Two events in the first half of November are set to push domestic consumption and imports to new highs. The China International Import Expo (CIIE) from November 4 till 10 and the Single’s Day shopping extravaganza on November 11.

The CIIE will welcome more than 70% of the world’s Fortune 500 companies and major players in different industries, which also participated in the first two editions, as well as newcomers to the Expo, including U.S. medical devices company Abbott, Swiss luxury goods group Richemont and French tire manufacturer Michelin. The number of Japanese exhibitors passed 400, up 10% from last year’s Expo, while the number of French exhibitors increased by 7% to 80. The Expo’s total exhibition area has been expanded by 30,000 square meters, covering six exhibitions – food and agricultural products, automobiles, equipment, consumer goods, healthcare and services. Altogether, 112,000 domestic companies from across the country have formed 39 trade missions, and the number of registered professional buyers reached 400,000. Two-thirds of them come from China’s three major economic engines – the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Almost 1,400 of the companies import more than USD100 million in goods annually. Vice Mayor of Shanghai Chen Yin said the city has attached great importance to epidemic control and has taken a series of measures to ensure the safety of the Expo amid the Covid-19 pandemic, including an over-arching epidemic prevention plan, 23 special programs, six contingency response plans in case of an outbreak, and 13 technical protocols and manuals. Among the measures, all Expo participants will need to take Covid-19 tests and temperature checks, and submit health declarations. Visitors from overseas will undergo a 14-day quarantine. In the Expo venue, five medical stations and 25 temporary observation zones with 400 medics are ready to receive Covid-19 cases or other emergencies. Across the city, 33 hospitals were designated to handle any emergency cases from the Expo. This year’s Expo will not be open to the general public and there will not be extended exhibitions as in previous editions, but many of the products displayed will continue to be available to Chinese buyers and consumers at 56 trade and shopping centers across the city, the China Daily reports.

About 66% of Chinese consumers will buy domestic brands during the upcoming Singles’ Day online shopping festival around November 11, and the majority of them cite “patriotism” as a primary reason, a survey from AlixPartners, a global consulting firm, showed. The survey, which covered more than 2,000 consumers across China, also showed that 57% said that they will spend less on U.S. brands than they did last year. In a July survey by the Global Times, 63.7% of respondents said they had less trust in and preference for U.S. products. Interest in products from India, Australia, Japan and the UK also dropped.

Analysts said that although consumers’ brand preference is linked to geopolitics, the shift to domestic brands is also due to the increasing quality and competitiveness of Chinese brands. “When I was choosing a rowing machine online, I found some domestic brands such as Xiaomi have higher ratings than foreign brands, as well as being more cost-effective and using the latest technology,” Irene Chen, a Beijing-based white-collar worker, told the Global Times. “If Chinese brands are indeed better than foreign ones, why should we insist on buying foreign brands?”, Chen said. Moreover, analysts said that Chinese consumers, especially young ones, are becoming more rational and focused on product quality rather than its origin. The survey found that 39 percent of Chinese consumers plan to spend more during the Single’s Day shopping spree this year than last year. Only 15% plan to spend less, citing lingering concerns over the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, according to the AlixPartners survey.

This year is the 11th anniversary of Double 11, which Alibaba first staged in 2009, when 24-hour sales totaled USD7.8 million. Last year, USD39.5 billion in sales were reported. Meanwhile, the shopping festival has been stretched out over several weeks. In the first nine months of this year, online retail sales rose 9.7% from a year earlier to CNY6.65 trillion, with food and apparel making up about 55% of the physical goods sold.