Dai Li, the owner of a grocery in Wuhan, Hubei Province in central China, has become busy again these days, as offline sales rebound and the epidemic wanes. "Many people have come to use their consumption coupons handed out by the Wuhan Municipal Government. The revenue of the store doubled from the previous months during the May Day Holiday," she told China Comment magazine. Wuhan was once hit hard by the novel coronavirus epidemic.  

After the distribution of consumption coupons through digital payment platforms such as Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Pay in many areas, the sales of small stores across China have gradually picked up as consumers return to physical stores. Small stores are roadside stores managed by self-employed individuals or small and micro-sized enterprises. According to an annual report released by Alipay in 2019, around 52 percent of the small stores have less than five employees, with the daily revenue of less than 30,000 yuan ($4,241). 

According to the latest report released by Alipay on May 6, the daily revenue of over 8 million small stores in China during the May Day Holiday exceeded that in the corresponding period in 2019, with more than 5 million stores earning over twice as much in a single day than they did during the same holiday last year.  

Compared with March, the transaction volume of small stores went up by 86 percent and the transaction value increased by 32 percent during the holiday. Nearly 50 percent of the small stores extended business hours for the holiday, with more than 10 percent increasing the business hours by over six hours, the report said. 

Chinese small stores owners are exploring to digitalize their business modes through digital coupons, livestreaming and delivery services. Around 84 percent of the small stores view consumption coupons delivered via online platforms helpful for their businesses,  according to the report.  

Data from Alipay showed that over 100 Chinese cities handed out consumption coupons to local residents through its app as of May 6, driving around 5 billion yuan ($704 million) of sales during the holiday.  

As key indicators and driving forces of economic activities, small stores bring convenience to people's lives while also helping provide jobs, Pan Helin, acting dean of the Digital Economy Institute at the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told Beijing Review. According to Alipay's report released in 2019, more than 50 percent of the stores increased the number of employees that year, employing around 300 million people in total. 

Since the epidemic forced people to stay indoors and shop online, sales of small stores cooled down during the preceding months. As Wang Bin, an official with the Ministry of Commerce, told a press conference on March 28, the businesses of nearly 60 million small stores across China were affected due to the epidemic. 

To help small stores reopen as the epidemic situation improved, policies such as tax cuts and rental reduction have been introduced. Wang Shiyu, an official with the State Administration of Taxation, said at a press conference on March 28 that the government has introduced preferential policies such as exempting value-added tax on the revenue of the service sectors for a certain period. 

Although the small stores have accelerated business resumption, difficulties caused by the epidemic are still lingering. "Problems such as shortage of funds and rising costs are not yet addressed for many small stores. The key is to further drive up domestic demand to boost store sales," Pan said. 

Copyedited by Madhusudan Chaubey 

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