According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the first five months of this year reached 20.32 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%. Among them, the total retail sales of consumer goods in May reached 4.13 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%, with a growth rate 1.3 percentage points faster than the previous month. These data show that the positive trend of China's consumer market is more stable, and the consumption potential continues to be released. This year's Government Work Report has listed "vigorously boosting consumption" as the top priority task, and consumption has become the main force driving the expansion of domestic demand and strengthening the domestic circulation. At present, China's consumption is showing a good development trend, with the pace of commodity consumption upgrading accelerating. Service consumption such as catering, culture, tourism, sports, and health care is developing rapidly, and new consumption highlights such as inbound consumption, domestic "trendy" consumption, and digital consumption are constantly emerging. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, as of May 31, 2025, the five major categories of consumer goods trade in will drive a total sales revenue of 1.1 trillion yuan, and provide approximately 175 million direct subsidies to consumers. Green, intelligent, and high-quality products are accelerating their entry into millions of households, and consumer upgrading products such as new energy vehicles and green small appliances are performing well, promoting the upgrading of related manufacturing enterprises. During holidays, the consumption of services such as family meals, "traveling with movies", cross-border study tours, and health sports is rapidly developing, and immersive and experiential consumption models are popular. With the optimization of visa policy and the promotion of the policy of "buy and return" of tax rebate for departure across the country, foreign tourists can directly receive tax rebate when shopping, which has improved the willingness of foreigners to shop, and the willingness of foreign tourists to spend in many key shopping malls has increased significantly. A group of domestic "trendy" brands that incorporate elements of Chinese culture, technology, art, etc. have been favored by consumers, and the popularity of domestic products has significantly increased. While fully acknowledging the achievements, it should also be noted that current consumer demand still needs to expand and consumption potential needs to be further unleashed. To consolidate the positive trend of consumption, we need to focus on the key elements that promote consumption development, and make concerted efforts in enhancing consumption capacity, improving consumption conditions, innovating consumption scenarios, optimizing consumption environment, etc., so that consumption can play a greater role in enhancing the endogenous power and reliability of the domestic circulation and promoting the stable and far-reaching development of China's economy. Enhance consumer power. We need to increase the proportion of labor remuneration in the initial distribution, improve the mechanism for reasonable wage growth, increase the property income of urban and rural residents through multiple channels, and steadily expand the middle-income group. We need to increase the regulation of taxation, social security, transfer payments, etc., and focus on increasing the income of low-income groups. By implementing skills improvement, work for relief, and employment promotion actions, we aim to enhance the ability of low-income groups to increase their labor income. By supporting entrepreneurship training, providing entrepreneurial guarantee loans with interest subsidies and rewards, we aim to enhance the ability of low-income groups to increase their income through entrepreneurship. By strengthening measures such as pension security, education assistance, and medical assistance, the social security level of low-income groups can be improved, allowing the people to have more money and more confidence in consumption. Improve consumer conditions. With the continuous expansion of China's middle-income group, the demand for personalized, diversified, and high-quality consumption continues to grow. Only by focusing on increasing the supply of high-quality products and services, promoting the upgrading of commodity consumption, and expanding the quality of service consumption, can we better meet the needs of the people for a better life and further unleash consumption potential. Implement the policy of exchanging old for new consumer goods, promote the development of green consumption, intelligent consumption, healthy consumption, fashion consumption, etc., and accelerate the cultivation of new consumption growth points. To further consolidate and expand the consumption of new energy vehicles, promote the development of the automotive aftermarket, and enhance home decoration and home furnishing consumption. Deepen the implementation of the three-year action plan for county-level commerce, accelerate the filling of the shortcomings of rural commercial facilities, and promote the improvement and expansion of consumption quality in counties and townships. Innovative consumption scenarios. Innovative consumption scenarios can accurately match the needs of different groups and promote the integrated development of different consumption formats. To guide enterprises to utilize technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality to create diverse, immersive, and experiential consumption scenarios. To promote cross-border integration of business, travel, culture, and sports, enhance the functional quality of consumption carriers such as urban commercial districts and pedestrian streets, and make consumption scenarios more diverse and consumer experiences more varied. We should actively develop silver economy, ice and snow economy, night economy, etc., and expand new areas of consumption. To support the healthy development of new formats and models such as live streaming e-commerce and instant retail, and promote the organic integration of online and offline consumption. Optimize the consumption environment. A good consumption environment is an important guarantee for promoting sustained expansion of consumption. Strengthen market supervision, enhance consumer rights protection, and enable consumers to consume with peace of mind. Intensify the crackdown on illegal and irregular activities such as counterfeiting and false advertising, and create a fair competitive market environment. Create a friendly consumption environment for foreign tourists, optimize guidance, travel, payment and other services for foreign tourists, and enhance the comfort and convenience of inbound consumption. Strengthen the construction of the consumer credit system, improve the mechanism for handling consumer complaints, and enhance consumer satisfaction. Author: Dong Chao (Director of the Institute of Circulation and Consumption at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce)