Night-time consumption picks up quickly, and new products and new formats emerge rapidly
Light up the night economic consumption to add vitality (consumption window)
Our reporter Qi Zhiming
"People's Daily" (19th edition, July 15, 2020)
Core reading
Since the beginning of summer, night consumption has accelerated and urban vitality has further exploded. Some businesses innovate product supply, extend business hours, and stimulate nighttime consumption. In many cities, a night economic system with a more rational layout, better functions, and richer formats is accelerating.
Night consumption speeds up
Some organizations predict that my country's night economy scale is expected to reach 30 trillion yuan this year
Since the beginning of the summer, whenever night falls, the night market street of Langong Road, Chaoyang New City, Xihu District, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, is always lively.
"During the epidemic prevention and control period, we standardized the business behavior of the night market merchants by formulating management conventions and making warm reminders, etc., to stimulate consumer vitality." said Xie Shanqing, the instructor of the Chaoyang Street Urban Management Squadron, Xichang District, Nanchang, which is responsible for managing the night market.
At present, my country's consumer market continues to recover. "The city's vitality is gradually bursting, and nighttime consumption is picking up." Fu Yifu, a senior researcher at Suning Institute of Finance, said.
In Henan, Kaifeng launched and upgraded a number of night tour products. In Shanghai, during the "May 5th Shopping Festival", Shanghai Bar Festival, Late Night Canteen Festival, Late Night Bookstore Festival, Shopping Sleepless Night, etc. were launched around the themes of "night shopping, night food, night tour, night entertainment, night show, night reading". Night Shanghai LIVE show and more than 180 special activities, night consumption month-on-month growth rate exceeded 10%.
Cui Lili, executive director of the Institute of E-commerce at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, believes that the vitality of the night economy is an important aspect of the city’s vitality. Since the beginning of summer, night consumption has seen a clear rebound in all aspects of eating, consumption, travel, travel, shopping, entertainment, etc.
Night trips increase. According to data from the Didi travel platform, in June, the majority of cities had more than 10% more users to use car-hailing after 7pm than in the previous month. Taiyuan, Qingdao, Changchun, Dalian and other cities even increased by 30% to 40 %.
Evening food is hot. Meituan's takeaway data shows that in the past two months, the night orders in major cities across the country have risen by more than 60% from 6 pm to 6 am the next day, accounting for more than 40% of the daily order volume; in the night market takeout, skewers have become The most popular product, Meituan delivered 80 million skewers in the first week of June alone. Since May, the proportion of night takeaway orders on the hungry platform has been 33.55%.
Night shopping is active. Since May, Alibaba’s Chinese retail market has accounted for 39.8% of night-time shopping transactions, up nearly 4 percentage points from the same period last year.
Ai Media's data center predicts that my country's night economy scale is expected to reach 30 trillion yuan this year. "The development level of the night economy is an important indicator to measure the quality of urban life, the degree of openness and activeness, the soft investment environment, and the cultural heritage." Fu Yifu said that night consumption is further active, which is conducive to inspiring services such as catering, shopping, entertainment, leisure, and tourism. Consumer demand, which in turn drives the rapid development of related industries.
Night market highlights are frequent
Create a new night consumption scene and launch a new night tourism project
Develop new products for night tourism, live broadcast to help shopping districts to be closed for 24 hours, night cloud exhibitions, and cloud car sales are not reduced... Recently, various localities have launched a series of night consumer activities to benefit the people, deepen the diversification of consumer formats, and vigorously enhance The convenience of night consumption and the night economy present many new bright spots.
——New supply leads to increase the activity of night consumption.
"It's a night, and it's a very innovative journey to sit down with friends at Yulin Road Bistro and overlook the night view at Tianfu Panda Tower." Not long ago, Suzhou citizen Hu Xiaoxia went to Chengdu for a night tour, and it felt new and unique.
Since this year, many places have been committed to creating new night consumption scenarios, such as accelerating the development of 24-hour formats such as convenience stores, restaurants, bookstores, and stadiums, launching new night tourism projects, extending the nighttime operation of buses and subways, and actively creating night consumption Atmosphere.
