(Yicai Global) July 13 -- Shanghai’s Double Five Shopping Festival, introduced in 2020 to help reignite consumption in the aftermath of Covid-19, boosted the Chinese city’s offline consumption by an average of 16.2 percent per day from a year earlier.

Over CNY7.1 billion (USD994 million) were spent daily in brick-and-mortar stores in Shanghai between April 29 and June 30, data from the Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory Shanghai showed yesterday.

The Double Five Shopping Festival is an annual event hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Government to boost offline consumption by linking online marketing activities with key business districts, commercial streets, enterprises, and brands. Last year, it was held in August because of the Covid-19 lockdowns in the first quarter.

Sales at the 250 large retailers monitored by the Shanghai Municipal Business Development Research Center rose 6.7 percent during this year’s Double 5 shopping gala from a year earlier. Their foot traffic surged 19.4 percent.

Meituan’s Shanghai life service consumption index rose 29.6 percentage points to an average of 129.7 percent per day during the two-month shopping festival from last year’s event.

Online retail sales reached an average of nearly CNY4.8 billion per day during the Double Five Shopping Festival, up 16.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Consumer Market Big Data Lab Shanghai.

Shanghai’s retail sales jumped 27.5 percent between January and May from a year earlier, thanks to the low base and the impact of the Double Five Shopping Festival, the data showed.

Shanghai will continue to connect with various key exhibitions, events, and shows and launch activities after the end of the Double Five Shopping Festival to stimulate consumption, said Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

Editor: Futura Costaglione