The 'emotional economy' opens up the 'heart' space of consumption

The current global "emotional economy" is booming, with emotional consumption centered on stress relief therapy, emotional companionship, and emotional satisfaction continuing to be hot. New forms of overseas consumption demand such as "healing economy," "IP economy," and "other economy" are constantly being released. Based on the local industrial endowment, the customs precisely implemented measures to optimize customs clearance supervision, advanced services to benefit enterprises, and escorted domestic goods such as Quartz Songbo, China-Chic IP peripheral, and pet products to better explore the international market, making emotional consumer products a new highlight of foreign trade growth.
Domestic healing products are gaining popularity
As the global "emotional economy" continues to heat up, health and wellness therapy, as well as mindfulness based stress relief, have become new trends in overseas consumption. Local specialty products with healing effects, such as quartz singing bowls and Chinese fragrances, are accelerating their overseas expansion.
Jinzhou Chenggong Quartz Glass Co., Ltd. is a key foreign trade enterprise in Jinzhou, Liaoning Province. The company mainly engages in the research and development, production, and export of crystal singing bowls, music therapy singing bowls, and other products. Enterprises are closely monitoring the overseas mindfulness meditation consumption trend, deeply exploring the core effects of product sound therapy, stress relief, and emotional calming, accurately meeting the needs of overseas consumption, and relying on cross-border e-commerce platforms and overseas social channels to carry out marketing, shaping exclusive emotional consumption brand labels, and continuously expanding overseas sales.
In response to the difficulties encountered by enterprises in cross-border e-commerce operations and the application of customs policies, Jinzhou Customs, a subsidiary of Shenyang Customs, took the initiative to deliver policies to enterprises, providing detailed explanations of customs clearance facilitation measures such as cross-border e-commerce export overseas warehouse supervision processes and simplified declaration. Jinzhou Customs has established a special working team to implement the precise assistance model of 'one enterprise, one policy', conduct in-depth research and investigation of quartz product production enterprises, help characteristic industries find the development path of 'going global', and improve the efficiency of enterprise handling and customs clearance in all aspects through holding 'face-to-face meetings between customs and enterprises', setting up dedicated service windows, and providing pre business guidance and special line Q&A, "said Wang Tong, Deputy Director of Jinzhou Customs.
In the first four months of 2026, the cross-border e-commerce export value of Songbo in Jinzhou City reached 13.658 million yuan, accounting for 84% of the city's total cross-border e-commerce export value.
China has always followed the tradition of aromatherapy and health preservation, with traditional aromatic health concepts such as mugwort incense, orchid soup bathing, and carrying bags dating back to ancient times. Nowadays, domestic fragrances carrying the wisdom of Eastern healing are also popular in overseas markets. A bottle of aromatherapy produced in Jiangnan can allow overseas consumers to experience the garden charm of misty rain in Jiangnan and the moss scent on the stone steps of the courtyard after plum rain, and harvest a unique healing experience in daily work and life.
"Our products use natural plant formula, pay attention to the integration of traditional fragrance conditioning concepts and modern fragrance conditioning technology, and are committed to achieving the balance and harmony of the front, middle and base note of the fragrance. While creating a soothing and relaxing atmosphere, we also bring pleasant emotional experience." Zhu Tao, the e-commerce business leader of Mansa (Suzhou) Technology Group, introduced that the company's fragrant candles, fragrance spray, no fire incense and other products, with their strong oriental artistic conception and refreshing sense of healing, are outstanding in the overseas market.
To support enterprises in seizing opportunities in overseas markets, Suzhou Customs, under the jurisdiction of Nanjing Customs, guides enterprises in scientifically selecting the optimal "going global" channel based on product characteristics, target market layout, and logistics timeliness requirements. At the same time, we will delve into the market demand of enterprises, guide them to make full use of the benefits of the national customs clearance integration policy, and help these aromatherapy and fragrance products that carry the wisdom of Eastern healing set sail in a more efficient and compliant manner.
