Online and offline integration, residents can get benefits
Digital coupons help the market recover
Our reporter Li Zhen
"Take the children to experience strawberry picking with the consumption coupons received online, the children are very happy!" Ms. Zhao, a resident of Pinggu District, Beijing, recently received the consumption coupons issued by the WeChat applet of "Lexiang Pinggu", in a picking garden. She got a corresponding discount when she played, and she felt that it was very affordable.
Recently, a new round of digital consumption vouchers have been issued to residents in many places across the country, which not only meets the consumption needs of residents, but also promotes the recovery of the consumer market.
Wide range of use
Recently, in order to further stimulate consumption, digital consumer coupons have been issued in many places.
At the end of March, the first batch of consumer coupon issuance activities in 2022 in Pinggu District, Beijing came to an end.
It is reported that within half a month, 2.454 million yuan of consumer coupons for benefiting the people were distributed through the WeChat applet, and 112,000 people participated in receiving the coupons, driving sales of 21.586 million yuan.
In the follow-up, Pinggu District will also issue two more batches of consumer coupons around "May 1" and "November".
In addition, in order to accelerate the release of green energy-saving consumption potential and promote consumption upgrading, Beijing has issued green energy-saving consumption coupons to consumers in Beijing since April to encourage consumers to purchase and use green energy-saving products.
It is reported that the coupons are applicable to a total of 20 categories of commodities, including computers, dishwashers, televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, rice cookers, etc.
On April 1, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region launched the 3-month "33 Consumption Festival". It plans to carry out over 600 promotional activities of various types, with subsidies for consumers exceeding 1 billion yuan, which is expected to drive the total retail sales of consumer goods in the second quarter to over 2,000 yuan. billion.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, during the event, residents can receive consumption coupons through the UnionPay app.
"This year's consumer coupon subsidy activities have a wider range and more complete types of coupons. In addition to continuing to distribute '33 consumer coupons', shopping rebates for supermarkets and department stores, UnionPay consumer coupons, CCB consumer coupons, and mobile 5G purchase subsidies have also been added. and other types of consumer coupons, which involve a wider range of commodities and can be used.”
In addition, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Qingdao City, Shandong Province, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province and other places have also issued various digital consumer coupons to help the recovery of the consumer market.
attract more users
In the process of consumer market recovery, why is the form of digital consumer coupons so popular?
It is reported that consumer coupons are used for consumption in a specific field within a specific period. Compared with the direct issuance of cash, the issuance of consumer coupons can be used for household consumption rather than savings, and its stimulating effect is more obvious.
According to Shen Jianguang, chief economist of Jingdong Group, from March 2020 to November 2021, more than 500 rounds of consumer coupon programs have been implemented in many places across the country, and most of them have achieved relatively significant short-term local effects.
"For example, from November to December 2021, Yunnan Province, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, and Zhengzhou City, Henan Province will issue government consumption coupons through the JD platform respectively. The write-off amount of consumption coupons in the three places exceeds 50 million yuan within 20 days, driving the amount of consumer orders. More than 400 million yuan, government funds leverage consumption leverage ratio close to 8 times."
The issuance of digital consumer coupons has also promoted the deep integration of online and offline consumption.
On the one hand, various payment APPs, as the entrance for the issuance of consumer coupons, have attracted a large number of users.
Many payment institutions, including WeChat Pay, UnionPay QuickPass, and Meituan, have participated in the issuance of consumer coupons in various places, which is beneficial to the promotion of specific online payment channels to a certain extent.
On the other hand, offline brick-and-mortar merchants, especially small, medium and micro merchants, have become the beneficiaries of consumer vouchers.
According to the survey data, 90% of the merchants eligible for consumer vouchers are small, medium and micro merchants.
For every 1 yuan of consumer coupons issued by the government, 0.87 yuan flows to small and micro businesses with annual sales below 300,000 yuan.
good orientation
In order to make digital consumption vouchers more effective, in March 2021, the country's first group standard for digital consumption vouchers, "Digital Consumer Voucher Service Specification", was released and implemented.
According to experts, in order to bring greater benefits to digital consumer coupons, more attention should be paid to redirecting investment when issuing them.
For example, we will increase targeted support for people in need, in difficult areas, consumers in rural counties, and small, medium and micro enterprises, and focus on areas of support for consumption recovery, such as catering, tourism, and the renewal of home appliances and automobiles.
Although digital consumer coupons can bring immediate effects, some experts said that consumer coupons only improve consumers' ability to pay once, and it is difficult to inject lasting momentum into the consumer market.
In the long run, boosting consumption needs to pay more attention to the root causes.
"Consumer vouchers cannot fundamentally change people's income expectations in the future." Fu Yifu, a financial expert, believes that to truly promote the development and growth of the consumer market, we should stabilize employment, increase residents' income, optimize the quality of goods and services supply, improve market order, Make efforts to protect the rights and interests of consumers.
Liu Xiangdong, deputy director of the Economic Research Department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, pointed out that to promote the further recovery of the consumer market, the key is to unblock the blockages and breakpoints that restrict consumption.
At the same time, it is necessary to actively expand employment, increase residents' income, improve residents' consumption level, and truly start a virtuous economic cycle driven by consumption, so that economic growth has a solid foundation.
In the medium and long term, more methods are needed to promote consumption. In addition to consumer coupons, we must deepen the reform of consumer commodity prices, increase the convenience of circulation, and reduce the cost of circulation and transactions.