Data from Qunar.com shows that since June this year, nearly 5,000 "city night tour" tourist routes have been launched on the platform, an increase of 2.7 times from May. "The tourism products of the night tour category are not only the rearrangement and combination of the original tourism resources, but also the transformation and upgrading of related tourism products from the aspects of supply chain and value-added services." said Gou Zhipeng, president of Qunar.com. It is more novel and closer to the travel preferences of young users, which is very helpful for driving restaurants and shopping around the scenic spot.
At 8pm on June 3, the chairman of the board of directors of Ctrip Group, Liang Jianzhang, "transformed" as the anchor, and opened the twelfth live broadcast in Yanling, Henan. In the evening, 2.18 million people poured into the "cloud shopping" in the live broadcast room, and the transaction value was 31.05 million. yuan. Liang Jianzhang led Ctrip.com to go to 13 provinces, using a similar form of “mobile night market” to drive the consumption of travel services online, with cumulative sales of more than 400 million yuan.
——The new technology is outstanding, and it has become an accelerator for nightly consumption recovery.
Live broadcast has become a "weapon" to boost the sales of businesses. Some analysis shows that after 6 o'clock every night is a concentrated active period for Taobao live broadcast users, of which 8 to 10 p.m. is the highest peak of all-day viewing in Taobao live broadcast room.
In order to facilitate the store owner to do business at night, Alipay launched the "Luminous Collection Code" on June 22. As of now, there are an average of more than 100,000 shopkeepers who open new collection codes every day to do business, and the night income of more than 6 million small shops nationwide exceeds the same period last year.
——Long-term operation, merchants make profits, and the consumption potential at night is more sufficient.
Many businesses attract customers by extending business hours. Meituan's takeaway data shows that about 60% of catering takeaway merchants in the country are still operating after 10pm, and about 40% of merchants are still providing takeaway services after 12pm. The Hema Store has extended its business hours since June, and the Hema Store in Shanghai and Guangdong has delayed online delivery until 11pm.
"The traditional night economy is mostly dominated by offline consumption scenarios. During the epidemic prevention and control period, a new business pattern and form emerged in the night economy. Online and offline integration has accelerated, cross-border marketing in industries such as culture and tourism, and consumer formats have become more diverse. "Cui Lili said.
Work together to promote development
Improve planning and design, do a good job in supporting services, follow the trend of consumption upgrade, and promote the high-quality development of the night economy
As night consumption continues to be more active, some businesses also have new expectations, hoping to obtain further policy support in terms of rent reductions, loan discounts, and promotional subsidies.
Since its reopening in mid-April, Nanchong Everlasting City in Shunqing District, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, has extended store hours from 9:30 pm to 10:30 pm, and has provided free stalls for mobile vendors since May.
"Now the average daily operating income is around 200,000 yuan, and the turnover has doubled compared with the beginning of the resumption, but the operating cost has also increased a lot." The relevant person in charge of Nanchong Everbright City Commercial Management Co., Ltd. said that with the opening hours With the extension, businesses have to pay more manpower costs, and water and electricity use have increased a lot. I hope relevant departments can give certain tax reductions.
Fu Yifu believes that the structure of China's night economy products is still relatively simple, mostly limited to catering, shopping, cruises, light shows, etc., cultural, performing arts, and health care products are relatively few, the problem of homogenization of the night economy is more prominent, and there is transportation Safety, food safety, light pollution, noise pollution and other issues, "To promote the high-quality development of the night economy, all regions should improve planning and design, and provide supporting services. At the same time, all enterprises should follow the trend of consumption upgrades and do their best in products and services. ."
Experts said that the development of the night economy needs to be rooted in the cultural advantages of the city, fully tap the local night leisure resources, places and various projects, accelerate the cultivation of film and television, entertainment, tourism, health care, sports and other service industries to create a richer night consumption scenario . The city management department must plan scientifically and come up with practical solutions to a series of problems that may arise in the city’s night economy, such as public security management, noise control, and garbage disposal, to provide a better environment for night economic development and consumer rights protection. In addition, efforts should be made to improve the urban transportation system to ensure the convenience and safety of residents traveling at night.
Cui Lili believes that enterprises should conform to the development trend of the night economy and focus on diversified online and offline layouts according to their own conditions. Offline, the leisure and consumption attributes of the night economy should be closely linked, and while introducing new formats, new scenarios and new experiences, fully explore local cultural and tourism resources; online, you should vigorously cultivate online consumption scenarios and expand live streaming , Cloud tourism and other fields, seize the development opportunities of the night economy.