SEAFOODNEWS.COM [daily.cnnb] Translated by Amy Zhong March 2, 2018
Imported seafood volumes surged on Alibaba’s 10 platforms in the huge Chinese market during the New Year Festival.
With the ending of Chinese’s New Year, eager consumers return to work and peace also gradually returns to supermarkets and stores there. This is a very important holiday for Chinese people and maybe more so for sellers who can’t wait to compete for consumers during the crazy shopping season. So who wins in this cut-throat competition?
One big winner is imported seafood, according to the statistics from Alibaba’s 10-odd platforms.
The consumption of fresh food, especially imported seafood, has ballooned during this holiday. As the statistics from T-mall of Alibaba show, the sales volume of imported fresh food has skyrocketed by nearly 300% from that of last year.
Consumers show a preference to Chilean king crabs, Boston lobsters, fish from New Zealand, Canadian northern prawns and Vietnamese black tiger shrimps while shopping for their big meals.
They also went to Alibaba’s Hema Fresh stores for imported fresh food in this holiday.
Such stores are especially busy in cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shanghai.
Online and offline sales keep setting new records even before the Chinese New Year.
It is a tough battle to grab seafood from others in these stores, said some consumers. Hema’s orders jumped by nearly 50% during this festival. Among all China’s cities, individual spending on Hema seafood is highest in Guiyang of Guizhou. And the followers are consumers in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shenzhen and Chengdu.
In Hangzhou Hema stores, many consumers are still enthusiastic about seafood buying after the holiday, though the number contracts significantly. Wang, a Hangzhou local, initially planned to buy seafood in the holiday. But she was shocked to see the exceedingly crowded store, changed her plan and shopped for Boston lobsters when the vacation was over.
Imported seafood are store magnets which attract curious shoppers. Hema’s Boston lobsters are directly flown from Canada to the stores without middlemen, said a Hangzhou store manager. This store sells about 700 to 800 lobsters on a daily basis. However, there are others who are held back because they don’t know how to cook such seafood.
The average sales volume of Hema stores jumps by nearly 50% during the festival, while the number more than doubles in one Hangzhou store. And the sales volume is even about three to four times of the everyday one in some Shanghai Hema store where king crabs priced at 1,188 yuan each were sold out at around 1:30 pm on the Chinese New Year’ Eve.
Expensive Dungeness crabs also hot among excited consumers. It seems to be traditional to save up money all year round and then splurge on luxurious festivals in China. There may be nothing more happier for sellers than seeing impatient consumers come to stores with long lists during crazy shopping seasons.