Sam’s Club Guangzhou Liwan Store officially opened its doors on December 22, marking the third Sam’s Club outlet in the city. Just three days earlier, on December 19, China Resources MixC Lifestyle’s first operational project in Guangzhou—Guangzhou Baiyun MixC—was inaugurated. These two launches are merely the tip of the iceberg of Guangzhou’s year-end commercial boom.
From Sam’s Club Liwan Store and Julongwan Taikoo Li in Liwan District, to Baiyun MixC in Baiyun District and Baoyue Fang in Haizhu District, the rollout of a series of new commercial complexes not only elevates the city’s consumption quality, but also signals that Guangzhou is accelerating its stride toward becoming an international consumption center city with a multi-core commercial pattern.
Behind the successive launch of new commercial projects lies a large consumer base and robust growth momentum, which provide a solid foundation for Guangzhou’s multi-point commercial layout.
Since 2021, Guangzhou’s total retail sales of consumer goods and total import and export volume have both exceeded the one-trillion-yuan mark, maintaining steady growth year on year. In 2024, the total retail sales of consumer goods surged by 19.9% compared with 2020, with new consumption scenarios such as first-store economy, night economy and themed events thriving vigorously.
According to the Guangzhou Blue Book: Development Report on Guangzhou International Business Center (2025), Guangzhou achieved remarkable progress in building an international consumption center city in 2024. The city promoted the multi-core development of business districts, creating a three-level business district system featuring “world-class, metropolitan-level and regional-level” clusters, as well as a “5+2+4+22” business district pattern. It designated the first batch of 15 metropolitan-level Guangzhou Night Market Pilot Zones, built 3 food clusters with Chinese and Western characteristics, and saw the official opening of Canton Tower Plaza, which is actively pursuing the national 5A-level tourist attraction certification. Additionally, Guangzhou successfully obtained approval to open downtown duty-free shops.
The agglomeration of high-quality consumption resources has further boosted the vitality of Guangzhou’s commercial sector. Data from the Blue Book shows that by 2024, the number of various market entities in Guangzhou reached 3.6707 million, an 8% year-on-year increase and a 36% rise compared with 2020. Leveraging its long coastline, the city has developed large-scale commercial projects covering nearly 200,000 square meters.
Notably, to actively promote the development of the first-launch economy, Guangzhou has rolled out a series of supportive measures in recent years, including issuing the Several Measures for Encouraging the Development of First-Store and First-Launch Economy in Guangzhou. The city identified the first batch of 32 landmark first-launch carriers, attracting 404 first stores throughout 2024.
This year, Guangzhou also established the First-Launch Economy Cultivation and Development Promotion Center, building a regular service system to provide policy consultation, brand incubation and operation management services for brands and enterprises, thereby expanding the influence of benchmark projects. The center upgraded and released the Guangzhou First-Launch Space Guide 2.0 this year, aiming to carefully select and develop a number of high-quality commercial spaces with clustered brand first stores and centralized new product displays and launches. The guide serves as a comprehensive service platform integrating first launches, first shows and first exhibitions for domestic and foreign brands, helping Guangzhou build a city-level traffic hub and new consumption landmark.
