Spring Festival in China usually sees a “mass migration” of workers returning from big cities to their hometowns to celebrate with their families, but many are choosing not to travel for the holidays this year in efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
This phenomenon has given rise to new trends in the flow of people and goods: while workers would often bring New Year supplies and gifts home with them in previous years, this festive period is seeing an influx of goods from rural areas to urban hubs as family members use express delivery services to send local specialties to loved ones staying in the metropolitan cities they work in.
According to Cainiao, Alibaba Group’s logistics arm, from Jan. 20-31, there was more than a 20% year-over-year increase in the number of packages sent from small counties to the big cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou and close to a 30% increase for packages to Shanghai.
Aside from using digital logistics networks to send a taste of home to relatives who can’t travel, many are also turning to e-commerce platforms to order Chinese New Year Gifts for others, with searches for CNY-related products increasing 23-fold on Taobao from Jan. 20 to Feb. 4. To celebrate the festive season, New Retail supermarket Freshippo launched its Chinese New Year Festival on Jan. 4 and has become a popular shopping destination for those looking to send Spring Festival gifts to friends and families living in different cities across the country. In January alone, the number of orders with delivery cities that were different from their order-placement locations accounted for 19% of total purchases though the Freshippo app.