China's consumption market has maintained overall stability so far this year, retaining medium-high speed thanks to a slew of government policies.

As the biggest driver of China's economy, consumption remained stable overall during the January-May period, with the total retail sales of consumer goods up 8.1 percent year on year. It is expected to hit 8.2 percent in the first half of the year, said Wang Bin, Deputy Director of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce.

China's online retail sales, a key consumption growth driver in 2019, came in at 3.86 trillion yuan ($562 billion) in the first five months, accounting for over one fifth of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods, industrial data showed.

JD.com, the e-commerce giant that created the 618 online shopping event years ago to mark its anniversary, recorded sales of 201.5 billion yuan ($29.27 billion) from June 1 to 18, up 26.6 percent year on year.

As the business model evolves, services rather than real items are becoming the new hot spot targeted by e-commerce platforms.

Suning.com, an e-commerce giant, has launched a one-hour service circle project focusing on providing community services including express delivery and home appliance maintenance.

In addition, more consumers switched to domestic brands away from foreign ones during the first 18 days of June. Alibaba's online marketplace Tmall reported that over 60 percent of the brands with sales of more than 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) on its platform during the 618 shopping event were domestic brands.

China's rural areas also continue to unleash consumption potential, with retail sales totaling 2.34 trillion yuan ($340 billion) in the first five months of the year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Pinduoduo, a social e-commerce giant with a huge consumer base in rural areas and small cities that offers group buying deals at big discounts, received over 1.1 billion orders during the first 18 days of June.

At the beginning of June, three ministry-level authorities, including the National Development and Reform Commission, released plans on promoting the upgrading of key consumer products for recycling resources.

Consumers were encouraged to replace old home appliances consuming high energy with new energy-saving and intelligent ones. Some brands have already launched promotional campaigns, compensating consumers for the replacement.

As government policies give more preferences to green and quality products, enterprises can only seize opportunities in fierce market competition through continued innovation and accelerated product upgrading, said Ge Fengliang, Vice President of the China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute.

Moreover, after China officially approved 5G commercial services in early June, a new round of consumption demand will be stimulated. The consumption of high-definition televisions, intelligent home appliances and VR/AR products is expected to see rapid growth, according to a source in the industry.

This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published by Xinhua News Agency

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

Comments to dengyaqing@bjreview.com