Chinese spend generously on Women's Day with signs of compensatory consumption
Global Times
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A distribution robot enters a residential area to deliver packages in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Feb. 7, 2020. (File photo: Xinhua)

Chinese people are ready to spend generously on Sunday, the Women's Day, after being forced by coronavirus to spend recent festivals like the Spring Festival and Valentine's Day in an unusually thrifty way, showing, what experts called, the early signs of compensatory consumption as the virus fades and businesses resume in China. 

The impulse for compensatory consumption could push China's overall online sales on the Women's Day up by about 20 percent compared with last year, as the Women's Day is gradually turning into another Double 11-like online shopping carnival in China, Chinese e-commerce analyst Lu Zhenwang told the Global Times. 

"Due to the coronavirus outbreak, consumption, including online shopping activity has almost halted throughout February, and now the time has come for the suppressed consumption to be set off. The Women's Day provides a vent to unleash such a mood," Lu told the Global Times. 

Presales statistics provided by Alibaba, which has organized an online "Women's Day Festival" from February 25 to Sunday on its e-commerce platform tmall.com, has reflected this trend. 

For example, sales of imported depilator on tmall.com saw an astonishing increase of 1140 percent on February 25 compared with last year, while sales of some cat food roared up by more than 250 percent on that day, according to figures Alibaba sent to the Global Times. 

Ruan Huizi, 27, a Shanghai resident said as she returned to work in the office after working remotely for days, she will need  to spend more on cosmetics products. She has just spent 400 yuan ($58) on cosmetics on an e-commerce platform during the Women's Day presales.

"I am going to rejoin office next week and that may increase my spending on food and drinks," she told the Global Times. 

Another 29-year-old white-collar employee who is now working in Hangzhou of East China's Zhejiang Province said he will buy some gifts for his wife on Women's Day as a kind of compensation for the Valentine's Day. 

"I wanted to buy on (Valentine's Day) but logistics was not very convenient at that time. Now everything is turning normal so I am returning to online shopping," he said, adding that usually, he didn't use to send gifts on Women's Day. 

However, the battered consumption has not entirely recovered from the impact of the coronavirus and the genuine recovery will take some time, analysts and shop owners said. 

Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said the full-scale recovery of consumption can be predicted in the second quarter after the coronavirus is effectively controlled.

"Second-quarter consumption is likely to rebound with a growth of five percent year-on-year if the coronavirus is successfully contained," he told the Global Times. 

A vendor owner on tmall.com who sells sports products said their sales figures on Women's Day promotion has dropped 10 percent compared with the last year but is better than the average performance in February.

"We expect we will have to wait until April to restore the previous sales, as the major sports venues are still closed and there is less demand for sports shoes these days," the seller told the Global Times.