China Online Consumer Brand Index (CBI) (2026Q2)

Mid-Year Shopping Festival and Summer Demand Shape Online Consumption; Emotional Consumption Sees a Structural Upgrade

Encouraging innovation and healthy competition is essential for achieving high-quality development. The “China Online Consumer Brand Index (CBI)” was jointly developed by the National School of Development, Peking University; the Institute of Digital Finance, Peking University; and the Business School of Sun Yat-sen University, with support from Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall Group. This index draws on online consumer big data to evaluate brand equity across dimensions including sales, prices, search volume, and customer reviews. It publishes the China Top 500 Online Consumer Brands List (CBI500), and tracks changes in online consumption quality through the average score of a “basket” of consumer brands. Building on traditional macroeconomic indicators like total retail sales and the consumer price index (CPI), it offers a valuable reference for observing consumption upgrading, brand competition, and structural changes in the market.

Highlights of This Issue

 The rankings bear clear marks of the mid-year shopping festival and the shift into summer. Apple (苹果) continues to top the rankings, while Midea (美的) and Haier (海尔) rise to second and third place respectively, and YESWOOD (源氏木语) enters the top 5. Gree (格力), Beneunder (蕉下), crocs (卡骆驰), and other home-appliance and summer-related brands rank high.

 Emotional consumption undergoes structural upgrading. Beauty brands account for 10 of the top 50 spots, a notable increase from the same period last year; lululemon (露露乐蒙) and other “premium sports” brands continued to move up in the rankings; the focus within collectibles shifted from blind boxes to game-IP merchandise; and the number of pet care brands on the list increased.

 New first-tier cities continue to lead in urban consumption quality. Hefei tops the rankings, followed by Nanjing, Zhengzhou, and Wuhan; Zhoukou, Huai’an, Xuzhou, and other third-tier cities also enter the CBI top 10.

1. Shopping-Festival and Seasonal Effects Stand Out; Emotional Consumption Sees a Structural Upgrade

The 2026Q2 CBI500 bears the combined imprint of the mid-year 6.18 shopping festival and the start of summer. Midea (美的) and Haier (海尔) rose to second and third place respectively, and Gree (格力) entered the top 50, pointing to stronger seasonal demand for home appliances. YESWOOD (源氏木语) entered the top 5 as home-refresh demand coincided with the mid-year peak season for home furnishing. Beneunder (蕉下) returned to the top 20 and crocs (卡骆驰) broke into the top 50 for the first time, reflecting summer demand for sun-protection and cooling products.

Table 1: CBI500 (2026Q2 Top 50)

Beyond seasonal factors, the rankings also indicate that emotional consumption is undergoing structural upgrading. Beauty brands account for 10 of the top 50 spots, a significant increase from the same period last year. High-end skincare brands including ESTĒELAUDER (雅诗兰黛), SkinCeuticals (修丽可), and SK-II moved up markedly both year-on-year (YoY) and quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), while sensitive-skin repair brands WINONA (薇诺娜) and LA ROCHE-POSAY (理肤泉) also gained ground, indicating that consumers are willing to pay a premium for efficacy and experience. Sports and outdoor brands also performed well: lululemon (露露乐蒙) climbed to 27th place, “premium sports” brands such as DESCENTE (迪桑特) and KOLON SPORT (可隆) continued to move up, and running brands including ON (昂跑) and Hoka entered the CBI500. A divergence emerged among collectible brands: game-IP merchandise brands such as Paper Presented (叠纸心意) and MiHoYo (米哈游) rose sharply in the rankings, while POP MART (泡泡玛特) slipped somewhat from its position in the previous two quarters. Emotional spending appears to be shifting from blind-box purchases toward sustained engagement with specific IPs. The number of pet care brands on the list increased YoY, with fresh-food and premium imported pet food brands performing well. In contrast, after the Chinese New Year peak season, food and gold jewelry brands retreated significantly, and no food brand remains in the top 50.

2. New First-Tier Cities Lead in Consumption Quality

At the city level, higher online consumption quality is not concentrated in traditional first-tier cities. “New first-tier” cities, fast-growing regional hubs ranked just below Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, account for four of the CBI top 10: Hefei ranks first for the second consecutive quarter, while Nanjing, Zhengzhou, and Wuhan rank second, third, and seventh respectively. Nanjing and Wuhan also enter the Brand Purchase Index (BPI) top 10, combining high consumption quality with large consumption scale. Smaller third-tier cities such as Zhoukou, Huai’an, and Xuzhou also enter the CBI top 10, indicating that brand consumption vitality is no longer confined to higher-tier cities. Northeast China also stands out: Yichun and Harbin, both in Heilongjiang Province, entered the top 10 this quarter. Meanwhile, the BPI top 10 remains dominated by major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, where the advantages of large cities in consumption scale and brand purchasing power remain evident.

Table 2: Top Ten Cities in the Brand Index Series

Technical Note: As the platform’s business has evolved, the “brand keyword search volume” indicator has been broadened from brand-name searches alone (e.g., "DJI", "Bambu Lab") to also include searches for the brand's products (e.g., "DJI drone", "Bambu Lab 3D printer"). This improves the coverage of brand search data. Because search traffic for early-stage brands tends to come mainly from product searches, the change mainly lifts the search scores of small and mid-sized brands, giving a more accurate picture of their search interest. Since these brands’ scores rise relative to the rest of the basket, the index shifts upward overall and is not directly comparable with previous releases. This release therefore focuses on the brand ranking; index values will be published once the indicator has been recalibrated.

Attached: CBI500 (2026Q2).

The series of reports can be obtained from the following website:

https://www.nsd.pku.edu.cn/xzyj/kyfb/zsfb/cbi2025/index.htm

City-sector level CBI and BPI data are available upon request. To access the data, please contact the research team at cbi_pku@163.com. If you use this data, please cite it as follows: “China Online Consumer Brand Index (CBI)”, and reference the source: Yang Ji, Xun Wang, Yiping Huang, China Online Consumer Brand Index, 2026, National School of Development Series Report, Peking University.