Cute pet daily necessities go abroad to expand the market
Pets, with their unique companionship attributes, have become an important emotional support for the public to relieve anxiety, heal emotions, and accompany daily life, becoming a "special member" of countless families. In addition, with the continuous upgrading of public breeding concepts and the continuous enrichment of breeding categories, the demand for global pet consumption is becoming increasingly diverse, and the "pet economy" continues to heat up based on emotional consumption dividends.
Entering the production workshop of Zhejiang Youqiang Industrial Co., Ltd., workers are busy rushing to make orders. Various pet home and leisure products such as birdhouses, bird feeders, and cat climbing frames are "ready to go" and continuously sold to various parts of the world. The concept of 'coexistence between humans and pets' is gradually taking root in people's minds. Our wooden hamster cage restores the natural ecological scene and scientifically designs the movement line, greatly improving the comfort of pet living. At the same time, we have also developed various pet leisure toys such as pet climbing frames and seesaws, "said Yang Weifei, a foreign trade salesman of the company.
Adapting to the development trend of the industry, Jinhua Customs, a subsidiary of Hangzhou Customs, has precisely optimized its regulatory services, guiding pet product export enterprises in its jurisdiction to establish a quality risk management system focusing on raw material quarantine, pest control treatment, process control, and product traceability management. Through the implementation of graded and classified risk management, the pre export quarantine release has been transformed into pre export and in-process supervision, enhancing the autonomy of enterprise export clearance. At the same time, relying on the "center+on-site" inspection mechanism, combined with measures such as "remote local inspection" and "batch inspection (quarantine)", we will continue to improve the export efficiency of enterprises.
When some customers have temporary shipping needs, there may be tight shipping schedules. The remote inspection mode of customs has greatly eased our pressure. It takes more than 20 minutes to complete the inspection of a single shipment, which is very suitable for our growing export order rhythm. "Yang Weifei praised the" remote local inspection "of customs.
In Suqian, Jiangsu, the local "pet economy" industry chain is accelerating expansion and upgrading, with products covering a full range of categories such as pet food, pet bedding, toys, and supplies. Jiangsu Yihe Pet Products Co., Ltd. is a leading enterprise in the local pet industry in Suqian. The company produces over 600 products that are exported to more than 60 countries and regions worldwide. However, the path of "going global" for enterprises is not smooth sailing. The overseas market, especially the European Union and North America, has complex technical standards, and we have encountered many challenges, "said the chairman of the company, Shi Liping.
After understanding the actual needs of the enterprise, Suqian Customs, a subsidiary of Nanjing Customs, took the initiative to visit and help the enterprise sort out the production process one by one in accordance with international standards, guiding the enterprise to improve the full chain quality system including raw material procurement, process control, finished product testing, and product traceability. At present, Jiangsu Yihe Pet Products Co., Ltd. has successfully cultivated the overseas independent brand "Paihao" and set up a brand self built website in the UK. With 65 innovative patents and over 600 self-developed products, it has become the top seller in the Amazon pet food sub category in the UK in just 8 months.
In addition, relying on the advantage of the local "half-hour supply chain", Suqian Customs has promoted efficient linkage between multiple pet food enterprises and surrounding leading raw material enterprises, achieving direct supply of 80% of raw materials from factory to factory, firmly guarding the bottom line of pet food quality and consolidating the freshness advantage. In the first four months of 2026, Suqian exported pet food worth 55.364 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.7%.
Featured IP products are popular in Wuzhou
When the emotional consumption of "paying for love" becomes a new trend, the economic heat of "guzi economy", a peripheral product derived from anime, games and other IPs, remains high. The word 'guzi' is a homophone of the English word 'goods', referring to peripheral products such as badges, standing cards, pendants, etc. derived from IPs such as anime and games. Consumers often purchase these products out of their love for IP, which is a typical emotional consumption of "paying for love".
