Urban and rural residents are busy organizing New Year's goods. What global goodies have become popular during the New Year's consumption?

The Spring Festival is approaching, and urban and rural residents are busy preparing New Year’s goods——

What global goodies have become popular during the New Year consumption?

　　Our reporter Kong Dechen

　　The twelfth lunar month has arrived, and the flavor of the new year is getting stronger. Recently, many cross-border e-commerce platforms and offline supermarkets have launched “New Year Goods Festivals”, bringing consumers a full range of good New Year goods and filling the atmosphere of the Year of the Dragon.

　　Thanks to the development of cross-border logistics and cross-border e-commerce, the supply of New Year's goods in the Chinese market has become more abundant and diversified. Many consumers hope to buy high-quality imported goods at more affordable prices to enrich their "New Year's goods list." Which global goods are more popular among consumers? How is this year’s New Year Festival different? The reporter conducted the interview.

What to buy for the new year

　　——"Global Selection" is popular, and combination packages of seafood, meat, nuts and other products from all over the world are popular; "New Year trendy products" have become the preference of young people for the New Year.

　　A collection of gift boxes of nuts from different countries, pork, beef and mutton sets from world-renowned origins, seafood sets... Different from the traditional "tobacco, wine, sugar and tea", the New Year's flavor is "fragrant" with more imported goodies.

　　Let’s look at the food category first——

　　At the Hema Fresh Beijing Jinyuan store, the fresh extra-large Russian king crab and Boston lobster attracted the attention of reporters. Aunt Cui, who was shopping, told reporters that every New Year's Eve, she would buy a king crab as the "C position" on the main course of the New Year's Eve dinner. "Such a big crab is placed in the middle of the New Year dish. It looks festive and lively, and it is also a rare delicacy." Aunt Cui said.

　　Norwegian salmon, frozen raw Vannamei shrimp, red king crab legs, Thai live frozen black tiger shrimp and other deep-sea seafood are paired with Spanish Iberian black pig pork belly, Australian Angus black beef eye heart thick-cut steak, and Australian M9 Global pork, beef and mutton gift sets including purebred Wagyu beef are also popular among consumers.

　　Many brands have launched "Global Selection" nut gift boxes. "In the past, domestic brands accounted for the majority of nuts during the New Year, and most of them were nuts produced in China." said a clerk at the Wumart Beijing Shuangjing store. "The 'Global Selection' nut gift box is a collection of nuts from different countries. In the original The origin and variety are different from the common nut categories in the past. Many consumers feel that such gift boxes have a more 'global' atmosphere."

　　Let’s look at non-food items——

　　Mirrorless cameras, musical instruments, and outdoor sports equipment are the “three new items” for consumers born after 1995 during the Spring Festival this year. The person in charge of Dewu App told reporters that data shows that since January this year, the sales of guitars on Dewu App have increased nearly 2 times year-on-year, mirrorless cameras have increased more than 5 times year-on-year, and the sales of badminton, hiking shoes and other sports equipment have also increased several times. Even increased tenfold. "'New Year trendy products' have become the preference of young people for the New Year." The person in charge said, "Nike launched Year Of The Dragon white cactus green, a single shoe sold nearly 10,000 pairs in a short period of time; Lego's Year of the Dragon New Year building blocks , it has only been launched for two weeks and already has thousands of collectors.”

　　Imported goods appear in large numbers in Spring Festival gift lists.

　　At the APRIL GOURMET Green Leaf Supermarket Beijing Kerry Shopping Center store, the clerk just sent away a customer who ordered Spanish ham worth more than 8,000 yuan. She told reporters that this customer specially bought Spanish ham to give to ten friends. "Because it is a refrigerated product, the store immediately ordered a flash delivery for fresh delivery. Other stores such as gift boxes and new year goods can also provide express delivery and flash delivery services when you choose." The clerk said.

