Offshore duty-free shops see 1.5b yuan in sales in 7 days

Offshore duty-free shops saw sales of 1.5 billion yuan ($232.58 million) in seven days during the Spring Festival shopping spree in South China's Hainan province, Hainan Daily reported on Thursday.

Statistics from the local commerce department show that from Feb 11 to 17, the sales of nine offshore duty-free shops in Hainan reached 1.5 billion yuan, including 1.4 billion yuan in tax-free sales.

During the same period of time, the stores welcomed over 200,000 visits by consumers, many of whom chose direct delivery services, boosting the delivery industry's rapid development.

Data shows that China Post mailed about 1,046 duty-free items from offshore duty-free shops between Feb 11 and 16.

A series of promotional measures including discounts, vouchers and lottery draws spurred customer enthusiasm in Hainan, as well as increased shopping quotas and expanded categories of goods.

Starting July 1, Hainan raised the offshore duty-free shopping quota to 100,000 yuan per person per year from the previous 30,000. The categories of goods included in the quota were also expanded from 38 to 45, with wine and electronic products added to the duty-free list.

In 2020 the total sales of offshore duty-free goods in Hainan reached 27.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 103.7 percent, with the number of individual shopping trips increasing 19.2 percent to 4.48 million, according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs.

Consumer spending during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday nationwide had also noticeably surged, with combined sales of retail and catering enterprises rising 28.7 percent year-on-year to 821 billion yuan during the Spring Festival golden week, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

China's online sales exceeded 122 billion yuan during the same period, with online catering sales surging 135 percent compared with the holiday last year, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.