As "China's capital of fashionable play", Dongguan City, Guangdong Province has a world leading toy manufacturing industry chain, which provides a solid industrial foundation for "millet economy". There are over 8000 toy manufacturing enterprises and nearly 1500 upstream and downstream supporting enterprises in Dongguan City. From styling design, raw material supply to equipment manufacturing, there are corresponding enterprise clusters in each link, with low production costs and short research and development cycles, making Dongguan an important production base for global "guzi" products.
At the production workshop of Guangdong Henglitai Crafts Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Henglitai"), the characters of the popular domestic anime IP "Under One Person" have been taken offline in bulk. This batch of signboards is made of high transparency acrylic material, which has been precisely cut to create a clean and transparent image with three-dimensional character images. After packaging, the products will be sold to the Southeast Asian market. Henglitai has mastered the four core processes of acrylic, metal badges, PVC droppers, and 3D stereoscopic gratings, with a wide variety of products. We can produce up to 400000 badges per day. With Dongguan's well-established industrial chain, popular IP products can be designed and mass-produced in just about a month. ”Introduction by Chen Qi, General Manager of Henglitai.
To help the smooth export of "guzi" products in the jurisdiction, Dongguan Customs, a subsidiary of Huangpu Customs, actively provides advanced services, conducts in-depth research on enterprises, provides "one-on-one" guidance on intellectual property filing, enhances the awareness of intellectual property protection among enterprises, and increases the crackdown on infringement behavior to protect the original designs and innovative achievements of enterprises.
In addition, Dongguan Customs also relies on the country's first evaluation base for technical trade measures of trendy toys, closely tracking global trendy toy trade
Policy updates, identifying in advance the adjustment of technical trade measures related to key trading partners, and developing risk response plans, integrating technical trade measures response services into the production process and supply chain management of enterprises, to safeguard the products of "guzi" production enterprises going global. In the first four months of 2026, the export value of toys in Dongguan reached 6.27 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%.
In recent years, toys deeply tied to Chinese cultural IP have not only been popular in domestic e-commerce channels, but this trend of Eastern aesthetics has also spread to overseas markets. Entering the production workshop of Zhejiang Ningbo Hengxing Toys Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hengxing Toys"), a set of "China-Chic Hot Pot" toys with strong IP characteristics of the Forbidden City in Beijing are being offline from the production line, and the packaged toys are sent to the warehouse for shipment to Vietnam. Hengxing Toys integrates China-Chic elements on the traditional export track, binds its own brand "Kelai Sai" with cultural IP such as Beijing Palace Museum, and launches a series of China-Chic IP toys with bright colors, lively shapes and oriental aesthetics.
"We got inspiration from the Qing Dynasty silver longevity character hot pot collected in the Palace Museum in Beijing. The team members reduced the proportion of cultural relics to a child's toy full of oriental aesthetic charm, which soon became a 'blockbuster'." Sun Yi, general manager of Hengxing Toys, said that China-Chic IP toys inspired by the elements of the Palace Museum can bring joy to children while allowing them to feel the charm of Chinese culture in the game.
To further assist in expanding the export of regional characteristic IP toys, Yinzhou Customs under Ningbo Customs guides enterprises to establish and improve quality and safety management, epidemic prevention and control, and pest control systems to ensure that the product quality of enterprises continues to meet the requirements of the export destination country. At the same time, timely consultation is provided to enterprises in areas such as intellectual property customs protection, export destination country access requirements, and technical trade measures response.
From anime IP driving emotional consumption to China-Chic cultural innovation bringing cultural empathy, relying on industrial advantages and customs escort, China's diversified IP products are continuously exploring overseas markets, becoming a new highlight of foreign trade growth and cultural exchange.
(Correspondents Geng Lin, Zhan Siyuan, Wang Zhe, Li Kun, Zhang Mengyin, Pu Xuan, Huang Bin)