At the beginning of the new year, home furnishing consumption got off to a strong start. After the "national subsidy" went online on JD.com at midnight on January 1, eligibility for Beijing's national subsidy was snapped up instantly. Shanghai launched its first round of registration, with consumers applying enthusiastically. Shenzhen launched its 2026 home appliance and digital product subsidy renewal campaign, and major smart home and home appliance stores saw growth in both customer traffic and sales. New Year's Day and the Spring Festival are peak seasons for home furnishing consumption. Combined with the "new national subsidy," the Notice on Implementing Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In Policies in 2026, the Notice on Strengthening Coordination between Commerce and Finance to More Vigorously Boost Consumption, and other consumption-stimulating policies, the home furnishing market has achieved a strong start in 2026 under the combined push of policy dividends, platform support, and backing from financial institutions.

Policy dividends stimulate consumption vitality

New Year's Day and the Spring Festival have always been peak seasons for home furnishing consumption, and this year's series of consumption-stimulating policies has added further confidence to the market. The Notice on Implementing Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In Policies in 2026, officially implemented from January 1, 2026, has become a key driver of consumption growth in the home furnishing market. The policy clearly expands the digital product category eligible for consumer goods subsidies into digital and smart products, and allows local governments to independently implement subsidies for smart home products, including aging-friendly home products, according to local conditions. This adjustment precisely fits current livelihood needs and consumption upgrading trends, bringing smart home products and others into the scope of support, while also subsidizing trade-ins for home appliances that meet Level 1. energy efficiency or water efficiency standards.

Hong Yong, associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said that the policy has been further optimized and adjusted, bringing more digital-intelligent products and aging-friendly home products into the subsidy scope. It will cover more consumers' needs for a better life and reflects the fundamental principle of benefiting people's livelihoods. This policy has brought huge consumption momentum to the home furnishing market, encouraging consumers to leave home, enter stores, and start their home renewal journey.

Platforms and merchants work together to seize the consumer spotlight

Multiple online and offline platforms, including JD.com and Suning.com, quickly undertook the implementation of national subsidies and launched supporting activities and services, providing more convenience for consumers to renew their homes. Home furnishing merchants also keenly seized this critical opportunity, promptly increased quotas, improved the convenience of redeeming national subsidies, updated and adjusted subsidy categories at the right time, and closely followed policy dividends in an effort to achieve new growth in the new year.

Data shows that during the three days of New Year's Day, customer traffic at Suning.com stores nationwide increased by 110% month on month, with Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou becoming the hottest cities for national subsidy consumption. During the same period, Fuzhou's consumer goods trade-in redemptions, excluding automobiles, reached nearly RMB 16 million, driving RMB 125 million in consumption. From January 1. to 2, Hebei Province recorded a total of 133,600 sales transactions for home appliances, digital products, and smart home products, with total sales reaching RMB 590 million. In the new year, the home furnishing market is fully seizing the consumer spotlight through a combined model of "policy + scenarios + experience."

Financial support safeguards consumption

In addition, the Ministry of Commerce, the People's Bank of China, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration recently jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening Coordination between Commerce and Finance to More Vigorously Boost Consumption, putting forward measures from multiple aspects around increasing financial support for key consumption areas. A relevant person in charge of the Housing Finance and Personal Credit Department of China Construction Bank said that financial institutions will deeply cultivate financial services, optimize consumer loan products, fully support consumption in the home decoration field, and meet customers' comprehensive consumption needs such as post-home-purchase renovation, remodeling, and smart home selection. This measure provides strong financial support for consumers in the process of home furnishing consumption, enabling them to realize their dreams of home renewal more easily and further promoting the prosperity of the home furnishing consumer market.

The New Year Shopping Festival helps upgrade home furnishing consumption

JD.com has also added fuel to new-year home furnishing consumption. On January 12, JD Jingxi Self-operated officially announced the launch of its New Year Shopping Festival, which will continue until February 23. The festival enriches supply around multiple popular scenarios, including festive food, New Year gifts, cleaning and renewal, and lucky red outfits. It joins hands with tens of thousands of factories from more than 260 industrial belts nationwide to sell in-stock New Year goods, providing consumers with carefully selected, high-quality, and highly cost-effective products.

To meet the concentrated surge in consumer demand nationwide, Jingxi Self-operated has further expanded the coverage of its "factory goods hundred-subsidy plan." Through tens of billions of yuan in subsidies, it integrates high-quality New Year goods from the source of industrial belts across China, bringing popular products across all categories such as household goods, furniture and building materials, home cleaning products, and paper products. In response to Spring Festival decoration renewal and home appliance and home furnishing upgrade needs, Jingxi offers high-cost-performance products shipped directly from factories: furniture and building materials starting at 50% off, limited-time 15% subsidies for categories such as sofas and bathroom products, and limited-time small sun heaters at RMB 19.9. For New Year home cleaning, quality home cleaning products are available for RMB 9.9.

JD.com data shows that before the Spring Festival, searches for the keyword "IKEA" increased threefold month on month. Against the backdrop of continuously changing consumption habits, consumers' yearning for "home" and their affection for IKEA remain strong. During New Year's Day and the Spring Festival, JD.com first launched "instant delivery service" in key cities such as Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Jinan. Within about 10 kilometers around stores, whether consumers urgently need small home storage items or home accessories, they can enjoy fast fulfillment similar to food delivery, greatly improving the shopping experience and further stimulating home furnishing consumption.

Opportunities and challenges coexist in the new year

In recent years, the home furnishing market has remained sluggish, and industry competition has intensified. For merchants, the Spring Festival peak season is both a rare opportunity and a considerable challenge. On one hand, policy dividends, platform activities, and financial support bring merchants more customer sources and sales opportunities, helping improve performance and achieve a strong start in the new year. On the other hand, merchants also need to operate prudently and avoid falling into the situation of "losing money for publicity." In fierce market competition, merchants must reasonably plan costs, optimize products and services, and enhance their own competitiveness in order to truly seize opportunities and achieve sustainable development.

The strong start of the new-year home furnishing consumer market has injected powerful confidence and momentum into the entire industry. Driven jointly by policies, platforms, finance, and other forces, the home furnishing market is expected to usher in a better development situation in the new year.

Source: Consumer Daily