Data from Alipay shows that in the past two months, the revenue of nearly 260,000 small stores in Shanghai has exceeded the same period in 2019, showing a V-shaped rebound.

With the help of the Shanghai May 5 Shopping Festival and e-commerce consumption coupons, the tenacious small stores in Shanghai are coming back to life and have become a "stabilizer" of employment.

The COVID-19 outbreak has made more small stores in Shanghai turn to new sales modes, looking for dividends from the online economy.

According to Meituan Dianping, an online consumption service provider, during the pandemic, the platform launched a "super-fast launching" channel, on which eligible merchants could complete the whole process from application to opening an online store in as short a period as three hours.

A report from Meituan shows that despite the impact of the outbreak, small stores have shown great resilience, with orders on the platform up 28-fold in the first week of May compared with the first week of February.

According to Zheng Bingwen, director of the Center for International Social Security Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, under the premise of epidemic prevention and control, industries and businesses should take the initiative to use innovative forms such as consumer coupons to attract customers and boost consumption.

"Though small, they (small stores) are important to people's livelihoods," said local commercial sector expert Chao Gangling. He said more than 90 percent of retail businesses in Shanghai are small and medium-sized stores.