Post-90s and post-00s are important groups in China’s current new-era consumer market, and they profoundly impact new consumer demand. The activity of these new youth groups on the internet and trendy consumption have driven the trend of “interest consumption” surge. The “2022 China Interest Consumption Trend Insights White Paper” by iiMedia Research has highlighted the market development and user research of “interest consumption”. The following are some key points to help everyone learn more about the relevant consumption trends.
In 2021, the income of Chinese people has increased rapidly, and at the same time, the level of mass consumption has also continued to improve, especially the consumption expenditure on services has increased rapidly, up 17.8% year-on-year, which shows that Chinese are pursuing higher product and service quality for consumption. According to iiMedia Research, per capita disposable income in China rose 5.1% YoY to 10,345 yuan in the first quarter of 2022.
The concept of “interest consumption” was first proposed by Ye Guofu, Chairman and CEO of MINISO Group in 2020. It indicates that consumers tend to seek emotional values and personalized products in consumption and daily shopping, especially social, personal and cultural characteristics of products/services, etc.
Reasons for “interest consumption”
The analysis shows that new youth groups have access to channels including public or private traffic channels such as e-commerce platforms, official brand websites, social media, mini-program malls, e-commerce live broadcasts and offline stores. Therefore, the path from “product craving” to consumption has a strong continuity among the new youth groups, which can effectively promote user engagement and help brands better capture users’ interests.
Enjoying themselves and socializing are the two main reasons why Chinese young people buy products that interest them, and products that “look good, are fun and easy to use” have a stronger influence on consumers.
Good Looks
Data shows that 94% of consumers believe that the appearance of goods has an important influence on consumption, and the annual growth of sales of high-end products purchased by Gen Z is as high as 166%. Most of the new youth consider in their purchasing decisions come from the design and creativity of product appearance and packaging, and high-quality products can make users happy. Therefore, brands need to consider “good-looking” as a standard requirement, and study consumer aesthetic needs more closely in the future.
Fun
63.3% of new young consumers prefer design models or IP co-branded products when buying daily necessities, because IP co-branded products have unique designs, and fun and interesting styles, which are more attractive to new young consumers, and give them a sense of belonging and satisfaction.
Easy to use
Among the factors that play a role in the consumption of daily necessities, the new young consumers pay attention to practicality, price and quality. For non-essentials, new product launches, brand tonality, design and other interesting factors are the focus of interest for new young consumers, in addition to the most important quality factors. Therefore, high-quality, practical and “easy to use” products can withstand the test of the market economy.
Interest Consumer Market Trends
The social depth and emotional added value have become selection criteria – brands can bring together circles with interests, integrate product design into various social scenarios, and even capture the interests of the new youth, leverage the value of different IPs, and convert interest into consumer goods to further tap into the new market for young consumers.
IP or value recognition as the core – grasp the emotional value demand core of the new youth groups, understand their cultural values, tap the potential IP as much as possible, incubate own IP, jointly create IP, and guide consumers’ interest and consumption trends, improve the added value of products and achieve higher brand value
Private traffic / social media to support interest consumption – through social media and private traffic channels to understand users’ interests and needs, set up a user tagging system, from insight into interests to product craving, and effectively help brands keep up with the trend of interest consumption
Integrate innovative consumption scenarios to enhance the offline shopping experience – new stores with scene-based design and social check-in attributes such as theme stores and concept stores are more popular with young consumers, such as Lab (brand laboratory), Gallery (art museum form), Park (open community) and other stores.
“Interest consumption” is still changing within the new youth group, take advantage of this consumption trend to seize business opportunities and grasp consumers' mentality. If you want to know more information, please feel free to contact us.