More Young Chinese Consumers Embrace "Breaking Away From Home" Under The Epidemic.

 

"Isolation" allows consumers to have a lot of time to reflect on and consider what is most important to them, "said Mark Tanner, managing director of China Skinny, a research and marketing consultancy in Shanghai. With more time spent at home, consumers begin to sort out what they feel they do not need, instead of letting apartments mess as usual.

 

Tang Yue, 27, a teacher from Guilin, who calls herself "Shopaholic", said she earned about 7000 yuan a month. In the past three years, she bought products from Chanel lipstick to Apple's latest iPad. But because her usual tour management course has been closed, her salary has been greatly reduced.

 

Tang Yue made a spreadsheet to record nearly 200 kinds of cosmetics and hundreds of clothes, and then marked some of the necessities she wanted to keep in red. In the past two months, she has sold nearly $5000 worth of goods on second-hand trading websites. She said: "the outbreak of the new crown has sounded the alarm. When I saw so many industries collapse, I realized that if it happened to me, I had no financial buffer capability."

 

People may be embarrassed to buy second-hand goods in the past, but now the Internet has become a new habit for some Chinese people. Alibaba (Alibaba), the parent company of Idle Fish, China's largest second-hand commodity trading website, told Reuters that its daily trading volume in March hit a record. Government researchers predict that the volume of second-hand goods transactions in China may exceed 1 trillion yuan this year.

 

Jiang Zhuoyue, 31, is an accountant of a Chinese medicine company in Beijing. This is one of the few industries that may benefit from the outbreak. But she also decided to live a simpler life. She said, "I used to shop regularly, so it was easy to be tempted by discounts. Sephora once sold twenty percent off of all products, and then I bought a lot of cosmetics, because I felt I would lose if I didn't do so.

 

She recently sold nearly 50 old clothes. "Isolation gives me an opportunity to rethink what is most essential to me and the importance of thinking about making financial planning," she said.

 

Li Yiwen, a 23 year old air hostess, said she used to spend money on various celebrity endorsements, snacks, concert tickets and social media activities, but now she does not have enough money to support these spending. "At the end of last year, I just got a new job," she said. "Then, the epidemic appeared. Since I joined the new job, I haven't gotten on the plane yet, so I didn't get any salary." She said she was trying to sell her Kindle.

 

Some people even sell their pets and are considering leaving cities such as Beijing and Shanghai because of the high cost of living that they cannot afford to support.

 

 

 

 

 

Sino Thai securities (Zho) Xu Chi, senior strategist at ngtai Securities in Shanghai, said that some Chinese consumers may prove "21 days habit theory". This is a popular scientific proposition. It takes only 21 days to form a new habit. Xu Chi said: "we believe that people's consumption patterns follow this theory. Most Chinese stay in their home for more than a month and do not go shopping crazily, which may break their past shopping habits and never return to the past. "

 

Jiang Zhuoyue said she decided not to spend as much money as she used to, and that she planned to spend her money on the cost of three meals. "In the future, I will choose some cheaper products in luxury brands," she said. I will choose HUAWEI's smart phone because iPhone has too many brand premium. My monthly consumption budget is 1000 yuan.

 

A recent survey by McKinsey & Co showed that 20% to 30% of Chinese respondents said they would continue to be cautious, reduce consumption slightly or reduce consumption in a few cases.

 

Once the new crown is over, the new minimalist consumption trend is unlikely to continue. But if this trend comes true, it could seriously damage China's consumer sector, from big retailers to restaurants, gyms and beauty shops around the corner.

 

There are also signs that, as the government reopens shopping centres, leisure places and tourist attractions, people's depressed demand will push the consumption boom. South Korea is the first major economy outside China to be affected by the epidemic. This weekend, Korean consumers flocked to the mall for "retaliatory shopping" to make up for the lost shopping opportunities during the quarantine.

 

Similar trends may also occur in China, and some high-end shopping centres will be busy again. But Kering SA, a luxury giant with Gucci and Balenciaga brands, says it is hard to predict when China's consumption will recover and how far it can be restored.