Current consumption characteristics and trends in China.

Consumption is the main engine of economic growth and the direct embodiment of people’s needs for a better life. Since 2023, as China’s economy and society have fully resumed normal operation, the consumption scene has been fully expanded, the consumption potential has been rapidly released, and the consumer market has continued to pick up. Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in the first and second quarters of 2023, the year-on-year growth rate of per capita consumption expenditure of Chinese residents maintained a positive growth, and the cumulative growth rate in the second quarter reached 7.6%. From restaurants with long queues to tourist attractions, from movie box office to railway summer vacation, fiery consumption shows the resilience and vitality of China’s economy.

China’s consumption recovery is not only a quantitative expansion, but also a qualitative upgrade and structural optimization. On the whole, people’s yearning for a better life has turned from "whether there is" to "whether it is good", showing the characteristics of diversification, multi-level and multi-faceted. From physical goods to life services, from online shopping to offline shopping malls, the trend of digitalization, quality, personalization, diversification and brand upgrading of consumption is increasingly obvious. At present, the world’s great changes in the past century have accelerated its evolution, the global economic growth has slowed down obviously, there are many unstable and uncertain factors, the constraints of insufficient domestic demand still exist, and some structural problems are still outstanding. To consolidate the good momentum of economic recovery, we need to pay close attention to the new characteristics and new trends of consumption growth, fully release the demand potential of the domestic market, and give play to the basic role of consumption in steady growth.

Adapting to the new consumption changes is inseparable from the keen insight and deep thinking on the needs of young people. Prefer the experience of "substitution", pursue "small but beautiful", pay attention to health preservation, set off the national tide culture, and find a sense of belonging in all circles … … This is a very personalized consumption feature of the current "Z generation" group. The growing demand of "Generation Z" for self-care, self-investment and personal promotion has given birth to a brand-new consumption trend — — "please your own consumption." According to the data of the seventh national census, the total number of "Generation Z" in China is about 260 million, which has propped up a consumption market of 4 trillion yuan, and their consumption demand will lead the mainstream consumption trend in China in the future.

Service consumption shows strong development momentum and great development potential. The integration of digital technology and residents’ daily life has deepened, and the digital transformation of life service industry has profoundly changed residents’ lives. New formats and modes such as online travel, online medical care, online education, online office, online fitness and shared travel have flourished. Morgan Stanley, a world-renowned investment bank, predicted in the report "China Consumption Outlook 2030" that in the next decade, an important feature of the changes in China’s consumer market is that service consumption will exceed physical consumption, and the proportion of service consumption is expected to increase from the current 45% to 52%, with an annualized growth rate of 9.2%, exceeding the growth rate of physical consumption of 6.7% in the same period.

Green consumption is changing from an idea to a mainstream fashion in society. Green consumption behaviors, such as practicing "CD Action", promoting green buildings, buying energy-saving household appliances, choosing green travel modes, and participating in garbage sorting, have increasingly become people’s active choices and normal life. Green consumption takes nature, health, ecology and sustainability as the core concepts, which promotes the upgrading and optimization of domestic consumption patterns. More and more brands have launched personalized and differentiated green products to meet the diversified needs of consumers and make their expectations for green products rise continuously.

New formats and models supported by digital technology have become new growth points of consumption. With its unique characteristics of high innovation, strong penetration and wide coverage, the digital economy has promoted profound changes in production methods and lifestyles with unprecedented speed and influence, and has increasingly become an important force to promote consumption expansion and quality improvement. Digital consumption takes customers as the center, and integrates social, sharing, entertainment, life, recommendation and other scenes into consumers’ purchasing process, which not only improves the convenience and efficiency of consumption, but also enhances consumers’ perception and satisfaction from multiple dimensions. In the future, with the development of generative artificial intelligence, China’s digital consumption will usher in subversive innovation, and the development space is immeasurable.

China has a population of more than 1.4 billion, and has the most potential super-large-scale market in the world, which is a powerful engine to promote sustained and stable economic recovery and long-term improvement. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "Focus on expanding domestic demand, enhancing the basic role of consumption in economic development and the key role of investment in optimizing the supply structure." Grasping the time and trend of development, laying a good "combination boxing" to promote consumption, firmly grasping the basic point of benefiting the people, comprehensively innovating and improving quality, getting through the difficulties in all links, making residents’ income stable and able to consume, worrying about the future and being willing to consume, and optimizing the environment, we will certainly open up new space for economic growth and promote China’s economy to achieve effective improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity.

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