2024 is the 8th year of the release of the Zhimeng Trend Report, in order to help enterprises maintain keen insight in the ever-changing market environment and find a clear direction of developmentZhimeng Consulting held the 2024 Consumer Trends Conference in Beijing on January 11. The conference brought together many industry elites to jointly develop the future market trend.
At the conference, Xiao Mingchao, founder and CEO of Zhimeng Consulting and a well-known trend and marketing expert, officially released the "2024 China Consumer Trends Report". This report provides an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of China's consumer market from a comprehensive and multi-dimensional perspective, revealing the latest consumer trends and trends.
The report revealed Zhimeng's top 10 consumer trends for 2024**They are prudent and shrewd, spiritual self-pleasing, outward exploration, fireworks narrative, quality first, convenient enjoyment, essence of health, value reconstruction, ageless experience and sustainable brand. These trends** provide valuable market insights to help businesses stay ahead of the market and achieve sustained growth.
Whether it's same-day delivery in the express delivery industry or fast checkouts on digital payment platforms, these innovations are driving consumers' immediate purchases. Consumers are increasingly demanding instant gratification and convenience services, and this trend is not only reflected in retail and e-commerce, but also widely affects industries such as travel, entertainment, and food and beverage. To adapt to this change, companies need to revisit and adjust their operating models and market strategies to better meet the immediate needs of consumers.
01.In the fast-paced era, consumers are more satisfied in the moment.
With the acceleration of the pace of life and the convenience brought about by technological progress, people's demand for quick experience and immediate enjoyment is emerging, and they are paying more and more attention to the consumption value and experience of "unit time"."Delayed gratification" is a thing of the past, and "what I want now" is no longer a slogan, but the norm of consumptionWhether it's a trip to go, or an order for what you want to buy, Zhimeng's "2024 China Consumer Trends Report" (hereinafter referred to as the report) points out that 73% of consumers believe that "instant enjoyment" can bring them a happy mood.
Behind consumers' demand for convenient life and immediate experience, the driving force comes from consumers' emphasis on efficiency and the reconstruction of time value, according to the survey, 629% of consumers expect efficiency improvements, 596% of consumers believe that it leads to a more reasonable schedule; At the same time, efficiency and convenience are also the hallmarks of quality life, which can also allow consumers to focus on doing more meaningful things, thereforeThe "lazy economy" as defined in the past has taken on a new meaning:It is not only to save time, but also to rearrange the rhythm of life and re-evaluate the value of time.
With the popularity of this "instant enjoyment" consumption concept, more efficient and convenient products and services have emerged in the market. Examples such as instant delivery services, one-click shopping apps, and responsive customer service systems will be more popular to meet consumers' new expectations for efficiency and time value. In addition, this consumer trend has also prompted enterprises to pay attention to the optimization of user experience and continue to innovate to adapt to the rapidly changing market demand.
02.Enjoy products and services quickly, save time and live slowly
According to the Zhimeng report, in the fast-paced life, 68% of consumers want to buy immediately when they consume, do not like to stock up and wait, and are also willing to pay for time-saving products and services; In addition, more than half of consumers hope that after a new product comes out, they can enjoy it without going out. Convenient enjoyment and immediate enjoyment have become the pursuit of consumers to enjoy a richer consumption experience. If people are more "slow" in emotional consumption and spiritual consumption, they are moving towards endless speed in terms of the acquisition of consumption and the efficiency of time.
In order to meet the consumer demand for convenience and enjoyment, with the maturity of mobile Internet technology, the model of instant retail has been born, through the combination of online platforms and offline stores, the service radius and service period have been expanded, and instant retail has activated more consumption scenarios. According to the report of the International Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, from the perspective of market size, the scale of China's instant retail market has increased from 365 in 20177.1 billion yuan, an increase to 5042 in 20228.6 billion yuan, which is expected to reach 25,082 by 20266.5 billion yuan.
With the continuous improvement of the scale and efficiency of the instant distribution system, instant consumption habits have been continuously integrated into life and work, gradually forming an instant lifestyle from emergency consumption to instant gratification, from "takeaway delivery" to "delivery of everything". In Zhimeng's qualitative interview with consumers, Mr. Zheng from Guangzhou mentioned that he would choose to buy a new iPhone on the Meituan platform because it can be delivered on the same day the order is placed, which also reflects the wonderful experience that the instant retail platform brings to consumers.
