By He Wei in Shanghai | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-06-03 20:12

Shanghai has seen a large-scale consumption boon across online and offline shopping avenues, a strong signal the city's May 5 Shopping Festival has served to spur spending and boosted the economy.

Web-based retail transactions neared 100 billion yuan ($14.07 billion) in May, with the number of parcels delivered surging 17.9 percent year-on-year, said Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, during a press conference on Wednesday.

Brick-and-mortar stores have managed to level off compared to the pre-COVID-19 outbreak period, raking in revenue of 144.4 billion yuan for physical goods in May. Select shopping premises such as outlet Shanghai Village bucked the overall gloomy trend, recording 67 percent year-on-year growth.

Cosmetics, food and apparel all registered double-digit growth last month, whereas sales of the hard-hit auto sector also rose 8.9 percent compared with same time in the previous year.

Global product debuts, revitalizing time-honored Chinese brands and imported product festivals, were highlights among the 84 key events and 470 characteristic activities under the ongoing initiative, whereas livestreaming has been a major thrust promoting omnichannel sales.

For the second phase of the promotion, which runs through the end of June, the metropolis outlined a batch of major events, such as nightlife fairs, trendy-show festivals and the June 18 mid-year promotion normally carried out by e-commerce platforms, as well as a number of district-steered activities.