector as an example, Zhang said that consumers are initially drawn to popular destinations through social media and will then book trips via corresponding online platforms, adding that offline consumption is further stimulated once consumers start the trips, the Global Times reports.
