The growth in FMCG sales remained soft over the Chinese New Year (CNY) period, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
The figures show that consumer spending on FMCG in China during the 12 weeks ending 24 February 2017 grew by only 1.4% in comparison to the same period last year.
However, many online retailers maintained a high level of business, with e-commerce trade growing by 36.1% compared with last year’s figures.
‘[Online retailers] are doing more promotions during the CNY period, such as the CNY grocer festival and non-stop logistic service in a bid to steal sales from traditional modern trade retailers,’ said Jason Yu, General Manager China of Kantar Worldpanel.
Over one third of Chinese households bought FMCG online in during this time, which is generally a low period for traditional retailers.
Retailers Sun-Art and CRV Group’s national share experienced a decline of 0.1%, while Walmart and Yonghui Group saw growth of 1.9% and 13.2% respectively.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
