Half of a pavilion in Wuhan of Central China's Hubei Province is submerged on Monday as the city suffered from torrential rain. Local authorities have raised the emergency response level to II, warning citizens to avoid floods. Photo: cnsphoto

Sales of umbrellas and rain gear have soared due to a record-long "plum rain" season in China's south, as customers rush to stockpile dehumidifiers and clothes dryers to prepare themselves for downpours, data from e-commerce platforms showed. 

On JD.com, a leading e-commerce platform in China, sales of rain gear skyrocketed 100 percent year-on-year in Shanghai, East China's Anhui Province and Jiangsu Province as cities along the Yangtze River reported the longest rainy season ever since the beginning of the century.

Called "plum rain" in Chinese, the rainy season usually features several weeks of wet conditions and high temperatures. But this year, places including Shanghai, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province, and Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province have been experiencing an exceptionally long "plum rain" season, according to the country's weathermen.

As a result the nationwide turnover of umbrellas and rain gear rose 45 percent month-on-month in June, with sales of large umbrellas up 105 percent, data from JD.com showed.

Sales home appliances with dehumidifying and drying functions also surged, with dehumidifier and clothes dryer purchases up more than 100 percent. 

On Chinese e-commerce platform Suning.com, sales of clothes dryers have increased 110 percent from the previous year, and sales of dehumidifiers up 354 percent.

Since June, the turnover of single-unit washing and drying machines has increased 560 percent month-on-month, according to data from JD.com.

Shanghai-based consumer Wang Jun told the Global Times Monday that she has spent 300 yuan ($43) to buy a portable clothes dryer.

"It has been raining for days and my clothes won't dry," Wang said. 

Seizing the opportunity, some domestic home appliance brands are developing in the market previously dominated by foreign players.

In the first half of 2020, Chinese electrical appliance manufacturing companies Little Swan, Haier and Midea climbed into the ranks of the top five clothes dryer makers, following Siemens and Bosch, according to data service company All View Cloud.

Global Times