Customers have dinners at a Cantonese restaurant at Nanjing Road Walkway in east China's Shanghai, March 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Fei)
OFFLINE BUSINESS
Besides warming consumption online, offline businesses have also seen a leap.
On April 9, the Ministry of Commerce said the opening rates of large agricultural wholesale markets, large supermarkets, department stores and branded convenience stores nationwide were all above 95 percent.
Average daily sales in key monitored retail enterprises in late March increased by 0.9 percent compared with mid-March and by 3.2 percent from late February.
In the catering sector, the resumption rate has reached 85.4 percent nationwide as of April 5, according to statistics from China's service-focused e-commerce giant Meituan Dianping.
Average daily dine-in orders and restaurant turnover also jumped 118 percent and 158 percent, respectively, during the three-day Tomb-sweeping Day holiday compared with figures from March.
According to a report released by China's leading digital payment platform Alipay on March 23, hot pot recently became the most popular comfort food. Consumers in China paid for more than 1.3 million hot pot meals via Alipay from March 18 to 22, up 186 percent from the previous month.
"Big data showed that businesses are gradually picking up in China," said Chen Wen, president of SUKE Innovation Strategy Research Institute.
According to a report released by Chen's team, on April 8, the national average business recovery ratio reached 78.72 percent, up 13.88 and 29.54 percent, respectively, comparing with the ratios from March 10 and March 1.
The business recovery ratio of 313 cities, accounting for over 85 percent of the total monitored cities, reached over 75 percent.
"Everything is in good order. My life is also gradually returning to normal," said Chen Xuemei, a resident in the eastern Chinese city of Shangrao.
