Visitors wear smart glasses during the sixth China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, April 13, 2026. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)
BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer market is finding new growth momentum in services and smart products, reflecting shifting spending patterns as the country seeks to strengthen domestic demand.
Consumption remained the largest contributor to China's economic growth in the first three quarters of 2026, accounting for 46.7 percent of the expansion, up 0.7 percentage points from the first half of the year, the Ministry of Commerce said Friday.
Services consumption has emerged as a bright spot. Retail sales of services rose 5 percent year on year during the period, outpacing goods retail sales by 4 percentage points, as China's consumption structure continued to evolve.
Technology-driven products are another source of emerging demand. Sales of smart glasses on major platforms monitored by the ministry rose 110 percent year on year in value during the first nine months, while sales of exoskeleton assistive devices and embodied intelligent robots increased 46.4 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively.
Guotai Haitong Securities said in a research report that artificial intelligence (AI) glasses are moving beyond early experimentation toward mass-market adoption as the industry enters a growth phase.
Demand for green and health-related products is also expanding. Sales of organic food on major platforms monitored by the ministry rose 6.4 percent year on year during the period, while the retail penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles reached 67 percent in September.
The emerging trends are taking shape as China steps up efforts to boost consumption and promote closer integration between technological innovation and consumer demand. The country has released new guidelines to promote the application of AI and other advanced technologies in commerce as part of efforts to expand consumer demand, upgrade traditional businesses and improve the efficiency of goods distribution.
China's AI industry has expanded rapidly, with AI-powered smartphones, intelligent connected vehicles and humanoid robots among the products seeing broader application.
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