Fresh steam is being added to China’s Spring Festival spending spree.
The Spring Festival, the most important traditional festival of the Chinese people, is not only an occasion for family reunion but also a time for binge shopping. Now, with digital technology enabling high penetration of mobile payments and e-commerce, as well as highly efficient smart logistics, infinite possibilities for shopping sprees are possible during the Spring Festival, which this year fell on January 29.
An American buyer in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, pays for her purchase using Alipay, on July 5, 2024.
New Consumption Scenario
At the 29th Spring Festival Shopping Fair held in the National Agricultural Exhibition Center in east Beijing, a dazzling assortment of goods were on display in each booth, where a QR code for mobile payment provided immediate access. Vendors said the proliferation of digital payment methods brought them increased foot traffic as well as boosting sales. “In the past, we only took cash or bank cards. Today, shoppers come and make purchases by scanning a QR code. This makes the transaction very fast,” said a vendor.
According to Xue Yan, founder of the shopping fair, sales at this year’s event were cashless. “Flexible payment methods have spurred people’s shopping enthusiasm,” Xue said.
Her sentiments were echoed by Wei Wei, a manager at the fair. “The use of digital payments at the fair has created a more convenient shopping experience for consumers and helped vendors enhance transaction efficiency,” he said.
Traditional culture and modern technology intersected at the fair, providing a clear example of this trend across China. Alipay, a leading Chinese mobile payment service provider, asked its users to collect cards featuring Spring Festival blessings on its platform, attracting over 100 million participants. With Alipay service, a shopper is able to finish payment by having their phone contact an NFC (Near Field Communication) device, using a wireless technology that lets two devices connect when they are brought within a few centimeters of each other. In addition, on WeChat, the widely used Chinese messaging app by Tencent, over 200 million virtual red envelopes used for Chinese New Year greetings were exchanged on the eve of the Spring Festival.
“Digital payments have changed people’s consumption patterns. It improves transaction efficiency, reduces the use of cash, and makes payments safer and more convenient,” said Hong Yong, an associate researcher on e-commerce at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Meanwhile, China is supporting cross-border payment platforms through privacy protection, development of e-wallets, technology for payment risk identification and authentication of foreign users’ IDs. This makes cross-border consumption more convenient and efficient. Statistics show that during the 2024 Spring Festival, the number of overseas payment transactions made by Alipay users was 107 percent up from 2019, and the transaction value increased 140 percent year-on-year.
In partnership with China UnionPay, WeChat Pay has established cooperation with multiple overseas payment service providers, enabling users from several countries and regions to pay via the platform. This service has made it easier for foreigners to pay for purchases in China, and help attract more foreign tourists to China.
Hong said digital payments should be further enhanced in future Spring Festival shopping scenarios. For example, the payment procedure can be better optimized and payment methods can be diversified for better user experience, which will make payments more user friendly for the elderly.
A salesperson displays quick-dry ski clothes in a livestreaming from Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, on January 21, 2025.
Booming E-commerce Consumption
“Dear friends, we are on site at the shopping fair. Click our live streaming channel and get a special discount. We ensure you that only the best products are for sale.” This was the rallying cry from sales reps promoting agricultural products in front of phone cameras at the third Spring Festival shopping fair at the Xinfadi farm market in Beijing.
Their efforts were obviously working as orders on the live streaming channels were on the rise.
Data from the Xinfadi farm market showed that more than 30 categories of farm products were put on live-streaming marketplace. In-depth cooperation with logistics and shipment businesses was done to ensure such products arrive on consumers’ tables in the shortest time possible.
Much of the credit for convenient online shopping experiences goes to rapidly developing e-commerce and robust policy support from the government. “During the festival shopping season, e-commerce makes shopping easier, expands sales channels, and promotes customized consumption,” said Hong. In recent years, the government introduced a raft of policies to support the development of e-commerce. For example, a special e-commerce law went into effect on January 1, 2019, providing legal guarantees for the rights of customers, as well as the healthy development of this sector in the long run. The government also encourages e-commerce businesses to contribute to poverty alleviation endeavors by offering financial subsidies to farm products sold on e-commerce platforms.
The Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2024 encouraged more efforts to boost consumption and spur domestic demand. It called for the implementation of a special operation for boosting consumption and encouraging innovation of diversified consumption scenarios to improve people’s buying power and will to shop.
