Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

MARKED by a sharp jump of 50 places, Shenzhen’s consumer satisfaction has catapulted from 57th place nationwide in 2020 to seventh place in 2023, outperforming the other three Chinese first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

According to the China Consumers Association’s 2023 consumer satisfaction evaluation report of 100 cities, Shenzhen ranked seventh in the country with a score of 89.89. This is its highest ranking since the evaluation began in 2017. The report was released ahead of World Consumer Rights Day, which falls on Friday.

The city took the 12th spot in the consumer satisfaction ranking in 2022.

In 2023, the top 10 cities for consumer satisfaction were Wuxi, Hangzhou, Foshan, Suzhou, Qingdao, Yantai, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Beijing, and Yichang.

The evaluation defines consumer satisfaction as the emotional feedback of consumers on supply, the consumption environment, and consumer rights protections during the process of purchasing goods or receiving services. It is a subjective perception of consumers measured in the form of a percentage system.

The year-by-year improvement in Shenzhen’s consumer satisfaction is attributable to the city’s enhanced efforts in market regulation, product quality control, and service improvement, according to the Shenzhen Consumer Council.

Statistics from the council show that Shenzhen has over 10,000 businesses that have joined the city’s business integrity program and another program that allows customers to return goods without offering a reason within seven days of in-person shopping.

These businesses cover various industries including retail, catering, household items, home appliances, education and training, automobiles, real estate, and health care.

According to the city’s consumer council, it handled over 280,000 consumer complaints in 2023 and supported consumer litigation efforts to recover nearly 800,000 yuan (US$111,240) in economic losses.

Meanwhile, 27 consumer education bases have been established across the city including one national consumer education base that focuses on digital consumption.

In its latest digital efforts in exploring the possibilities of interaction between digitalization and consumers, Shenzhen launched the country’s first digital persons of a consumer organization March 11.

The digital persons were designed to serve as dispute mediators, newscasters, policy analysts, publicity agents, and consumer rights protection volunteers.