China Issues Guidelines to Boost Lower-Tier Markets as Rural Retail Sales Rise 2.4%

The Ministry of Commerce and nine government departments jointly issued the Opinions on Further Invigorating Lower-Tier Markets and Activating County-Level Consumption, setting out policy arrangements to expand consumption and facilitate circulation, with the county as the core vehicle of lower-tier markets. From January to July 2026, national rural consumer goods retail sales rose 2.4% year on year, 1.3 percentage points higher than the urban growth rate, maintaining faster growth for 55 consecutive months. County and township consumption accounted for 39.1% of total retail sales of consumer goods. As the county-level commercial system continues to develop, commercial outlets at the county, township, and village levels have achieved full coverage, rural online retail sales have exceeded RMB 3 trillion, and the number of rural online merchants continues to grow.

County-level consumer markets are showing quality-oriented consumption, two-way circulation, and diversified business formats. Qixian county in Henan province has built an intelligent consolidated warehouse and joint distribution center, establishing an urban-rural delivery system that provides direct express delivery to administrative villages within one to three hours and brings high-end goods into the county market. Changsha county in Hunan province has integrated logistics resources at three levels, clearing the last mile for express delivery into villages and reducing the cost of selling local agricultural specialties outside the county. Ningjin county in Shandong province has introduced county-wide instant retail services, achieving full township coverage of convenience services such as fresh food and pharmaceuticals and accelerating the integration of online and offline operations. Chain brands are entering county and township markets with lightweight models, new formats such as nighttime economies and rural micro-vacations have emerged, and the number of small and micro business operators has increased.

In terms of circulation patterns, the traditional one-way flow of industrial goods to rural areas has been broken, urban-rural two-way circulation channels have been opened, and a cycle of industrial goods going to the countryside and agricultural products going to the cities has taken shape. At the same time, real obstacles remain to improving the quality and expanding the scale of county-level consumption: commercial facilities in some counties are outdated, and supporting conditions for chain enterprises expanding into lower-tier markets are insufficient; the cultivation of local specialty brands is relatively weak, and commercial homogenization is prominent; logistics costs remain high in some areas, income gaps among rural residents objectively exist, and the operating burden on small and micro merchants still needs to be eased.