The construction of a unified national market has broken the regional restrictions on New Year's goods and has a profound impact on urban and rural New Year's goods consumption. New Year's goods consumption has achieved a higher level and higher quality development.
After Laba Festival, it is the New Year. On January 18, during the Laba Festival, the morning market on Hongzhuan Street in Harbin was crowded with people. Among the stalls, the Hema stall seemed a bit "out of place". There is actually no Hema store in Harbin. This is Hema’s “New Year Pop-up Plan” to bring high-quality New Year products to cities without Hema stores in advance. In this small pop-up store in Harbin, consumers can buy products they have never seen before, such as southern potatoes, Guangxi sugar oranges, Guizhou peppers, Internet celebrity strawberry raw milk, red heart apple juice, and durian thousand layers.
Every Chinese has a natural and simple yearning for "Celebrating the New Year". It is a common emotion, memory, culture, people's feelings about the current social development, and a true reflection of people's living standards. Over the past 40 years, the list of Chinese New Year goods has changed again and again, becoming the epitome of the upgrading of national consumption. Judging from the lists of goods for the Year of the Dragon among different groups of people, consumption upgrades are still continuing.
Richer connotation
The reporter visited offline New Year goods sales venues and markets in Beijing and other places and found that, similar to the New Year goods sales at exhibitions, the majority of consumers are those born in the 50s and 60s. The age distribution of consumers in shopping malls and supermarkets is often in their 40s. above. Young people are rarely seen among offline New Year goods consumers.
"For the new generation of business owners, New Year's customs are different. Young people's pursuit of ritual and freshness is forming a new consumption trend. More importantly, they firmly believe that it is not that they cannot afford to kill the New Year pig, but from now on. Whole cattle, half sheep, live shrimps, and fresh fish ordered online are more cost-effective." Zhang Peng, head of Taobao Tmall's fresh food industry, told reporters.
During Chinese New Year, eating well always comes first. As the "post-80s" and "post-90s" have become the mainstay of the family, the heavy responsibility of buying a "New Year's Eve dinner" falls on their shoulders. "Taobao's New Flavor Trends in 2024" shows that since December 2023, the sales of fish, shrimp, and meat on the Taobao platform have increased very significantly, especially for some "bulk goods" and "big items" that could only be purchased offline in the traditional sense. "Hard Dish", like a half-sheep product, sales in the past month have increased by 130% compared to the same period last year.
The relevant person in charge of Wumart Supermarket in Beijing said that the guarantee of strong logistics supply is the natural advantage of large comprehensive supermarkets in the New Year Consumption Festival. Although offline product purchase is its main business, the demand for online purchases is increasing year by year. Their sales volume on Duodian, Meituan, Ele.me, JD Daojia, and Douyin is not small. During the New Year consumption period, they will invest more energy in this aspect than in the past.
Zhang Peng said that in the past, the perspective of preparing New Year’s goods during the New Year was as a big family. Data shows that the main sales volume of New Year's goods are small-sized products, and the main reason is that small families have become the main consumers. At the same time, young people's understanding of New Year's Eve dinner has become richer than the simple reunion dinner in the past. It is becoming their understanding to try something different and relax and eat something simple.
The "post-90s generation" has begun to dominate the New Year's Eve dinner. In addition to online orders for fresh products, pre-made dishes have become a popular option for New Year's consumption this year. Sales data from all major platforms show that sales of prepared dishes have increased by at least 20% compared with previous years.
The relevant person in charge of Hema said that there are three reasons why semi-finished dishes and pre-made dishes can shine in New Year’s consumption: First, young people are generally busy with work and cannot prepare a large table of dishes by themselves in terms of cooking skills and time, and they work hard outside. Young people who go home to celebrate the New Year still have to go through the Spring Festival travel rush. They can choose pre-made New Year dishes that are healthy and easy to operate as an alternative. They can also save living costs through the service of "getting the New Year dishes home first". More and more consumers are choosing pre-made New Year dishes. . Second, prepared dishes can satisfy consumers’ emotional consumption. Many of the pre-made New Year dishes are "hard dishes" that are difficult to make at home. You can buy them and process them simply, and then post them on WeChat Moments. This will save you face and boost your holiday mood. Third, many offline restaurants do not inform consumers when they use pre-made dishes for New Year’s Eve dinner. Consumers have neither the right to know nor the right to choose. Instead of this, food safety is more guaranteed by choosing well-informed and reassuring prepared dishes.
Breaking down regional boundaries
Zhang Jing, a resident of Fengtai District, Beijing, is a "post-80s" mother. For the sake of her children, the key word for her New Year shopping is "quality." Zhang Jing said that she will choose products from global high-quality products that can better meet the needs of the New Year. A variety of organic vegetables, imported cherries, Yunnan blueberries, Dandong strawberries and Italian Zespri kiwis are all products she consumes without hesitation. The relevant person in charge of Hema also said that during the New Year Consumption Festival, the sales of fresh products such as organic vegetables, special high-end fruits from different regions, imported seafood, etc. increased significantly compared with usual.