　　The reporter came to the Olé boutique supermarket Beijing Heshenghui store. The clerk told the reporter that among the imported foods, there are chocolates from Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium, red wines and foreign wines from Australia, France, Germany, etc., and biscuit boxes from Italy and Denmark. Imported fruits such as Chilean cherries, Japanese sunshine rose grapes, New Zealand golden kiwis, Chilean peaches, American apples, Vietnamese durians, and Peruvian green grapes are frequently purchased by consumers for the New Year. “Exquisitely packaged, high-end products are very popular,” the clerk said. “Imported fruits and high-end liquor and foreign wines are categories that consumers often buy to give as gifts.”

　　Here, the reporter also met Aunt Li who bought Canadian wheat flour to make dumplings and noodles, Ms. Wang who bought adult milk powder from New Zealand, and Aunt Liu who bought imported health products such as Australian Aolinda Propolis Capsules...

　　"Purchasing imported New Year products is a microcosm of China's gradual expansion of import demand in recent years." Dong Chao, director of the Institute of Circulation and Consumption of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, told reporters, "Limited-time supply of imported fruits, selected dry goods from iconic origins and limited-edition high-end drinks are widely popular, indicating that high-end food consumption has grown significantly; in addition, under the trend of inclusive import consumption and the rise of the silver-haired economy, black-tech beauty devices, massagers, plant-based hair dye pens, etc. are healthier and more technological Sensitive 'New Year's goods' have become the first choice for young people to give to their elders during the Spring Festival. Imported goodies have been integrated into people's daily lives."

What’s new?

　　——Focusing on healthy and sophisticated consumer demands, semi-finished products and prepared dishes have started a new round of improvements

　　Many new categories of annual goods stand out and are favored by consumers.

　　In the food category, products focusing on health needs such as walnut oil from Spain and sea buckthorn seed oil from Russia have aroused consumers' enthusiasm for purchasing.

　　In the past, imported olive oil was a common New Year product, and Spain, Italy, and Greece were the main producing areas of olive oil. In recent years, in addition to olive oil, sunflower seed oil, grape seed oil, and walnut oil from these regions have also become consumers’ choices for imported New Year products.

　　A clerk at the Beijing SKP store of the Beijing Hualian Group boutique supermarket told reporters that these imported rapeseed oils are rich in oleic acid and are good for cardiovascular diseases. Most consumers buy them for their own use or for the elderly at home. A middle-aged consumer in the store also told reporters: "Walnut oil is good for the brain, and sea buckthorn seed oil is also a health-care oil."

　　Among non-food categories, imported kitchen utensils and small household appliances are selling more popularly.

　　APRIL GOURMET Green Leaf Supermarket Beijing Kerry Mall store clerk said that oil spray bottles, small mixers, and tea set gift boxes imported in previous years were usually selected by companies as New Year benefits and distributed to employees. In recent years, families and individuals have gradually purchased them as New Year goods. . She introduced that the oil can with its own spout can accurately control the amount of oil used, and it often appears in videos of making light food. The increase in purchases shows that people are paying more and more attention to healthy eating in recent years; while small mixers are designed for home use. The method of replacing traditional processed food ingredients saves time and effort. It is very suitable for white-collar individuals or families who are busy at work, and meets the consumption needs of consumers who are "busy and refined".

　　Semi-finished dishes using imported raw materials are very popular, they are both delicious and "pastoral", and have "rolled" the prepared vegetable market.

　　The reporter saw at the Beijing Jinyuan store of Hema Fresh that Hema’s self-operated imported seafood semi-finished dishes include powdered king crab lumps, garlic king crab legs, black truffle cheese king crab legs, typhoon shelter tiger crab with French garlic butter lobster, etc. Very popular with consumers. Store employees told reporters that the king crabs are all ocean-caught in the Barents Sea, cooked and frozen on board and shipped to China; the tiger crabs come from the Amanda Sea, and the lobsters are selected from Canada.

　　Different from previous years, "high recovery rate" has become the key word for pre-made dishes and semi-finished dishes this year. The recovery rate was originally an indicator in corporate R&D products, but now it is used by more and more prepared food companies to describe the similarity of the taste of prepared dishes to dine-in freshly made dishes. In the recent "prepared dish recovery rate test" organized by the Shanghai Food Safety Federation, four Hema dishes won gold medals, and black truffle cheese king crab legs were on the list.

