Shoppers targeted in bid to boost spending

Since March, a number of provincial and city governments in China have rolled out measures to distribute shopping vouchers to consumers to rejuvenate consumer buying during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While these steps have been effective in many places nationwide, experts are calling for better implementation and other long-term approaches to help retain consumer confidence.

The country's first provincial-level plan to boost consumption was announced by Zhejiang province on March 12.

The move followed a call by President Xi Jinping on Feb 21 at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee for household consumption to be firmed up and new consumer purchasing potential unleashed.

On March 26, authorities in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, announced that e-vouchers worth a total of 1.68 billion yuan ($237 million) would be distributed to city residents in the coming months. The vouchers were financed by 500 million yuan in government subsidies and 1.18 billion yuan in business discounts to help bolster the hard-hit consumer market.

The vouchers can be obtained on Alibaba's financial service platform Alipay. Consumers are eligible for a cash rebate for offline payments within seven days of receiving the vouchers.

With 6 million brick-and-mortar shops involved in the program, the Hangzhou government expects it to be an effective approach to encourage consumption and support offline vendors.

Zhu Zheng, deputy director of the city's commerce bureau, said it started to consider supporting offline shopping at the end of February and carried out numerous surveys when looking for solutions.

"We were told by some shop owners that they were most concerned about having a normal market, and government policies would be helpful. We decided to make it as easy as possible for people to apply for and use the vouchers," Zhu said, adding that encouraging them to go out and shop was the priority at the time.

The vouchers can be used at nearly all shops in Hangzhou, as the government wants small businesses, in addition to large supermarkets and shopping malls, benefit from the program.

Zhong Yu, a Hangzhou resident who obtained the vouchers in four rounds of applications, said they have helped her save an estimated 200 yuan on her shopping bills.

"Each voucher offered a rebate of 10 yuan when my spending surpassed 40 yuan. I understand that the vouchers were issued mainly to encourage people to go out and support offline vendors, but I think that they could also be used online," she said.

Zhong added that she thinks the online market is also important for economic growth and that young people prefer shopping in cyberspace.