No sugarcoating

Lin Yiwei lived on Zigu Road during her elementary school years in the late 1990s and fondly remembers the rows of candy shops filled with all kinds of sweets. They were her favorite places in the city.

“Back then, my mother always took me to the shop downstairs to buy sweets on weekends. That was the happiest moment for me. Later in the 2010s, those shops moved to the middle part of the street and we moved out of the district,” Lin said.

Today, there are only eight candy shops on Zigu Road. The street is a microcosm of China’s wedding candy industry. In recent years, the declining number of marriages has affected various aspects of economic life, including the candy industry.

The number of marriages in China fell from 13 million in 2013 to less than 7 million in 2022, the lowest level since records began in 1986.

Only last year did the number of marriages increase again.

Between 2013 and 2016, the marriage rate in China reached new highs, leading to a revival of the Chinese wedding candy market.

During this period, the market grew from 30 billion yuan to about 40 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of over 10 percent, exceeding the growth rate of the traditional candy market.

However, a report by market research firm Mintel shows that China’s confectionery industry reached a turning point in 2014 and has been in decline since then.

Furthermore, the marriage rate in Jiangxi is strikingly low.

According to the 2023 Chinese Statistical Yearbook, Jiangxi’s marriage rate was 4.65 percent, among the lowest in the country. Last year, only 210,000 couples registered their marriages in Jiangxi.

It is also unclear whether the couple will buy the sweets in the store or online.

Lin said most of her married friends either buy their candy online or entrust the entire wedding ceremony to a matchmaker. “None of my friends go to a real candy store,” she said.

Youyou, who got married in May, spent an afternoon comparing prices on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo during her wedding preparations, and finally decided to buy 700 boxes of wedding sweets online.

“Each box of chocolates costs about 1.9 yuan and I buy what I like to eat. Weddings are expensive, so I try to save where I can,” she said.

The quality of wedding sweets purchased online may vary, but the selection is larger and products are updated quickly. Offline stores must also follow online trends.