The purchase of New Year's goods has spread from the whole country to the world. On the one hand, it is due to the advancement of science and technology and the development of e-commerce channels; on the other hand, the construction of a unified national market is indispensable.
Compared with "traditional hometown memories", the New Year's goods consumption dominated by Generation Z will involve more cross-regional consumption. People from Zhejiang like to buy Inner Mongolian mutton the most. In addition to going to Harbin, the "Little Potatoes of the South" also love fish from the Northeast. This year’s Tmall New Year Goods Festival, sturgeons from Jiamusi and winter-caught fathead fish from Chagan Lake were both online for the first time, and sales were astonishing as soon as they were caught.
Jiang Zhao, an assistant researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that with the development of e-commerce and the acceleration of the construction of a unified national market, consumption of new year goods has developed at a higher level and with higher quality. E-commerce can well achieve cross-regional operations, provide consumers with unified and convenient after-sales services, and eliminate obstacles to returns and exchanges in other places, making online New Year shopping more popular among consumers. At the regulatory level, regulatory requirements in different regions are gradually unified, and companies are paying more attention to the quality control of new year products, so product quality is better guaranteed.
The rapid rise of e-commerce and the sinking of consumption scenes have caused rural New Year consumption to catch up with first- and second-tier cities. The 2023 Spring Festival Consumption Observation Report released by Alipay shows that "urban-rural consumption migration" has a significant effect during the Spring Festival. The consumption amount in third-tier and below cities increased by nearly 20% compared with the same period during the Spring Festival last year (January 29 to February 4, 2022), surpassing first- and second-tier cities.
The construction of a unified national market not only has a profound impact on the consumption of New Year's goods in urban and rural areas, but also plays a key role in breaking regional restrictions on regional New Year's goods to go out of the province. Purchasing New Year's Eve flowers is originally a Spring Festival custom for southerners, but now the New Year's Eve flower market in the north is also booming.
Reports show that narcissus is a regular guest of the New Year's Eve flower. The sales of a daffodil cooperative in Shanghai have exceeded 1 million yuan before mid-January 2024. Its person in charge predicts that the entire New Year's Eve flower sales season will reach 5 million yuan. Yuan. The reporter observed that in Hema stores in northern cities, almost every store has set aside a special area for flower sales. The relevant person in charge of Hema said, "Throughout 2023, Hema's flower sales business has grown steadily. Current data shows that the New Year's Eve flowers for the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon have entered the hot-selling period ahead of schedule, and flowers have become the standard New Year's goods for Hema users. "For this reason, Hema has specially produced gift certificates for the New Year's Eve Phalaenopsis. Consumers can place orders directly and give them to relatives and friends with one click."
Tourism becomes a “new product”
Behind the dazzling array of New Year's goods, what still reflects the constant changes in life and needs. Nowadays, travel consumption has become an indispensable category in New Year’s consumption, and celebrating the New Year in foreign places and foreign countries is becoming the choice of more and more young consumers. Among them, consumers who are away from home during the Chinese New Year have even promoted the development of e-commerce overseas.
Tongcheng Travel’s “2024 Spring Festival Travel Trend Forecast Report” shows that this year’s Spring Festival travel market will be unprecedentedly active. As of January 10, the search popularity for air tickets departing between February 8 and February 17 has increased nearly 2 times year-on-year. Among them, the search popularity for international air tickets has increased nearly 7 times year-on-year, exceeding the level of the same period in 2019. Since January, searches for Sanya tourism have increased by 302% month-on-month, and vacation tourism in Harbin, Mohe and other places have increased by more than 100% year-on-year.
Meng Xiang, a "post-90s" resident of Xicheng District, Beijing, said: "The world is so big, and I am usually busy with work and have no time to go and see it. The Spring Festival holiday is long, and I can take my lover and children away from home, experience a different life, reunite and enjoy both worlds." Wrong. My child is 5 years old and has already spent the Spring Festival in Australia. This year our family will spend the Spring Festival in the Maldives."
The relevant person in charge of JD.com said that JD.com has long been concerned about the demand for New Year’s goods from overseas citizens and Chinese during the Spring Festival, as well as the growth space of related markets, products, and services. The Spring Festival has become a "floating holiday" of the United Nations, which is a rare opportunity for e-commerce companies to go overseas. During this year’s JD New Year Festival, JD Global Sales will launch and open free home delivery services in five European countries, allowing consumers at home and abroad to feel the strong Chinese New Year atmosphere. Consumers in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and other places can directly purchase Chinese New Year products at the same price in China and delivered directly to their homes by opening the JD.com APP.