In addition, the instant retail platform can also provide consumers with more accurate stores and more refined products to meet the diverse needs of consumers anytime and anywhere.
In order to make time more valuable, in addition to buying and getting, consumers are also applying various smart devices to liberate time, make time more meaningful, and upgrade the quality of life, voice assistants, smart homes, wearable smart devices, robots (such as sweeping robots), AI tools and other intelligent interactive scenarios and products have also become the choice of more and more consumers.
Not only do consumers want to enjoy the experience and availability of goods and services, but they are also looking forward to the joy that AI can bring to their lives. According to the survey, more than 90% of consumers are very interested in AI and believe that AI is more advantageous, more than half of consumers hope that AI will help them improve efficiency, save time, and bring personalized and customized experiences.
For enterprises, from big data analysis to artificial intelligence-assisted decision-making, enterprises should use these advanced technologies to accurately meet consumer needs and provide more personalized and time-sensitive services. In such a market environment, not only the quality of products and services is valued, but also the speed of consumer response to the brand and the immediacy of the experience have also become important criteria to measure the competitiveness of enterprises.
03."Convenient and enjoyable" marketing application strategy.
In this fast-paced, high-efficiency modern society, consumer needs and preferences are constantly changing, driving companies to continuously innovate marketing strategies to adapt to changes in the market. Consumers' pursuit of a "convenient and enjoyable" life has become a new focus of marketing. Under this trend, Zhimeng put forward a four-point strategy to help enterprises better realize the "convenient enjoyment" of consumers.
Strategy 1: Explore the demand for more enjoyable scenes and moments.
Brands should deeply analyze consumers' consumption behavior and interaction data, actively collect consumer feedback, establish deeper interactions and connections with consumers, and explore the needs of more enjoyable scenes and moments. Taking Meituan Flash Sale as an example, in order to cope with the hot summer heat mode, Meituan Flash Sale has timely insight into consumer needs: the source of demand for ice drinks is to cool off, and cooling off is a demand that "can't wait", for example, the demand scenarios for ice drinks are very diverse: ice cream can be used as afternoon tea snacks, you can order a cold beer late at night to satisfy your cravings, and you need ice drinks ...... when you go campingThese consumption scenarios are the use scenarios of goods.
From June to August 2023, Meituan Flash Sale launched the "Ice Festival", taking ice cream, cold beer, and ice drinks as key categories, applying the ability to be delivered in as fast as 30 minutes, creating a "mobile Xiaoice box", bringing consumers a rich and convenient shopping experience in the hot summer, and also stimulating users to share and discuss in various social networks. During the Ice Festival, Meituan flash sales linked up with many brands and super 2More than 60,000 retail merchants can ensure the delivery of ice products and ice drinks in the fastest 30 minutes from the aspects of product upturning, ice preservation, and after-sales. The case of the Ice Festival further confirms that instant retail has become a high-certainty way of life, and the Internet retail market will also change from "10,000 stores" to "everything at home". The rapid growth of ice drinks reflects the trend of "full-category prosperity" in instant retail.
In 2023, Meituan Flash Sale will be launched for brand owners"Fast Instant Retail Brand Operator**".This is the first brand growth model in the instant retail industry, which aims to help brands achieve distribution optimization, accurate user reach, perfect product matching, and optimization of consumers' global shopping experience, so as to achieve sustainable growth of brands with quality, and truly enable consumers to find (findability), awareness, superior value, and tailored experience）。 In the future, through instant retail channels, retailers will be able to offer more customized new products to bring more surprises to consumers. Through the instant retail platform, brands can link retailers to perform real-time fulfillment, and explore new segmentation scenarios and market growth points.
Strategy 2: Build a digital business.
Build an instant digital business operation system that meets the immediate lifestyle, establish a fast-responding agile chain system, improve intelligent inventory management capabilities, and promote the integration of online and offline channels. For young people, the demand for catering is constantly changing, and the cost of cooking is getting higher and higher, Guoquan Food Exchange has timely insight into the needs of consumers, follows the changes of the crowd, provides one-stop ingredients and equipment for eating at home, and reaches more users with the content of "new lifestyle scenes" and penetrates"When you eat at home, look for pot rings".At the same time, with the help of the pot ring - pot cube OS system, it accurately matches high-demand people and goods, so as to achieve the continuous popularity of classic products, the rapid expansion of new customers and the repurchase of members.
