On April 22, the "2022 (30th) China Market Commodity Sales Statistics Results Release Conference

On April 22, the "2022 (30th) China Market Commodity Sales Statistics Results Release Conference" co-organized by the China General Chamber of Commerce and the All-China Business Information Center was held in Beijing. Li Dianyu, director of the All-China Business Information Center, released the operation of my country's consumer goods market in 2021 and the development trend of the consumer goods market in 2022. The conference simultaneously released the 2021 China market commodity sales statistics, the top 100 national key large-scale retail enterprises in the past 30 years, and the leading brands in China's consumer goods market sales for 20 consecutive years or more.

In 2021, under the pressure of multiple factors, my country's economy showed strong resilience and endogenous driving force. All regions and departments did a solid job in the "six stability" and "six guarantees". The economy recovered steadily, the industrial chain was consolidated and improved, imports and exports achieved rapid growth, and the overall price level was stable and controllable. Driven by policies and measures to expand domestic demand and promote consumption, supported by overall stable employment and sustained growth in residents' income, and guaranteed by more precise and effective epidemic prevention and control measures, my country's consumption achieved rapid growth, and consumer spending ultimately became the main driving force for economic growth.

Part I:

The consumer goods market shows eight major trend changes

The consumer goods market as a whole shows a recovery and growth trend

In 2021, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 44.1 trillion yuan, a nominal increase of 12.5% ​​year-on-year, and an average growth of 3.9% over the past two years. Excluding price factors, the total retail sales of consumer goods actually increased by 10.7%. From the perspective of the average growth rate over the past two years, the average growth rates from the first to the fourth quarters were 4.2%, 4.6%, 3% and 4% respectively, and the consumer goods market maintained a steady recovery growth trend.

The proportion of online retail sales of physical goods fell

As the prevention and control measures became more scientific and effective, consumers' dependence on online channels decreased. Coupled with the high base effect, my country's online retail sales of physical goods reached 10.8 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 12.0%, a slowdown of 2.8 percentage points from the previous year, accounting for 24.5% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the previous year.

Offline physical store consumer goods retail sales achieved rapid growth

In 2021, driven by the recovery of passenger flow and the low base effect, offline physical store consumer goods retail sales increased by 12.7% year-on-year. Among them, the growth rate in the first three months was relatively high, and the growth rate gradually slowed down from April to July when the low base effect weakened in the same period. From August to December, despite the impact of negative factors such as the epidemic and floods, the overall growth rate was relatively stable.

Coordinated development of urban and rural consumer goods markets

In 2021, as the construction of the county commercial system entered a new development stage, the rural commercial system was further improved, and urban and rural consumption achieved parallel development in integrated development. The total retail sales of urban social consumer goods increased by 12.5% ​​year-on-year, and the total retail sales of rural social consumer goods increased by 12.1% year-on-year. Among them, except for the high growth rate of urban areas due to the local New Year in January and February, the growth rate of the rural market continued to be faster than that of urban areas from March to December.

Catering revenue and commodity retail sales both achieved double-digit growth

In 2021, driven by the steady growth of basic living consumption and the rapid recovery of upgraded consumption, commodity retail sales reached 39.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%. With the gradual recovery of the number of people dining out and the low base effect, catering revenue reached 4.7 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%.

Sales of units above the limit achieved rapid growth

According to estimates, in 2021, the retail sales of commodities of units above the limit increased by 12.8% year-on-year, 1.6 percentage points faster than the retail sales of commodities of units below the limit. The catering revenue of units above the limit increased by 23.5% year-on-year, 6.2 percentage points faster than the catering revenue of units below the limit.

Key large-scale retail enterprises across the country achieved positive growth

According to statistics from the China National Commercial Information Center, the retail sales of key large-scale retail enterprises across the country increased by 9.4% year-on-year in 2021. Among them, the retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry increased significantly by 39.8% year-on-year. It is estimated that the retail sales of most commodity categories of large retail enterprises have not yet returned to the pre-epidemic level.

Convenience stores and other retail formats achieved rapid growth

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, among retail formats above the designated size, supermarket retail sales increased by 6% year-on-year, 2.9 percentage points faster than the previous year. Driven by the recovery of residents' consumption, department stores, specialty stores, specialty stores, and convenience stores all achieved rapid growth of more than 10%.