(Photo/Chinanews.cn)

Chinese commodity market experienced a sharp rise during the 2019 Spring Festival season, in which the sales of home appliances contributed a large portion.

Statistics indicated that during the 7-day Spring Festival holiday, spending on retail and food services exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($147.41 billion) for the first time, up 8.5 percent year-on-year. Smart home appliances, innovative electronic products, as well as mid-to-high end home appliances maintained rapid growth.

Integrated appliances, smart appliances, and small appliances saw explosive growth during this period with a growth rate of over 100 percent, and even 500 percent in some regions. Dishwashers, robot vacuums, smart vacuums, artificial intelligence (AI) televisions were all going for big discounts during sales events.

The sales boom during the 2019 Spring Festival could be partially attributed to new incentives for home appliances rolled out by the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments. Local governments also followed the move, issuing policies to subsidize low energy-consuming products and encouraging consumers to renew their old generations of appliances.

The rural market also served as an important engine for general growth. Before the 2019 Spring Festival, many home appliance enterprises upgraded their stores, as well as marketing methods and channels, in an attempt to expand the rural market.

Appliance retailing giants Suning and Gome, and online platforms T-mall and JD.com have all expanded the coverage of their retailing networks.

Reports confirmed that during the Spring Festival, the sales of the third- and fourth-tier markets surged by 158 percent from a year ago.

Analysts noted that though China enjoyed high market concentration, copycat and knockoff brands existed in rural and low-tier markets. However, as more Chinese people start to better their current appliances in the future, these regions will go through noticeable consumption upgrades.