Commentary: "Double 11" shopping gala testifies China's robust recovery of consumption

This aerial photo taken on Nov. 8, 2023 shows robots sorting and conveying parcels at an intelligent logistics center in Deqing County, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo by Ni Lifang/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Encouraging growth in the over two-week-long "Double 11" shopping extravaganza has testified the robust recovery of China's domestic consumer market.

Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall Group on Sunday said it had recorded year-on-year growth in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), the number of orders and participating merchants, during its "Double 11" sale period from Oct. 24 to Nov. 11. The annual e-commerce shopping fiesta, also known as Double 11, culminates on Nov. 11 each year.

A total of 402 brands reached over 100 million yuan (about 13.93 million U.S. dollars) each in GMV while 38,000 brands saw a more-than-100-percent growth from the same period of 2022 as of 12:00 a.m. Saturday, according to Alibaba.

Another e-commerce giant JD.com said Sunday that its transaction volume, order volume and user engagement reached "all-time highs," noting that over 60 brands surpassed 1 billion yuan each in transaction volume and nearly 20,000 brands achieved a threefold transaction volume increase from the previous year.

Data from China's State Post Bureau shows that in the first 11 days of November, express courier delivery enterprises across the country collected about 5.26 billion packages, surging 23.22 percent from the previous year.

China's consumer market has progressed steadily along the post-COVID recovery path. Consumption has become an increasingly important engine of China's economy, which contributed 83.2 percent to the GDP growth in the first three quarters of the year, compared with 77.2 percent in the first half of the year.

Since the beginning of this year, China has rolled out a raft of measures to boost consumption across sectors including automobiles, household appliances and catering to obvious effect. For example, in the first 10 months of 2023, China's vehicle sales grew 9.1 percent year on year, with sales of new energy vehicles alone surging 37.8 percent over the same period.

Robust consumption is also reflected in foreign trade and fair activity. In October alone, the country's foreign trade rose 0.9 percent from a year earlier to 3.54 trillion yuan, ending a four-month declining streak. The sixth China International Import Expo (CIIE) saw a record high of 78.41 billion U.S. dollars worth of tentative deals reached for one-year purchases of goods and services, up 6.7 percent year on year.

As related policies continue to deliver results, demand will be further restored and expanded and China's consumption potential unleashed, which will continue to drive China's economic growth as well as that of the world.