　　The relevant person in charge of Hema told reporters that this year Hema also prepared "plate presentation instructions" for consumers. "Take the Dragon and Tiger Banquet as an example. The ingredients are a whole Boston lobster and 6 Amanda tiger crabs. It is a "C-position" dish on the New Year's Eve dinner table. Taking into account the social needs of consumers to 'show off the New Year's Eve' , we have refined the reheating sequence and presentation standards of this dish, so that everyone can restore the taste of the dish and its appearance." Hema R&D Procurement Liu Jun told reporters.

New Year's Eve Festival is booming

　　——Each platform takes multiple measures to promote consumption, with special "foreign specialty products" and low-price discounts on imported goods to fully stimulate the consumption potential during the New Year.

　　Offline, import-themed New Year’s Festivals have been held in various places, and their popularity has spread across the country.

　　In Yiwu, Zhejiang, the 2024 Yiwu China Commodity City Carnival Shopping Festival has recently opened. The main venue of the Carnival Shopping Festival brings together 150,000 kinds of "foreign specialties" from more than 100 countries and regions around the world. During the shopping festival, the Imported Commodity City will have a large promotion throughout the venue and launch a variety of special activities. "We received more than 60 tourists in the morning, and many of them came for the shopping festival discounts. Beauty products, cleaning supplies, and retail sales are relatively popular." said Lou Xiaoli, the proprietress of the Thai Pavilion in the Import Commodity City.

　　In Guangxi, a series of activities linking ASEAN countries’ New Year’s Eve E-commerce Festival and 2024 Online New Year’s Festival kicked off recently. This event links the consulates general of six countries in Nanning, including Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, to select Guangxi’s characteristic landmark products and ASEAN countries’ special products, and carry out multiple promotions such as the ASEAN imported New Year goods promotion and the RCEP good goods special promotion. Activity.

　　Looking online, the New Year’s Festival on major e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com has recently begun, focusing on cross-store discounts to stimulate the potential of the New Year consumer market.

　　According to the person in charge of JD.com, as a one-stop consumption platform for imported and exported goods under JD.com, JD.com International has simultaneously launched a New Year's Festival event with the theme of "Chinese Year around the world", not only launching cross-store discounts, but also offering imported New Year gifts with more than 50% off. and other discounts, and also launched a series of JD.com purchasing and selling live broadcast activities with special themes.

　　The main venues of the New Year's Goods Festival on Taobao and Tmall Apps all use "low price" as the keyword. Tmall has set up two methods: cross-store full discounts and official instant discounts. Compared with last year, this full discount is more powerful. Taobao’s tens of billions of subsidies have launched a new round of increased subsidies, including Chilean cherries, Ecuadorian prawns and other top global products. Take Chilean cherries as an example. During the New Year Festival, 2J-grade cherries imported from Chile in a gift box of 5 pounds start at only 174 yuan, equivalent to 34.8 yuan per catty.

　　Recently, the "2024 National Online New Year Shopping Festival" jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce, jointly with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the State Post Bureau and the China Consumers Association kicked off. He Yadong, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the New Year Festival activities will last until February 17, which is the eighth day of the first lunar month.

　　As the first key online event of the "Year of Consumption Promotion", this year's New Year Goods Festival will "string beads into chains" and "gather chains into groups" to create more and more comprehensive online promotions. Special consumer activities welcome the New Year of the Dragon. According to the monitoring of key business big data e-commerce platforms, national online retail sales reached 50.95 billion yuan on the first day of the Online New Year Festival, an increase of 12.7% over the first day of the event last year, with frequent consumption highlights during the New Year.

　　"During the New Year's Goods Festival, various platforms take multiple measures to promote consumption, which is conducive to fully stimulating consumption potential." Dong Chao said, "This year's New Year's Goods Festival, on the basis of maintaining large-scale promotion efforts, puts more emphasis on the shaping of cultural core and brand connotation, and adapts to Market changes to meet consumers' refined and personalized needs." (People's Daily Overseas Edition)