Chinese consumers snap up yoga mats, video games, condoms as coronavirus keeps them at home
25/02/2020 11:09
By Sophie Yu and Joyce Lee
BEIJING/SEOUL, Feb 25 (Reuters) - As the coronavirus
epidemic keeps hundreds of millions of Chinese stuck at home,
they're shopping online to stave off boredom with games for
Nintendo's 7974.T Switch console, yoga mats, books and condoms
all showing big jumps in orders.
Many malls and stores remain shut and sales of cars and
smartphones are crumbling, but demand for health, entertainment
and cosmetics products is buoyant, according to data from
e-commerce giant Alibaba Group BABA.N - a potential boon for
popular brands such as Lululemon LULU.O and L'Oreal OREP.PA .
Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure game for the Switch console,
which combines exercise and role playing, has been a star
performer, with sales more than quadrupling in the two weeks to
Feb. 20 compared to normal levels, according to Alibaba.
"No medicine really functions against the virus so far. All
you can count on is your own health," said Guo Yan, a
38-year-old office employee who recently bought the game. "I
want to exercise at home to be healthy and fit."
Sales of yoga mats and rowing machines have also soared, up
250% during a two-week period in February from a year earlier,
it said, while sales of books jumped 60% on Alibaba's Tmall
marketplace in the week beginning Feb. 10 compared with the
previous week.
Perhaps counterintuitively as authorities have now imposed
rules that masks be worn outdoors, lipstick sales were up
sevenfold for some brands while sales of eyeshadow palettes
increased 150%, according to Alibaba. It did not specify the
timeframe for the sales jumps or the brands.
Lu Zhenwang, CEO of Shanghai-based Wanqing Consulting, says
that while overall e-commerce volumes have fallen during the
outbreak, there were some stand out exceptions like yoga mats
and cosmetics.
"People now have large amount of time and they are bored at
home," he said, adding that women were taking the opportunity to
practice their makeup skills.
Other Chinese e-commerce sites also had some non-traditional
goods among their best-seller rankings. Pinduoduo PDD.O noted
that hair cutting kits and condoms were among its most ten most
popular items, while JD.com JD.O said sales of baking and
roasting equipment had risen 7 times.
In South Korea, which has seen a surge in coronavirus cases,
orders for health-related items such as red ginseng, probiotics
and vitamins rose 143% during the first 20 days of February
compared to the same period last year, according to Lotte Home
Shopping.
Sales of small washing machines have also jumped as people
avoid laundromats, up more than sixfold during Feb. 1-19
compared to the same period last month, according to South
Korean supermarket chain Homeplus Co Ltd.
The bigger picture for consumer spending is, however, bleak
as the outbreak keeps large parts of China's population either
in quarantine or simply discourages people from venturing
outside. Many businesses have yet to get back up to full speed
as quarantine and travel restrictions cause shortages of both
workers and supplies.
Big ticket items in China have been especially hard hit,
with sales of smartphones sliding 36.6% in January and retail
sales of passenger cars tumbling 92% in the first half of
February. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2AL15V
(Reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing and Joyce Lee in Seoul;
Editing by Brenda Goh and Edwina Gibbs)
((Sophie.Yu@thomsonreuters.com; 861056692136;))