Coupon programs boost consumption amid pandemic

To stimulate domestic consumption stricken by the COVID-19 pandemic, 20 provinces and cities issued over 3.4 billion yuan ($500.48 million) in shopping coupons in the first four months of this year, Securities Times reported.

The coupons covered a variety of products, including rice, flour, cooking oil, home electronics, car and tourism services, according to Guoyuan Securities.

Yin Zhentao, a director in fintech research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the issuing of coupons not only helps boost social consumption, it also supports the big retailers and supermarkets which have been hit hard by the virus outbreak.

A total of 26.30 million government consumption vouchers have been issued on more than 20 mobile payment platforms in Guangdong province this year, statistics from PBOC's Guangzhou branch showed.

The vouchers, worth 607 million yuan, have generated consumption of about 3.58 billion yuan, benefiting 219,900 merchants.

During the Labor Day holiday, more than 5.8 million vouchers had been released in Guangdong and drove up consumption to 1.35 billion yuan.

Jiang Fan, an employee of the digital life department under the digital city cluster in JD Technology, said the e-coupons supported by digital tools are more effective and can spur more consumption than traditional paper coupons.

Yin said platform companies should further optimize the utilization of e-coupons. Options include lowering the threshold for using a coupon to benefit more small and micro enterprises and individual businesspeople, extending the validity of coupons or issuing the coupons to special groups.

He also suggested platform companies design different coupons targeting different consumer groups and users.

Jiang added some cities tried to issue targeted vouchers for low - and middle-income groups, which is technically feasible.

In addition to e-coupons, some paper coupons should also be issued, especially to senior citizens, according to Jiang.