In May, the consumer market continued to "heat up." As the national epidemic prevention and control situation continues to improve, residents' shopping and dining activities have basically resumed.

Driven by consumption policies in many places, and stimulated by special festivals such as Labor Day, Mother’s Day, and 520, the national market has become more active, with a noticeable rebound in popularity and the accelerated recovery of the consumer market.

From an overall point of view, the retail passenger flow performance in May was not much different from the performance in the same period in 2020. The overall retail and apparel retail passenger flow decreased by 1.8% and 6.3% year-on-year, respectively.

Compared with May 2019 before the epidemic, although the gap still exists, the overall retail passenger flow decline has narrowed by 7.7 percentage points compared with April, and the recovery of commodity retail is generally stable.

Next, welcome to read the "May China Retail Passenger Flow Index Report" of the Suo blog, and use data to gain insights into the overall passenger flow performance of China's retail to drive smart business decisions. Taking into account the low base in 2020, we will compare some data with 2019 in this report.

China's overall passenger flow performance

The retail passenger flow performance in May was not much different from the performance in the same period in 2020. The overall retail and apparel retail fell 1.8% and 6.3% year-on-year, respectively.

Due to the blessing of holidays, the retail passenger flow index in May increased significantly from the previous month, and the overall retail and apparel retail increased by more than 10%.

Compared with the same period in 2019 before the epidemic, although the gap still exists, the overall retail passenger flow decline has narrowed by 7.7 percentage points compared with April, and the recovery of commodity retail is generally stable.

Retail passenger flow performance in major regions of China

· In May, the passenger flow performance of first-tier cities was inferior to other regions. Compared with 2019, the passenger flow performance of first-tier cities is about 75%.

· Except for the significant decline in the passenger flow performance of Yunnan and Guangxi, the passenger flow performance of other non-first-tier cities is stable, which is around 80%-85% compared with 2019.

· Compared with the same period in 2019, retail passenger flow in Anhui has performed well, with a sharp increase of 14.4%.

· Due to the invasion of new cases in March and April, the Yunnan area has been greatly affected. Compared with the same period in 2019, the retail passenger flow has dropped by 31.4.

Passenger flow performance in major cities

In May, the overall retail passenger flow performance of major cities reached 83% of the same period in 2019.

Although there is the blessing of the Labor Day holiday, it is surprising that the passenger flow performance of some big cities has not reached the average level.

Passenger flow performance during Labor Day holiday in first-tier cities

· Compared with the 2020 Labor Day holiday, in the first three days of the holiday, except for Shenzhen, the passenger flow performance of first-tier cities has a positive performance, and it has declined in the next two days.

· During the whole holiday period in Guangzhou, retail passenger flow has always maintained a high growth trend, and the third day of the holiday achieved a year-on-year increase of 42.9%.

· The passenger flow performance in Shenzhen was depressed throughout the holiday.

Weekly passenger flow performance in first-tier cities

· Since Labor Day falls on May 2nd, compared with the same period in 2019, the passenger flow performance is very good, especially Shenzhen achieved a remarkable increase of 49.5%.

· But we also found that there is a huge gap between the passenger flow performance in the first week of May and 2019.

Weekly passenger flow in first-tier cities month-on-month performance

Compared with April, the weekly passenger flow in May has increased significantly.

Due to the impact of new cases in Guangzhou, the passenger flow performance dropped sharply in the last week. However, the weekly passenger flow in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen showed a good growth trend compared with the previous month.