The Chinese celebrations for the New Lunar Year attract unmatched attention from the rest of the world, and with the revenue of retail sales reaching 1005 billion yuan in 2019 it is not difficult to see why. Changes in Chinese spending habits during the Spring Festival can help foresee or confirm the next big consumer trends, as well as test the feelings of Chinese consumers towards specific products.
While limited parts of the country still endure virus-containing measures, experts have signaled that Chinese consumers still manifest a high spending desire for these holidays.
Three continuous trends that have attracted the interest of Chinese consumers during the last years:
- Food and Beverage
- Gifts and Decorations
- Foreign Luxury Fashion
Food and Beverage Products
Health and origin awareness have established themselves as major selling points for domestic and imported food products in the last years, with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating this trend. In fact, many recent publications state that Chinese consumers are willing to pay more for “Farm-to-Table” healthy ingredients for their family reunion dinners.
Cherries: Thanks to various factors, this years’ cherries have dropped to half of their usual prices and provoked a shopping spree in Chinese consumers. Cherries, which are a common Spring Festival gift and signify prosperity, were declared in mid-January as the No.1 bestselling festive product on Tmall. However, the trend abruptly stopped, and fruit sales in general plummeted after imported cherries were found to have traces of the Covid-19 virus.
Dongbei meat products: Always according to the JD List “100 Flavours of the New Year”, traditional meat products of the North East (Dongbei) seem to experience the favor of Chinese foodies. Consumers’ choices include the Harbin Red sausage and grassland mutton meat.
Gifts and Decorations
To exchange gifts during Spring Festival is one of the core practices that make the occasion special. While both traditional and digital Red Envelopes remain the preferred gift to exchange between family members, consumer trends for gifts vary consistently according to the degree of acquaintance between people outside the family circles. However, traditionally festive items like the ones selected in the examples below could appear as timeless and always desirable.
Fresh Flowers: Due to a drop in prices, this year’s fresh flower markets have started their activities earlier in many Chinese cities. Flowers and plants to gift or to decorate one’s home have been reported to generate 800 million dollars last year only in Guangzhou, but with this year’s Covid-19 preoccupations the situation remains uncertain for the numerous flower markets opening all around China.
Forbidden City Press Almanac: According to JD, already in December almanacs and calendars launched by museums were enjoying a 450% increase in sales compared to the previous year. The Forbidden City almanac, printed by the Palace Museum in Beijing as a collectors’ edition, combines traditional Chinese prints of the Ox with the popularity of the product.
Foreign Luxury Fashion
Foreign luxury brands might still struggle to be recognized as genuine in their representation of the Spring Festival celebrations. In recent years, many brands have made efforts to localize their brand image through exclusive capsule collections and visual identity designs.
Gucci: The DORAEMON X Gucci collection taps into the nostalgia-driven cartoon imaginary of their Millennials and Gen-Zers consumers. The collection features the Manga character in either its usual blue or in a light brown ox costume to maintain this year’s theme.
Estée Lauder: The packaging and style of the new Estée Lauder capsule collection for Chinese New Year include golden peonies on a red background, as well as small customary gifts like keychains and an ox-shaped mini purse. The collection includes limited edition items, as well as some all-time favorites repackaged for the occasion.
Changing Times
In the last decade, people have reported the feeling of Spring Festival traditions being diluted by the intense rhythms of modern life. So much so that the impossibility to go back home for the New Year celebrations and the longing to see one’s family has become a popular theme in seasonal advertising.
Apart from the hardships endured in 2020, this feeling might just increase during the celebrations for the arrival of the Year of the Ox. With many Chinese people deciding not to return to their native cities and villages due to the Covid-19 persistence in 2021, the question of how Chinese consumers are going to spend this year’s Spring Festival is all but obvious.
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