China's Yiwu jumps on bandwagon of holiday shopping spree amid latest trade reforms

Foreign merchants visit the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, July 29, 2024. [Xinhua/Li He]

BEIJING -- While customers in Europe and the United States are busy shopping for this year's Christmas supplies, Yiwu, a city in eastern China known as "the world's supermarket," is already preparing for next year's festive products.

Yiwu produces around two-thirds of the world's Christmas products, including towering artificial trees, festive costumes, colorful ornaments, lights and decorative paintings.

Businesses in Yiwu usually receive Christmas product orders in April and May, with deliveries beginning in July.

"This year, orders came earlier and in greater volume than usual. We started receiving orders as early as New Year's Day and had shipped nearly all of them by August," said Chen Huijuan with Yiwu Junhong Christmas clothing and gifts company.

Customs data show that in 2023, the city's Christmas supply exports reached 4.67 billion yuan (about 650 million U.S. dollars), an increase of 17.6 percent.

According to a circular released Wednesday, the State Council has approved the overall plan for deepening comprehensive international trade reforms in the city.

The plan outlines a vision to promote reforms in Yiwu through further opening up, along with initiatives such as innovating market procurement trade mechanisms, promoting import trade development, enhancing the functionality of comprehensive bonded zones and strengthening cross-border e-commerce regulations, according to the circular.

Promoting Belt and Road cooperation and high-quality development of the China-Europe freight train network, the small commodity hub is slated to further contribute to advancing China's dual circulation strategy, which integrates domestic and global markets and supports efforts to build China into a strong trading nation, the circular noted.

A China-Europe freight train departs from Yiwu West Railway Station in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 18, 2024. [Xinhua/Xing Guangli]

From June to August this year, the volume of Christmas products transported via the China-Europe freight train from Yiwu saw a significant increase. The shipments mainly covered Europe, Central Asia, Russia and some other Belt and Road partner countries.

Chen said her store offers thousands of styles of Christmas clothing, hats, socks and gift bags, with key markets including Spain, Italy, the United States and Mexico.

She added that her company has so far designed five to six hundred new products for next year's Christmas. "Merchants have already received our samples, and they will finalize orders soon."

Yiwu Zhejin is a local garment company primarily producing seamless knitted yoga wear and other sports apparel. Its products are sold in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, South America and Southeast Asia, and it also supplies merchandise to e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Shein, and TikTok.

Ahead of this year's Black Friday, the company was among the first to be invited to open a store on Amazon Haul, the e-commerce giant's newly launched budget-friendly marketplace.

Song Jinquan of Yiwu Zhejin said the company shipped more than 30,000 orders during the Black Friday shopping spree, an increase of over 50 percent compared to the past.

"Despite a global downturn in the consumer goods market, overseas demand for high-quality, competitively priced Chinese products remains strong, with cross-border e-commerce becoming a new growth driver for the company," Song said.

Yiwu's robust growth is evident in its trade data. In the first ten months of the year, the city's import and export volume surged 18.3 percent year on year, reaching 560.16 billion yuan, according to customs data.

Known as the city where "buy global, sell global" thrives, Yiwu is focusing on cross-border e-commerce and digital trade. Its Global Digital Trade Center, which leverages artificial intelligence and digital tools to enhance core trade elements, such as supply chains, logistics and market, is set to open the market section for trial operations in October 2025.

In 2011, Yiwu became the first county-level city in China to receive State Council approval for a pilot program on comprehensive international trade reform.

"The new reform initiative will bring significant opportunities for Yiwu, allowing it to optimize its trade structure and improve trade quality," said Zhu Keli, a researcher at the China Institute of New Economy.