Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

In a refinement of its consumption statistics, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday introduced the "online retail sales of goods and services" indicator, replacing the long-standing "online retail sales" measure. More than a technical recalibration, this change carries profound implications, representing a positive response to the evolving dynamics of China's consumption upgrade.

At a press conference on Monday, Fu Linghui, spokesperson and chief economist of the NBS, elaborated on this statistical adjustment, clarifying the core meaning and significance of the new indicator. Far from being a mere rebranding, this optimization represents an alignment with China's digital consumption landscape and the ongoing transformation of its consumption structure. Beneath this shift lies the robust vitality of China's consumer market and the emerging drivers of domestic demand growth.

Specifically, the new "online retail sales of goods and services" indicator expands the scope of online services platforms covered and strengthens the measurement of online retail sales of services. This allows statistics to more comprehensively and accurately reflect the complete picture of current online consumption. 

This change is an inevitable result of the digital economy's deep penetration into the consumption sector. With the widespread application of technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and big data, the time and space constraints of traditional services consumption have been broken, and the speed of consumption scenario migration from physical outlets to online sources has accelerated significantly. New forms of services consumption, such as online education, telemedicine, digital entertainment and local life services, have developed vigorously and become an indispensable part of daily life across China. 

The previous "online retail sales" indicator, although able to reflect the basic situation of online goods consumption, had limitations in its statistical scope. It was difficult to fully cover various emerging online services consumption scenarios, leading to the underestimation of the growth of some services consumption and failing to fully present the structural changes in China's consumption market. 

The launch of the new indicator has addressed this shortcoming, incorporating more online services platforms into statistics, thus aligning statistical data with the actual development of the consumption market.

If anything, the latest consumption data from January and February provides strong evidence for the necessity of this adjustment and clearly outlines the trajectory of China's consumption transformation. In the first two months of 2026, China's online retail sales of goods and services reached 3.25 trillion yuan ($471 billion), a year-on-year increase of 9.2 percent, according to data released by the NBS on Monday. During the same period, total retail sales of consumer goods grew by 2.8 percent year-on-year. The growth rate of the new indicator significantly outpaced overall consumption growth.

A breakdown of the data shows that online retail sales of goods surged 10.3 percent during the January-February period, while online retail sales of services grew by 7.3 percent. Although the growth rate for services slightly trailed that of goods, its steady upward trajectory as an emerging growth driver is noteworthy. These figures clearly illustrate that China's consumption structure is accelerating its shift from a goods-dominated model to a dual-engine system powered by both goods and services. Increasingly, online services are evolving from a supplementary spending category into a major growth engine for consumption.

The statistical adjustment sends a strong signal about the continuous upgrading of China's consumer market. The rapid expansion of services consumption fundamentally reflects rising personal incomes and a profound shift in consumer preferences. As demand for developmental and experiential consumption - such as education, health, culture, and entertainment - continues to grow, the digital economy is doing more than just creating new consumption scenarios. It is also enabling precise matching between supply and demand, allowing high-quality services resources to achieve large-scale diffusion and further unlocking latent consumption potential.

In this sense, the growth in online services retail is both a product of consumption upgrading and a driving force for its continued deepening. It signals that China's super-sized market advantage is expanding into new dimensions, further strengthening the sustainability of domestic demand. 

By integrating these emerging forms of consumption into the official statistics, the new indicator not only quantifies the achievements of consumption upgrading but also sharpens public awareness of the vast potential still waiting to be unleashed in the services sector. As digital innovation continues to reshape consumer behavior and expectations, China's consumption landscape is poised for even broader and more dynamic expansion.