Gift market grossed Rmb200 billion in 2008

Thanks to low production costs and high profit margins, the gift industry has generated excellent profits.

With 1.3 billion people in China, there are about 2.3 million birthday celebrations per day. Assuming 10 birthday gifts per person, 23 million birthday presents are bought every day, worth perhaps Rmb230 million in aggregate daily sales.

Chinese New Year and other festive occasions are also motivating for consumers. Major traditional events include the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, Qingming, the Dragon Boat Festival, Double Seventh Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chongyang Festival (the Double Ninth Festival).

Home decorating items.

Soap graces the gift market.

In addition, there are statutory holidays to celebrate New Year's Day, 8 March International Women's Day, 1 May Labour Day, 1 June International Children's Day, Teacher's Day, and 1 October National Day, all of which have their significance. Celebrations are invariably held and souvenirs given.

Younger people are also open to the influence of western culture and will do their best to convey their affection by observing the right etiquette and holding celebrations on Christmas and Valentine's Day.

Changing business practices play their part in the market. In today's Mainland market, personal contacts and public relations play an important role in the development of interpersonal connections and the expansion of social and market resources.

People are expected to show goodwill to their business partners, target customers, clients, and parties who control resources. So, people take time at festivals, with some enterprises offering gifts to their staff as an important means of enhancing corporate unity.

So the corporate gift and premium market is beginning to take off.

An agency specialising in festive products conducted a market survey. There were people who offered a large number of gifts (as many as 67). The survey found that the average was 3.9 times.

As far as the value of the gifts was concerned, the most expensive cost Rmb1,288 and the cheapest just Rmb11. On average, each person spends Rmb35.6 on gifts each year. Data on China's gift industry showed that the gift market grossed Rmb180 billion in 2006 and exceeded Rmb230 billion in 2008.