For each circulation link of the food chain, Guoquan has established a cloud information center platform integrating cloud computing, big data analysis and technology research and development to realize intelligent and digital services for thousands of people and thousands of faces. The store is equipped with a digital retail system and membership system, and through cashier data and member** management, it can obtain clear user portraits and achieve precision marketing. For example, when a member joins a membership, the membership management system will record his selection preference, amount and frequency each time, and the next time, the product he likes will be intelligently recommended.
Strategy 3: Develop products and brands that adapt to immediate consumption.
According to the consumption habits and consumption characteristics under the trend of convenience and enjoyment, we will develop products and brands that are suitable for instant consumption in a targeted manner to meet consumers' needs for high quality, high efficiency, and time-saving and labor-saving. With consumers' pursuit of convenient life, "home beauty" has also become a new trend in the beauty and body care instrument industry, taking home beauty devices as an example, JOVS as a fashion personal care brand from China, specializing in innovative beauty technology, the application of cinema photoelectric technology to the field of home skin care, truly do"Home beauty salon"., giving users a new home skin care experience.
Since its inception in 2018, JOVS has been focusing on migrating the optical technology of the cinema chain to the field of household skin care, in addition to creating professional products, the integration of fashionable design and experience is to give users the most intimate service, continuous innovation to give users unlimited surprises and freshness, and with hair removal device as the first category, build a full-scene product matrix. In addition to deep cultivation of the domestic market, JOVS officially entered Japan in 2021, and in 2023, JOVS hair removal device products will sell more than 100,000 units in Japan; In the first half of 2023, the JOVS hair removal device also won the first place in sales in 15 categories such as Rakuten Home Appliances, Beauty and Health, and Hair Removal. Home beauty is not only a trend, but also a manifestation of a refined life attitude, and the rapid development of China's home beauty device market reflects consumers' strong demand for convenient, efficient and safe beauty solutions.
Strategy 4: AI-empowered precision marketing
Apply AI tools to achieve precision and automation of marketing, and use technology to drive innovation to present consumers with a more three-dimensional and efficient intelligent life. As the "new quality productivity" of the future, enterprises related to artificial intelligence show high growth characteristics. On May 6, 2023, iFLYTEK, as the "national team" of artificial intelligence, officially released the "iFLYTEK Xinghuo Cognitive Model", and upgraded and released iFLYTEK Xinghuo V3 as scheduled on October 24Version 0, iFLYTEK Spark has launched 490,000+ assistants, covering 15 major application scenarios such as work, study, and life, to meet the needs of users in various scenarios.
Applications are the last word, and AI-native applications and products grown from large models have penetrated into all aspects of consumers' lives, work, and learning. Up to now, iFLYTEK Xinghuo has been applied in C-end software and hardware such as iFLYTEK AI learning machine, iFLYTEK smart office notebook, iFLYTEK intelligent voice recorder, iFLYTEK hearing, iFLYTEK input method, Xinghuo language companion APP, iFLYTEK Xiaoyi APP, iFLYTEK Zhizuo, iLycode, and B-end business tracks such as education, medical care, industry, finance, automobile, city, and justice. iFLYTEK is building everyone's artificial intelligence assistant through the Xinghuo model, so that everyone can truly enjoy the dividends of artificial intelligence.
Consumers pay more attention to the happiness and satisfaction of the moment, rather than waiting for or planning for a certain result in the future, fast, convenient, intelligent, and immediately enjoy products and services, is the weapon that allows them to get a calm and slow life in the fast era. By digging deeper into the enjoyment scenario, building a digital business system, developing products and brands that adapt to instant consumption, and using AI to empower precision marketing, enterprises can more effectively meet the needs of modern consumers. This is not only an effective response to market and technology trends, but also the key to sustainable growth and competitive advantage in the future. Zhimeng Consulting AgencyExclusiveThe "2024 China Consumer Trends Report" was launchedIf you want to know more details, please scan the code to subscribe.