Hong Kong will hold its first shopping festival next month to get local retailers familiarized with the operations, business culture and characteristics of the Chinese mainland’s online sales market.

Writing in his Sunday blog, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the first Hong Kong Shopping Festival, to be organized by the Trade Development Council, will be held on mainland e-commerce platforms throughout August, with more than 230 brands participating and covering six major categories -- clothing accessories, personal care and cosmetics products, household products, food and beverages, digital toys and nutritional supplements -- with specialty products and price discounts being offered.

The HKTDC will place advertisements on major mainland social and e-commerce platforms to help the special administrative region’s online stores and invite about 20 prominent anchors to conduct live broadcasts for dozens of brands on large e-commerce platforms, allowing more customers to learn more about Hong Kong products.

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“We will full play to Hong Kong’s advantages of being backed by the motherland’s large-scale market, helping small and medium-sized enterprises in the SAR to reach out to new mainland customer groups and explore the mainland market, as well as injecting new impetus into their business development,” Chan said.

The finance chief said he has personally taken part in the filming of a promotional video concerning the festival to support Hong Kong merchants. “Mainland consumers can directly and conveniently purchase high-quality and genuine Hong Kong products. At the same time, the event will help Hong Kong businessmen to launch their products on the mainland market more extensively and promote Hong Kong brands.”

“The value of online sales for Hong Kong’s retail industry had gone up by nearly 60 percent to HK$32.5 billion ($4.16 billion) from 2020 to 2023, accounting for only 8 percent of the city’s total retail sales last year. Compared with the mainland’s nearly 28-percent ratio in the same year, there’s still considerable room for growth,” Chan said.

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The SAR government launched the “E-commerce Easy” program last week under the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises to flexibly use subsidies of up to HK$1 million to develop the mainland e-commerce market.

Hong Kong businesses can use subsidies to set up stores on online sales platforms, place advertisements, create or optimize mobile applications, and add electronic payment functions to corporate websites. Funding for the “E-commerce Easy” program will be raised to support the development of Hong Kong companies in other markets.

The administration has also allocated HK$500 million for Cyberport to launch the Digital Transformation Support Pilot Scheme” to help SMEs in the catering and retail sectors to apply for ready-made basic digital solutions in electronic payment and store sales, online promotion, as well as customer management systems, with more than 330 digital solution packages being offered.

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“Some SME restaurants that have received subsidies said after having installed a management system with a QR code for online ordering and payment functions, the system has improved the efficiency of the entire process of placing orders and allowed them to grasp daily sales quickly and accurately. Restaurants know which products are more popular so they can adjust their business strategies faster,” Chan said.