BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua Silk Road) -- Consumption of smart technology products has emerged as a highlight of summer spending in China, with sales of AI-equipped home appliances and 3C products accounting for over half of the total sales from July to the end of August, Xinhua-run China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday.
According to data from China's e-commerce platform Suning.com, as of the end of August, sales of home appliances and 3C products equipped with AI functions accounted for 55 percent of total sales since July, while the penetration rate of AI-powered smartphones surpassed 50 percent for the first time.
In the home appliance sector, sales of washer-dryer sets equipped with AI-based material recognition rose 47 percent month on month.
For the 3C (computer, communications and consumer electronics) products, sales of laptops featuring on-device AI rose 39 percent year on year, while sales of AI-powered drones and action cameras surged 139 percent and 122 percent month on month, respectively.
With continued policy support, smart consumption is expanding to a market scale worth tens of trillions of yuan.
Seven government departments, including the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and the National Development and Reform Commission, unveiled an implementing guideline to expand and upgrade consumer goods consumption recently, aiming to bring total retail sales of consumer goods to around 60 trillion yuan (about 8.85 trillion U.S. dollars) by 2030. The guideline calls for fostering 10-trillion-yuan markets in areas such as green, smart and healthcare consumption by 2030.
Earlier, an implementation guideline to accelerate the development of "artificial intelligence (AI) plus consumption" was released by the MOC and seven other government departments in June 2026, including 17 measures in five areas to promote deeper integration of AI with consumer markets by expanding smart product consumption, empowering services consumption and creating new consumption scenarios.
"The integration of AI with consumption is an inevitable choice as consumption shifts toward higher quality and more personalized experiences," said Li Jiaying, an associate research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
Li believes China should make full use of AI's technological advantages to optimize product design and service models, allowing demand to drive supply. At the same time, AI-driven innovation in application scenarios can significantly enhance the consumer experience, cultivate new consumption trends and create demand through new supply. (Edited by Li Xueqing with Xinhua Silk Road, lixueqing@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
