China's consumer goods trade-in programs have prompted major companies and e-commerce platforms to offer attractive incentives, driving significant growth in the sales of major home appliances and furniture.
In the city of Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, a number of home furnishing and appliances companies have jointly launched a whole-home trade-in promotion. One home goods mall's "whole-home renewal" discounts have attracted a steady stream of customers.
"I just moved into a new house, and I'm here mainly to check out the whole-home package deals. The salesperson told me that I can get a discount of around 2,000-3,000 yuan (about 280-420 U.S. dollars) by trading in my old items, which is very helpful for me," said a local resident in the mall.
Beyond these home goods malls, some e-commerce platforms have also expanded their trade-in programs offline. An e-commerce mall in Chongqing Municipality neighboring Sichuan is offering up to 20 percent off for trading in old products, as well as promotions like "buy two, get one free" for home appliances.
"Other recyclers only give me a few dozen yuan for my old fridge, which doesn't seem worth it. But the fridge deal offered by the mall can get me at least 400 yuan for the trade-in, which I think is pretty substantial," said a Chongqing resident named Huang Xi.
Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that China's online retail sales reached 7.1 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, up 9.8 percent. Digital products, service consumption, and trade-in programs have become new growth points. E-commerce platforms have enabled over 400,000 product trade-ins across more than 300 categories, with fridge, washing machine, mobile phone and TV trade-in growth reaching 82.1 percent, 70.4 percent, 63.9 percent and 54.3 percent, respectively.
"During this year's 618 (June 18) Mid-Year Shopping Festival, with the support of the trade-in programs, over 700 home appliance and furniture brands saw their sales double year-over-year. Air conditioner trade-ins had the highest growth, surpassing 200 percent quarter-over-quarter," said Sun Jian, manager of an e-commerce store in Chongqing.
China's trade-in programs boost major home appliance sales
The rapid development of new technologies created broader job opportunities for gig workers who make a living from various temporary jobs, but lack the security of traditional employment, prompting the governments and market players to take measures to better protect the rights and interests of flexibly employed individuals.
China has a vast population of flexibly employed individuals, and the rapid development of the internet industry has sparked changes in the job market, making it easier for young people to find such jobs, but the market remains largely unregulated.
Last September, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council unveiled a set of guidelines to promote high-quality and sufficient employment by implementing the employment-first strategy.
The country will improve the social security system for flexible employees, migrant workers and people in new forms of employment, and lifted household registration restrictions for social insurance enrollment in employment locations.
China will promote the coverage of unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance, and housing provident funds to professional workers.
In China, social insurance typically includes old-age pensions, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, occupational injury insurance and maternity insurance.
Meanwhile, China is expanding the pilot program of occupational injury protection for people in new employment forms. Over the past two years since the pilot program began, more than 10 million people, including couriers, takeout delivery workers, and online car-hailing drivers, have signed up for it. China will increase the number of pilot provinces from seven to 17, and gradually implemented it nationwide.
Employment injury scheme provides protection to an employee against accident or an occupational disease arising out of and in the course of his employment.
Major food delivery platforms in China announced last month that they will offer social insurance benefits for their delivery riders, which both riders and experts believe will better protect the rights of people working in the industry.
JD, a Chinese e-commerce platform that launched its food delivery service in February, announced it would gradually provide social insurance plus a housing provident fund for full-time delivery riders, and accident and health insurance for part-time riders starting from March 1.
Before expanding into food delivery, JD had already been providing social insurance for its express deliverymen.
On the same day, Meituan, another prominent on-demand service platform, made a similar announcement, revealing plans to provide social insurance for its full-time and stable delivery riders starting in the second quarter of 2025.
"As policy support builds up, the calls for standardized management in these platform companies will get louder and louder, prompting them to take measures. The companies will get fully-fledged," said Zhou Wenxia, professor of the School of Labor and Human Resources under Renmin University of China.
China supports flexible, informal employment through better social security
