BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer market has entered a new stage in which goods and services are both important, with service retail sales expanding at nearly five times the pace of goods retail sales in the first eight months of this year, a structural shift captured by a new official indicator in the world's second-largest consumer market.
Total retail sales of consumer goods and services rose 2.5 percent year on year in the January-August period this year, with service retail sales up 4.9 percent and goods retail sales up 1 percent, officials and experts said at the China Economic Roundtable, an all-media talk platform hosted by Xinhua News Agency.
In June this year, the National Bureau of Statistics released the "total retail sales of consumer goods and services" indicator for the first time, a move analysts say better reflects the full picture of consumption as services become an increasingly important driver of domestic demand.
"As per capita income rises, it is an objective economic law that service consumption grows faster than goods consumption," said Lin Jian, vice president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce.
The shift is visible in changing consumer behavior. Zhang Weihua, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, said consumers are moving from "buying goods" to "buying peace of mind" and from "functional consumption" to "experiential consumption," seeking immersive, interactive and emotionally rewarding experiences.
For his part, Chen Chunhui, chairman of Xiamen International Cruise Home Port Group Co., Ltd., said that "cruise consumption, from ship to shore, integrates dining, lodging, transport, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment, reflecting the growing demand for composite experiences."
In Xiamen, a coastal city in east China's Fujian Province, the Xiamen International Cruise Home Port, one of China's four pilot demonstration cruise transport ports, saw inbound cruise ship calls rise 33 percent year on year in the first half, with passenger numbers up about 180 percent, according to Chen.
"In the long run, sustainable consumption growth hinges on a virtuous cycle between consumption upgrading and industrial upgrading, with demand-side policies pushing manufacturers toward greener and smarter production," Lin said.
On the policy front, China has been steering demand toward green and smart products through trade-in programs for automobiles and home appliances. The leverage ratio of subsidy funds rose from 1:7.8 in 2025 to 1:10.3 this year, according to Lin.
China is the world's second-largest consumer market. The country targets relatively fast growth in total consumer goods and services consumption, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching around 60 trillion yuan (about 8.3 trillion U.S. dollars) by 2030. It also aims to cultivate 10-trillion-yuan-level markets in green, intelligent and health-related consumption.
China also aims to attract 190 million inbound tourist visits a year by 2030, with annual inbound tourism spending exceeding 150 billion U.S. dollars, according to a new five-year tourism development plan unveiled in July this year. The plan signals the country's expanding efforts to draw overseas visitors as it seeks to boost consumption.
Lin said new growth areas such as "AI plus consumption" are expected to expand rapidly, providing broad space for the upgrading of goods and services consumption.
"Service consumption and goods consumption will become more deeply integrated, with their boundaries increasingly blurred. But what remains unchanged is starting from user demand and continuously turning real needs into products," said Zhang Dandan, head of the Changsha New Consumption Research Institute.
"During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), China's service consumption is expected to accelerate further," Lin added. ■
