"Eat" out of the new kinetic energy
Liu Hui
The people take food as the sky, and "eating" plays a very important role in China's economy and culture. Today, "eating" is no longer just for the sake of satiety, there are many added values. From the changes in "eating", we can see the differences and characteristics of different regions and different consumer groups, and taste the richer "taste" outside the table.
At present, the consumption and consumption proportion of food and beverages have become an important reference index to measure the maturity of regional consumption and even the quality of life. Especially at a time when the proportion of online food and beverage consumption is getting higher and higher, the habit of online food and beverage purchase is rapidly extending, whether it is a first- or second-tier city or a sinking market, its potential is worthy of the attention and investment of related enterprises.
First of all, the expansion trend of population and region is obvious. Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, more consumers have begun to try to buy all kinds of daily necessities online, especially middle-aged and elderly consumers and sinking market users who have shopped less online before. After the epidemic was quickly controlled and the resumption of work and market resumed in an all-round way, many people still retained the habit of online shopping. At the same time, major platforms have been able to more accurately grasp the needs of consumers and provide more accurate goods and services.
Secondly, from the perspective of consumption, more personalized consumption needs are met. For example, the "post-95s" prefer to buy leisure foods, and people over the age of 56 prefer to buy local specialties; enterprise employees and financial practitioners prefer to buy imported food, workers and service industry practitioners prefer to buy tea; Beijing consumers prefer to buy festive foods and gift certificates, and Liaoning consumers prefer to buy grain and oil seasoning... Consumers' personalized quality improvement needs are fully met online. In addition, consumption habits such as low sugar and low fat have rapidly penetrated in various groups of people, and it is not difficult to see that consumers' pursuit of eating well has gone beyond taste and extended to the level of health.
Finally, for the supply side, Internet retail breaks the space limit, and the commodities that can only be "famous" in the past have the opportunity to go to the whole country, which is a good opportunity for regional economic development, a large number of goods from the region to the whole country, with unique tastes and culture to influence more consumers. Especially since the epidemic, cross-regional travel has decreased year-on-year, and many local specialty consumption demand accompanied by travel has shifted to online, allowing many people with travel difficulties to use their taste buds to feel the local customs first.
The consumption of online food and beverages continues to expand and upgrade in terms of region, population, category, quality, etc., behind which is the improvement and expansion of the market, the yearning and pursuit of consumers for a better life, and the opportunity for a large number of brands and manufacturers to optimize their operations and continue to grow. It is expected that the food and beverage market will improve the quality and increase, not only so that consumers can eat better, but also make the industry develop healthily and the regional economic development more coordinated. (The author is the president of JD.com Consumer and Industrial Development Research Institute)
Economic Daily (Planner/Hu Wenpeng Li Hitomi Lin Wei)
Source: Economic Daily