Observation on the consumption trend in the Spring Festival of 2023： The signs of market recovery are obvious, and the consumption ＂upgrading＂ is speeding up.
As more and more young people become the main consumers, domestic products with high quality and high cost performance are favored by consumers, and "new", "trendy" and "good" and "play" have become the trend direction of explosive goods.
As the most important traditional festival in China, the Spring Festival is of special significance to many people. It is not only a beautiful reunion at home, but also the beginning of a happy new year. With the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control measures, residents’ socialization and online and offline consumption have gradually increased, and the normal production and living order and consumption scenes have been accelerated.
In the context of market recovery, what are the new consumption trends in the Spring Festival this year? According to the data released by several platforms recently, although it is still the main trend of Spring Festival consumption to please oneself, honor the elders and care for relatives and friends, as young people gradually become the main consumer, their pursuit of trendy goods and new consumer goods also makes Spring Festival consumption "upgrade".
Analysts told the reporter of International Finance News that consumer financial service institutions should focus on supporting the recovery of domestic demand, enrich the supply of consumer credit products, focus on areas of rapid recovery such as catering and cultural tourism, and also focus on new consumption hotspots such as new energy vehicles and smart appliances.
Spring Festival consumption enthusiasm accelerates return.
With the optimization and adjustment of epidemic prevention and control measures, residents’ consumption enthusiasm is returning during the Spring Festival. According to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the tourism market in the Spring Festival in 2023 welcomed a "good start" and basically resumed the normal pace of the tourism market in 2019. According to the relevant survey data conducted by China Cuisine Association, from January 21st to January 27th, 2023 (New Year’s Eve to the sixth day of the first month), the operating income of key catering enterprises increased by 24.7% compared with last year’s Spring Festival and by 1.9% compared with the Spring Festival of 2019; Passenger traffic increased by 26% compared with last year’s Spring Festival, which was basically the same as the Spring Festival in 2019.
This Spring Festival, small town economy, family outing, going out shopping, cross-border travel and slow live broadcast of scenic spots are all on fire, and consumption has doubled.According to the consumption data of the Spring Festival in 2023 released by Alipay recently, the consumption amount of third-tier and below cities increased by nearly 20% compared with the same period of last year’s Spring Festival (January 29-February 4, 2022, the same below), which was more than that of first-and second-tier cities.
With the enthusiasm of returning home and family reunion, family outing also ushered in a small climax. The data shows that the number of "hotel reservations" searched through Alipay platform has increased by 6 times year-on-year, and the hotel consumption expenditure has increased by 80% year-on-year. The hotel consumption of popular tourist cities in Yunnan, Xizang, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Fujian has achieved remarkable results, with an increase of over 200%. The most popular domestic destinations for Spring Festival tourism, such as Xishuangbanna, Lijiang, Diqing, Dali, Shangrao, Jiangxi and Huangshan, Anhui, saw Alipay spending more than double year-on-year.
During the Spring Festival, more people walked into shopping malls and commercial streets, and offline consumption also ushered in spring: the passenger flow of 60 key business districts in Beijing exceeded 14.127 million, and the sales of key department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, e-commerce and other enterprises increased by 13.7% compared with that before the epidemic. The West Lake Flower Market in Guangzhou was restarted, reigniting the consumption boom in Beijing Road business circle. The average daily passenger flow increased by 83% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales in January increased by 30% year-on-year.
Yan Shu, vice president of Lexin and head of the technology retail division, told the reporter of International Finance News: "This year’s New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival are similar. Under the background that the peak of epidemic infection in various provinces and cities has passed smoothly and residents’ travel has gradually returned to normal, the consumer market in the Spring Festival in 2023 ushered in the first small peak after the optimization of epidemic prevention and control policies.Judging from the crowd, the post-1995 generation, as a group of people with the most active social life and the highest consumption potential, are positive and optimistic about their future consumption expectations and are expected to become the main group to stimulate consumption in 2023."
Consumption changes with the main force "upgrading"
For many post-80s people, the new year’s goods belong to the memory of "melon, fruit, sugar and tea". With the rapid development of economy and the evolution of New Year’s greetings, the new year’s goods memories of post-90s and post-80s have gradually "evolved" into trendy products such as nut gift boxes and prefabricated dishes. According to the data of Staged Music Mall from the New Year Festival to the Spring Festival, the volume of nut gift boxes and other commodities increased by 226% year-on-year. After 90, half of the nut gift boxes in the mall were bought. Prefabricated dishes have also become a hot category of catering consumption in the Spring Festival, especially the heated and ready-to-eat Buddha Leaping Wall large potted vegetable gift box, which is suitable for family dinners and camping picnics because of its delicious and convenient, and has become a new favorite on many family tables.
Although the international gold price has continued to rise recently, it still can’t resist the enthusiasm of consumers to "buy gold during the Spring Festival", especially young people have gradually become the main consumer. Yan Shu introduced, "Our mall data shows that the transaction volume of Zodiac jewelry, mainly gold jewelry, increased by 424% year-on-year, of which the post-90 s accounted for half of the consumption, while the consumption after 00 was almost the same as that after 80 s. As one of the new year’s’ explosions’ in 2023, gold transshipment beads have become the hearts of many people. Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu are the three major consumption provinces of gold transshipment beads. "
Yan Shu pointed out that,With the post-90s generation, especially the post-90s generation, they have gradually become the main group to stimulate consumption. Their pursuit of trendy goods and new consumer goods has made the Spring Festival consumption upgrade year by year, and "new", "trendy", "good" and "fun" have become the trend direction of explosive goods."We will continue to explore new consumption scenarios, new consumption patterns and services, and contribute to the release of consumption potential".
Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of the International Joint Business School of Zhejiang University, told the reporter of International Finance News that in the future, the consumer finance platform should pay more attention to demand scenarios, and the platform can focus on automobile consumption finance scenarios, or low-interest short-term consumer loan scenarios such as travel loans and installment credit for consumer goods shopping.
Yu Baicheng, a senior researcher in the financial industry, told the reporter of International Finance News.Consumer financial service institutions must first formulate the goals and strategies to support consumption, and take supporting the recovery of domestic demand as their business focus; Secondly, we should enrich the supply of consumer credit products, enhance the convenience of citizens’ consumer finance, and increase interest rate concessions and promotion; Once again, we can focus on some key consumption areas, such as new consumption hotspots such as new energy vehicles and smart appliances, as well as areas of rapid recovery such as catering and cultural tourism;In addition, we should make full use of digital technology to improve the efficiency of consumer credit business and carry out in-depth cooperation with third parties such as Scenes.
This article is from: International Finance News
Author: Yu Jichao