Ministry of Commerce: Promote the retail industry to shift towards quality-driven and service-driven.

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 9th - Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping stated on the 9th that during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the retail industry should be regarded as a key focal point in nurturing a complete domestic demand system and strengthening the domestic large circulation, promoting the industry to shift towards quality-driven and service-driven development to achieve high-quality development. The National Retail Innovation and Development Conference was held in Beijing from the 9th to the 10th. Sheng Qiuping stated at the meeting that the retail industry still needs to further strengthen aspects such as network layout, supply-demand alignment, and balance between online and offline channels. It is necessary to adhere to honest operation, win consumer favor with high-quality products and services, promote the transformation of commercial facilities from space leasing to scene operation and ecological construction, and enhance the level of sustainable development. It is necessary to learn from and promote good experiences and practices of enterprises such as Pinduoduo, accelerate transformation, and upgrading. It is necessary to pay more attention to the sinking market, develop new formats, new models, and new scenarios, stimulate consumption potential. It is necessary to guide each other's strengths, promote flow mutual guidance, experience mutual complement, data interconnection, and supply chain collaboration, achieve deep integration, mutual dependence, win-win cooperation, and coexistence. It is necessary to fully play the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, give full play to the government's role, and create a fair competition environment. Reporters learned at the meeting that since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the retail industry has made significant contributions to promoting consumption and investment. In 2024, the national total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 3.5% year-on-year. In the first three quarters of 2025, the retail sales of convenience stores, supermarkets, department stores, specialty stores, and brand specialty stores in retail enterprises above the quota increased by 6.4%, 4.4%, 0.9%, 4.8%, and 1.5% respectively. Since last year, the Ministry of Commerce has promoted the innovation and improvement project of the retail industry. 38 pilot cities actively promoted the transformation of existing commercial facilities with the "one store, one strategy" approach. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance successively identified 40 pilot projects for the construction of a modern commerce and trade distribution system, 50 pilot projects for new formats, new models, and new scenarios of consumption, and 15 pilot projects for the construction of an internationalized consumption environment, supporting investments in commercial and trade circulation projects, including the retail industry, to significantly drive investment benefits. About 100 people, including responsible persons from the commerce departments of 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, as well as relevant industry associations, research institutions, financial institutions, and business representatives, attended the meeting. Participants stated that the conference has pointed out the direction for the transformation, innovation, and development of the retail industry and boosted confidence. This article is from Xinhua News Agency, edited by GMTEight: Jiang Yuanhua.