A villager hosts a 5G live stream to promote e-commerce in Qingyanliu village, Yiwu, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Zhejiang Province E-Commerce Promotion Center announced first quarter online retail sales data for every city in Zhejiang province on April 20.

Jinhua's online retail sales dropped to 50.09 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.3 percent year on year, ranking second in the province. Online retail sales in Yiwu ranked first among all counties and districts in Zhejiang.

The onset of COVID-19 has reduced consumption, interrupted logistics, and affected retail sales.

In the first quarter, eight out of eleven prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang experienced negative growth, and total online retail sales in the province decreased by 1.5 percent year over year.

In order to help companies resume work and production, Yiwu has taken a series of measures, such as transporting workers in chartered vehicles, reducing fees, and providing subsidies, to help businesses weather difficulties.

With the pandemic situation improving in China, the Yiwu International Trade Market reopened on February 18 and quickly recovered much of its vitality. In the first quarter, online retail sales in Yiwu reached 25.35 billion yuan ($3,6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percent.