Services and smart technology drive growth in China’s consumer market
Beijing (ANTARA) — China’s consumer market is finding new sources of growth in services and smart products, reflecting shifting spending patterns as the country seeks to strengthen domestic demand.
Consumption remained the largest contributor to China’s economic growth in the first three quarters of 2026, accounting for 46.7% of growth, up 0.7 percentage points from the first half of the year, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on Friday (23 October), according to Xinhua.
Services consumption was one of the standout sectors. Retail sales of services rose 5% year on year during the period, outpacing the growth in retail sales of goods by four percentage points as China’s consumption structure continued to evolve.
Technology-based products provided another source of new demand. Sales of smart glasses on major platforms monitored by the ministry surged 110% year on year in the first nine months. Sales of exoskeleton assistive devices and embodied intelligent robots rose 46.4% and 22.6%, respectively.
Guotai Haitong Securities said in a research report that AI-powered glasses were moving from early-stage trials towards mass-market adoption as the industry entered a growth phase.
Demand for environmentally friendly and health-related products also continued to increase. Sales of organic food on major platforms monitored by the ministry rose 6.4% year on year during the period. Meanwhile, new-energy vehicles accounted for 67% of retail passenger-car sales in September.
These new trends are taking shape as China steps up efforts to stimulate consumption and strengthen the integration of technological innovation with consumer demand.
China has issued new guidelines to promote the use of AI and other advanced technologies in the commerce sector, as part of efforts to expand consumer demand, improve the quality of conventional businesses and make goods distribution more efficient.
China’s AI industry is developing rapidly, with AI-powered smartphones, intelligent connected vehicles and humanoid robots among the products seeing wider adoption.