Chinese consumer confidence stayed high in the first quarter even as the economy slowed, according to a recent report by Nielsen Co.

"Despite the economic slowdown, Chinese consumer fundamentals remain strong. And we believe consumer confidence will remain at a high level throughout 2014," said Yan Xuan, president of Nielsen Greater China.

A study by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd and Melbourne-based Roy Morgan Research Pty Ltd showed similar trends: Chinese consumer confidence was strengthening in small and medium-sized cities and remained stable in large metropolitan areas.

Healthy growth of disposable incomes for both rural and urban residents, both on an annual and quarterly basis, enabled continuous growth of overall retail sales in China, Yan added.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, first-quarter retail sales stood at 4.93 trillion yuan, up 14.8 percent year-on-year.

Li said China's slowing economy may not be bad news for industrial entities like Guolian.

"Because of the property market correction, more capital will flow back to industrial sectors. Meanwhile, the government may fine-tune its monetary policy to revive the economy, thus making the financing a bit easier," said Li.

The country's economic growth dipped to 7.4 percent in the first quarter, increasing the risk of the country failing to hit this year's economic growth target of 7.5 percent. It would be the first miss of its kind in 15 years.

As part of the efforts to combat the trend, in June the central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio by half a percentage point for commercial banks that lent a certain portion of their loans to agriculture-related firms as well as micro and small enterprises.

Establishing an O2O, online to offline, channel is one of Guolian's business priorities.

"The O2O trend is an irresistible one as demand for seamless shopping, logistics and payment surges rapidly," Li said.

Last year, the online retail market expanded to more than 1.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.8 percent, according to the China e-Commerce Research Center.

"We are actively seeking cooperation opportunities with leading O2O platforms at home this year," said Li.

Guolian's sales reached 2.2 billion yuan last year, and Li said the company aimed to achieve 20 to 30 percent increase in sales values.

"We hope to boost our sales to more than 10 billion yuan by 2020," said Li.