Chongqing- August 4th was the traditional Qixi Festival, also known as the Chinese Valentine's Day, when flower shops, supermarkets, and hotels in Chongqing experienced an increase in gift sales.

The festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month on the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Rare flowers, lipstick, and guesthouses were new trends at this year's Qixi Festival. 

Popular personalized bouquets of rare roses

As classic Qixi gifts, flower consumption has been in high demand recently.

"We received more than 500 orders before the Qixi Festival," said a flower shop owner in Nanping Wanda Square. "The price will rise by 50% to 100% on that day, which is why many people choose to place their orders in advance."

Yu Shui, head of floral sales at the fresh vegetable e-commerce platform Dingdong Maicai, revealed that the supply of flowers is sufficient than last year, so the price has been stable and slightly lower. "We aimed to sell more than one million roses during this Qixi Festival," said Yu.

A new change is that many users opt for a personalized bouquet of rare roses instead of red roses.

"The number of rose categories on our platform has increased by nearly 50% compared to last year, and rare roses were quite popular," said Yu. "Flamingo, Golden Coast, and Crushed Ice Blue have become the top-selling rare roses of our platform in Chongqing, accounting for more than 10% of the total rose sales now."

Data from Fresh Hema shows that a wide variety of hydrangea, double lily, and other rare flowers was mainstream consumption at this Qixi Festival.

Various hydrangea occupied the center position at the Chongqing Hema store, ranging from 9.9 yuan to 29.9 yuan. "Rather than selecting random colors, many consumers chose their favorite varieties this year," said the person in charge of Hema Garden.

Post-90s account for bulk of commercial consumption

According to JD.com, Qixi gift boxes, lipsticks, necklaces, perfumes, and red wine have become the most popular Qixi gifts.

There has been an increase of 103% in retail sales of lipsticks in the new department store in Jingdong during the period July 24th to June 29th, an increase of 280% in gold jewelry sales, a 400% increase in watches, a 120% increase in fashion accessories, and a 120% increase in aromatherapy sales during the same period.

Interestingly, searches for "gift for girlfriend" are 1.7 times more than for "gift for boyfriend." However, the ratio of gift-giving between men and women is almost 1:1.

Many men do not know how to choose gifts and need to search, while women have already thought about what they want.

Furthermore, data also reveals that the post-00s and post-95s accounted for 69.3% of Qixi gift consumption, while the post-90s generation accounted for the most significant number of people who gave gifts, making this group that is the most likely to enjoy the festival.

Enjoying Qixi Festival with kids is a new trend

According to Ctrip's 2022 Qixi Festival data, Chongqing ranks fifth among the top ten most popular cities for domestic hotel reservations. Hotel bookings in the city increased by 246% year over year; high-end hotel bookings increased by 168% year-on-year.

Featured experiences are still the focus of consumers. Compared to last year, Ctrip reports that the number of unique hotels and hourly room bookings has more than doubled, and the number of guesthouse bookings has nearly tripled.

In addition, enjoying the festival with kids, playing games in an e-sports hotel, or watching a romantic movie in a video room has also become popular for families and couples to celebrate the Qixi Festival.

According to data from Ctrip, the bookings of parent-child rooms and audio-visual rooms at the Qixi Festival have increased nearly three times yearly, and the bookings of e-sports rooms have increased by 161%.

Huang Xiaojie, Chief Marketing Officer of Qunar, said this year's trend is a rise in mid-to-high-end hotels. "Now couples choose hotels as part of their anniversary celebration to gain a new experience other than rest." According to him, festivals tend to release pressure on young consumers and give them a sense of freshness with the change in consumption concept.