The Spring Festival, also know as Chinese New Year, is the country's most important traditional holiday, marking the peak season for consumer spending — driven by family reunions, travel, dining, entertainment and gift purchases.

This year spending has seen a big splurge on tech goods, with AI glasses, AI toys and other products that were once "niche and pioneering" now finding their way onto many consumers' festival shopping lists.

It highlights the diverse potential of China's consumer market, a result of the joint drive of policy support, consumption upgrade, technological iteration and the evolution of the industrial chain.

At Huaqiangbei, the world's largest electronics market in Shenzhen, a Spring Festival shopping fair is in full swing. Sales of consumer electronics, smart devices and AI wearables have risen by around 30 percent compared to off peak levels, according to a Global Times report.

"AI glasses with translation functions and AI toys that can accompany children are very popular," said a distributor at Huaqiangbei.

In January, multiple e-commerce platforms launched Spring Festival shopping campaigns. Data shows that the search volume for AI toys soared. For example, the number of searches for AI toys on China's largest retailer JD.com, has increased by 125 percent year-on-year.

The consumption craze for tech goods is supported by government policies. In December 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in subsidy policies for consumer goods in 2026, with smart glasses now included on the subsidy list.

For individual consumers buying any mobile phone, tablet, PC, smart watch, and smart glasses priced at under 6,000 RMB, a government subsidy of 15 percent will be provided.

Behind the diverse and novel tech goods lies the rapid development of China's evolved industrial chains. Enterprises have established a complete industrial ecosystem that integrates technology R&D, core components manufacturing and assembly.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's digital industry is developing rapidly. By the end of 2025, the industrial revenue exceeded 38 trillion RMB. The country now has one hundred 5G-enabled manufacturing plants that have reached world-leading performance levels, with an average production capacity increase of 25 percent and operating costs reduced by 19 percent.