(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 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 - a potential boon for popular brands such as Lululemon and L’Oreal.
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 noted that hair cutting kits and condoms were among its most ten most popular items, while JD.com 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.
Source: Reuters; Reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Brenda Goh and Edwina Gibbs
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