Chinese Retail Sector: Shanghai tops nation in sales volume

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02:17

Turning to the retail sector now. Shanghai's total retail sales reached over 614 billion yuan in the first half of this year. That was up 7.7 percent year on year. That's from a report from the Shanghai Statistics Bureau. City officials say Shanghai's import expo this coming fall should push those numbers up even higher. Yu Wen has more.

Shanghai ranks first nationwide in retail sales volume, with more than 55 percent of the city's merchants selling international goods. Companies like the Shanghai Bailian Group are looking forward to introducing more international commodities to local consumers following this November's import expo.

CAO HAILUN, VICE GENERAL MANAGER SHANGHAI BAILIAN GROUP "We certainly will have more options since suppliers from all over the world are coming to showcase their commodities. We will select the good ones for our customers."

The same goes for Lianhua Supermarkets, which is owned by Bailian.

DONG BIN, GENERAL MANAGER LIANHUA SUPERMARKET "Bailian Group has been raising the percentage of imports in the supermarket sector all year long. This is all good news for us. Our goal is to bring the imports back and sell them at lower prices to customers in Shanghai."

Just what impact will the import fair have on Shanghai's retail? Jaslien Chen, senior research analyst at Mintel, says it's going to be massive.

JASLIEN CHEN, SR. RESEARCH ANALYST MINTEL "There is an expected potential about 10 trillion dollars will be generated from the secton. So it will provide both exporters and importers a lot of opportunities to drive their sales, to drive their consumers as well. It includes all the imported products and services, but a major part will be generated by the consuming commodities."

Even before the import fair, numbers enter the accounts, the city of Shanghai is a very big shopper. Shanghai customs approved more than 400 million separate international shipments from January to June this year, coincidentally taking in some 100 million yuan in duties. As of the end of June, 83 international commercial firms have set up branches in Shanghai, 73 of them e-commerce firms.