Chinese consumers showed strong demand for imported goods during the recent June 18 shopping carnival, snapping up quality goods ranging from skin care products to watches and surfboards. Data from e-commerce giant JD showed that the transaction volume of 325 brands on JD Worldwide, its cross-border platform, surged more than 100% year-on-year in the first 10 minutes of the final promotion that kicked off at 8 pm on June 17. Sales of products in JD’s virtual national pavilions, covering overseas brands from more than 90 countries, skyrocketed 368% year-on-year during the brief period. Imported sunscreen sales jumped 360%, luxury watches 170% and infant formula milk 200% on a yearly basis, JD said. According to Tmall Global, the cross-border e-commerce site of Alibaba Group, the turnover of 419 new foreign brands doubled in the first four hours of its promotional campaign. More than 40,000 overseas brands participated in this year’s June 18 shopping promotion.
Foreign brands of skin care products, surfboards, cycling equipment, wine sets and healthcare goods witnessed strong growth during the shopping extravaganza, which now spans about three weeks. “Chinese consumers have demonstrated increasing demand for diversified, personalized and niche overseas products that represent new lifestyles, and are paying more attention to the value of the products they buy,” said Zhang Zhouping, Senior Analyst on business-to-business and cross-border activities at the Internet Economy Institute. Zhang said that cross-border e-commerce has played a significant role in enriching product supply, bolstering the development of new business models and promoting the recovery of consumption. He called for greater efforts to further optimize the list of imported retail goods for cross-border online purchases.
China’s imports of consumer goods reached CNY1.93 trillion in 2022, accounting for 11% of total imports and more than double the amount in 2012, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). A report from JD’s Consumption and Industry Development Research Institute said that sales of imported products on JD’s online marketplaces increased 50% between January and May compared with the same period in 2020, with the categories of imported products soaring 114%. Personal care, cosmetics and skin care products, food and beverages, and maternity and infant products are the categories of imported products most favored by Chinese consumers. People between the ages of 26 and 35 are the main consumers of imported products, accounting for 45% of buyers. Consumers in the 46 to 55 age group have contributed to the fastest growth in purchases of imported products. While residents living in first-tier cities remain the primary purchasers of imported products, consumers in lower-tier markets have shown a growing interest in buying such commodities, according to the report, as reported by the China Daily.