This means new support for the development of e-commerce platforms. Accordingly, new digital marketing initiatives were introduced which further drove the growth of consumption during the Spring Festival. Yiwu, a global trading hub of small commodities in east China’s Zhejiang Province, launched special sales campaigns targeting foreign markets of the United States, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. JD.com, one of China’s leading B2C e-commerce platforms, offered special packages of reunion dinner on Spring Festival Eve. Meanwhile, it ensured all the online orders were delivered on the same day of ordering. Thanks to this initiative, the e-commerce platform saw skyrocketing online orders for fresh produce during the Spring Festival holiday. On Pinduoduo, another online retailer, some farm produce logged record daily sales of one million orders.
Back in June 2024, nine central departments including the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) released measures for promoting exports via e-commerce and building overseas fulfillment centers. The document injected new impetus into the development of cross-border e-commerce businesses. During the Spring Festival, red envelopes and lanterns sold well among online shoppers from Southeast Asia and North America on Alibaba.com, the international version of Alibaba’s online marketplace. Traditional Chinese style clothing and Spring Festival decorations were also popular on Shein in North American and European markets. Overall, Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms showed strong competitiveness in overseas markets.
Two volunteers livestream from Liaocheng, Shandong Province, to help farmers sell strawberries, on January 13, 2025.
Smart Logistics
Highly efficient logistics systems were the key to ensuring pleasant online shopping experiences during the Spring Festival. In the warehouse of Jingping Comprehensive Fulfillment Base in Mafang Township in northeast Beijing’s suburban Pinggu District, smart package sorting robots sorted fresh strawberries and salted meat and packed them independently.
According to Zhang Jiao, deputy town mayor of Mafang, Pinggu District is emerging as the logistics center of the capital city. Logistics and warehousing facilities already completed or under construction, have reached 3.1 million square meters. Automatic warehousing systems and robots for moving and sorting packages are also widely applied in Pinggu. “This improves shipment service quality, making it more efficient and faster. Residents in Beijing can enjoy convenient online shopping during the Spring Festival,” Zhang said.
Logistics businesses across the country are adopting intelligent equipment to improve shipment efficiency. In Asia’s largest fulfilment center owned by JD.com in Zhengzhou Economic Development Zone in central China’s Henan Province, a smart sorting system made it possible for consumers to have their orders delivered in half a day even during the Spring Festival.
“In a traditional fulfillment center, procedures are complicated and time consuming. It is also hard to track the shipment in real time. With smart technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) and big data, loading, warehousing and tracking of packages can be automated. The fulfilment of an online order is much faster,” said Gan Jiahua, a senior researcher at the Transport Planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport.
Leading cross-border logistics businesses have taken active steps to ensure continuity of international shipment services. JD.com maintained normal operation of its around 40 tax-free fulfilment centers in China, and its overseas fulfilment centers were also at optimum operation to satisfy the needs of shoppers. Companies like China’s SF International offers courier, warehousing, custom clearance and package return services worldwide. It provides sellers with a one-stop customized logistics solution to ensure smooth operation of their cross-border selling.
Gan said overseas fulfillment centers make it possible to manage stocks in a centralized manner and deliver goods fast. “They lower shipment costs and improve customer experience,” he said. Big data helps sellers make well-informed decisions so that they can understand market demand accurately, while optimized logistics networks enable the sellers to implement better shipment strategies, and make shipments more efficient and accurate.
With the advancement of digital technology and its wider application in more scenarios, the digital economy will unleash greater potential in more areas, bringing more surprises and greater convenience to people’s consumption during future Spring Festivals. In the end, this will inject more vitality into the traditional festival.
“In 2025, technological innovation and service upgrading will be highlighted in the development of the digital economy, particularly in areas of artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing,” Hong said. For traditional festivals like the Chinese New Year, digital innovation enables more accurate marketing, more customized service recommendations and more intelligent supply chain management, all of which will help better satisfy consumers’ demand.
“With continuous technological innovation and service upgrading, the competitiveness of the Chinese economy will be enhanced globally. This will lay a solid foundation for comprehensive high-quality development of the Chinese economy and the improvement of new quality productive forces,” added Hong.
