Shopping with your heart, not your head

Emotional value

The topiary dog is now being considered for cultural and creative product development, according to Jing'an district officials.

At a news conference in mid-May, Shen Weihua, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, defined the retail boost associated with the popular attraction as "emotion-driven consumption". The city will come up with more unconventional scenarios to provide new consumer experiences, he said, adding that stimulating consumption would be a major mission for the municipal government in the coming years.

The Chinese consumer market has entered a new age, according to Joanna Lu, a partner at consulting company Bain & Co. "The core of consumption is 'love'. People are looking for meaning and emotional value from different experiences. That is why consumption is more driven by scenarios, social groups and sentiments," she said.

Liu Gongrun, deputy director at the CEIBS Lujiazui International Institute of Finance, said the Chinese consumer market has been undergoing a revolution, moving from buying tangible goods to savoring intangible services. Consumer satisfaction has been upgraded from goods to value, Liu said.

In 2025, China's sales of services grew 5.5 percent from a year earlier, 1.7 percentage points higher than that of goods, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Moreover, service consumption has consistently outpaced goods consumption for years.

A look at the consumption habits of wealthy Chinese also provides an insight into the changing consumer market, as industry figures predict future lifestyle trends.

Consumption in China has been rapidly transforming from "possessing things" to "prioritizing experiences", the Hurun Research Institute, which has been researching affluent Chinese for nearly three decades, said in a report in January.

The size of the Chinese high-end consumer market contracted 5 percent year-on-year to 1.56 trillion yuan in 2025. In addition, the super rich plan to cut their annual expenditure on luxury watches and jewelry by 10 percent over the next three years. However, they have increased their budgets for experience-based consumption, such as travel and health management, by 12 percent.

"The super rich no longer consider consumption as a tool to demonstrate their identity. Life quality and emotional satisfaction are of greater value to them," said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and chief researcher of Hurun.