Another year of "315", how to better manage the "new pit" of consumption?

Beijing, March 3 -- Question: Another year of "15", how to better control the "new pit" of consumption?

Zhongxin financial reporter Liu Liang

In recent years, China's overall consumption environment has continued to improve, but with the rise of "new consumption", some consumption "new pits" have gradually been exposed, how to further create a good consumption environment and better protect consumer rights and interests has become the key to boosting consumer confidence this year.

Consumer confidence has steadily improved

The results of the 15 "Boosting Consumer Confidence" Consumer Rights Protection Year theme survey released by the China Consumers Association on the 2023th show that Chinese consumer confidence has steadily improved, and the trend of consumption upgrading is remarkable.

Among the 21913,2022 valid samples collected by the China Consumer Association, most respondents believe that the consumption environment is getting better and better, nearly eighty percent of the respondents are confident that the economic development situation in the coming year, the consumption environment will become better, and the public confidence is generally optimistic, and the situation has improved compared with <>.

From the perspective of consumers' self-evaluation, the trend of consumption upgrading is significant. The survey shows that most people think that they can consume rationally, and green and low-carbon, budget-wise, and shopping around are the mainstream consumption mentality; From the past year, 61.8% of respondents believe that they belong to "consumption upgrade", accounting for the highest proportion.

The relevant person in charge of the China Consumer Association pointed out that compared with the 2022 survey results, the proportion of self-evaluation as rational consumption has increased slightly, which reflects the strengthening of consumers' rational attitude towards consumption choices and decisions.

The survey data also shows that consumers' awareness of rights protection is constantly increasing. More than ninety percent of consumers are able to identify consumption problems, their willingness to defend their rights continues to increase, and the proportion of consumers who choose to "endure in silence" continues to decrease compared with previous years. According to the feedback from respondents who have experience in rights protection, nearly eighty percent are satisfied with the results of rights protection.

"New consumption" exposes new problems

In recent years, "new consumption" is becoming an "accelerator" for economic development, but new problems are constantly arising in the process. This can be seen in the following data.

According to data from the State Administration for Market Regulation, in 2022, the problem of new models such as digital collectibles (NFTs) will rise, and the difficulty of supervision will increase, with 5,97 related appeals (compared to 198 in the previous year), mainly focusing on non-delivery, non-refund, malicious price gouging, charging high handling fees, and arbitrarily banning consumer accounts.

Under the boom of "blind boxes", consumer demands reached 4,14, a year-on-year increase of 61.72%. IP cross-border co-branded products set off a rush to buy, with 3,81 related appeals, a year-on-year increase of 66.96%, and some merchants took the opportunity to raise prices, while problems such as uneven product quality, counterfeiting, delayed delivery, and lack of after-sales service were prominent.

In the past two years, online consumption has continued to upgrade, and there are many problems related to "cloud consumption", including the big data familiarity criticized by netizens, real-time changes in transaction conditions, and the phenomenon of "unreasonable advance on-demand and suspected duplicate charges" in video membership services.

According to analysts in the market supervision department, while new consumption meets the diversified needs of consumers, some new infringement situations and new problems in rights protection are gradually exposed, which not only reflects the new pain points of consumer rights protection, but also brings higher challenges to regulatory law enforcement in related fields.

Boosting consumption urgently requires multiple efforts

The challenges of consumption cannot be ignored, and how to better create a good consumption environment is the proper meaning of boosting consumption. In this regard, a number of government agencies and other relevant people participated in the theme activity of "March 15, 2023 International Consumer Rights Day" held by the China Consumers Association on the 3th, and successively introduced the "construction drawings" of their respective departments.

First, improve the consumption environment.

Li Yuanguang, deputy secretary-general of the China Consumer Association, stressed that it is necessary to continue to promote the construction of the consumption environment, coordinate the construction of the social credit system and the construction of the rule of law in the consumption environment, focus on eliminating problems such as information asymmetry and weak sense of trust, create favorable conditions for promoting the recovery of consumption, and jointly protect urban fireworks.

He revealed that this year, the China Consumer Association will combine the relevant results of the theme survey of the "Boosting Consumer Confidence" year, mobilize the National Consumer Association to organize a series of activities and special supervision surveys, and play an active role in promoting the construction of the consumer environment.

Second, the policy side should make efforts.

According to Chang Tiewei, deputy director of the Department of Employment Income Distribution and Consumption of the National Development and Reform Commission, to boost consumption, it is necessary to further optimize the consumption environment, issue relevant policy documents, improve the standard quality management system, and strengthen the construction of the consumer credit system, so that the people have a strong sense of gain and are willing to consume.

At the same time, Chang Tiewei stressed that consumption power comes from employment and income, and the next step will be to optimize the promotion mechanism of employment income distribution and the virtuous cycle of the whole chain of consumption, strengthen the employment priority policy, increase the income of urban and rural residents, and enable residents to have stable income and consumption; No worries, dare to consume.

Third, strengthen and improve regulatory services.

Li Yuanguang suggested that it is necessary to further improve regulatory rules and transaction rules, strengthen the construction of service guarantee and support systems, promptly and properly handle various disputes, and weave a dense "safety net" for consumer rights protection.

Qing Xu, deputy director of the Law Enforcement and Inspection Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation, stressed that the market supervision department will take one platform, two major projects and three brands as the starting point to optimize the consumption environment, do practical things for consumers and solve problems.

"The market supervision department has established a unified national 12315 platform, connecting more than 14.1 billion consumers, more than 10 million market operators and more than 12315,45 market regulators, providing consumers with round-the-clock services." Guo Xu pointed out that last year, the national market supervision department recovered 2.<> billion yuan of economic losses for consumers through channels such as the national <> platform, telephone, fax, and window.

He also said that the market supervision department will lead the overall optimization of the consumption environment by promoting the two major projects of "Creation of Assured Consumption" and "Publicity of Consumer Complaints".

In recent years, the market supervision department has also created three brands: "Iron Fist Action", "Online Dispute Resolution" and "No Reason Return", and the next step will be to take this as an important starting point to better promote the reduction of consumer disputes from the source. (End)