Ministry of Commerce: China's consumer e-commerce maintained steady growth in the first quarter, boosting digital product growth by 7.4% through trade-in programs.

On April 21st, the head of the Ministry of Commerce's E-commerce department introduced the development of China's e-commerce in the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter, the quality of electronic products improved and the incremental growth expanded. The implementation of the action plan for cultivating quality e-commerce boosted consumption through "policy+activities+scenes", facilitated industry e-commerce supply and procurement docking, and helped cultivate and expand the incremental demand market. Consumer e-commerce saw stable growth, with online retail sales reaching 3.6 trillion yuan in the first quarter, and physical goods online sales increasing by 5.7%. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce's big data monitoring, the trade-in program contributed to a 7.4% increase in digital product sales, while high-definition movies and quality dining experiences drove a 40% and 29.2% growth in online entertainment and in-store dining, respectively. Industrial e-commerce promoted real integration, with the "AI technology + digital factory" model reducing operating costs for companies along the industrial chain by nearly 30%, and the "e-commerce + industrial belt" strengthening order aggregation and digital collaboration, improving the production efficiency of small and medium-sized enterprises by 35%. E-commerce directly connected supply and demand to expand domestic sales. The government and enterprises worked together to accelerate the integration of domestic and foreign trade, injecting more confidence to face external risks and challenges using the advantages of the world's largest online retail market. Over ten e-commerce platforms quickly took action, implementing eight measures including direct procurement of orders, foreign trade special zones, and traffic support, to deliver high-quality foreign trade products to thousands of households at e-commerce speed. Government bodies at all levels took proactive steps, organizing resource matching and special investment promotion to bring high-quality foreign trade products into the domestic market through the advantages of e-commerce platforms connecting supply and demand directly across time and space. Mutually beneficial e-commerce cooperation for win-win results. International e-commerce cooperation deepened and solidified, responding to uncertainties in the external environment with certainty and mutual benefit. Highlights of cooperation continued to emerge, such as the launch of the "Silk Road E-commerce Benefits the World" theme activity, with more than 30 accompanying events held locally to share China's e-commerce development opportunities with partner countries. In the first quarter, monitored platform sales of Vietnamese cashews, Malaysian candies, and Cambodian hiking shoes increased by 119%, 69.5%, and 51.8% respectively. Institutionalized openness made new progress, with the "Silk Road E-commerce" cooperation pilot zone achieving inter-platform interoperability for electronic bills, and the Shanghai Data Exchange participating in the development of international artificial intelligence standards. Guangxi and Vietnam and Laos jointly released e-commerce professional and course standards. This article is excerpted from the official website of the Ministry of Commerce, edited by GMTEight: Jiang Yuanhua.