The Chinese ‘Super Consumer’

The Chinese ‘Super Consumer’ is a term that has recently been trending on the Internet, and it is predominantly used to describe Chinese millennials. But who are they exactly? What do they want? And maybe most importantly: how do we reach them?

Who are they?

In order to explain who they are exactly, it is important to understand the history of China and how China’s history played a great part in forming the ‘Super Consumer’. In 1979 China instigated a One-Child policy, which meant that every family was only allowed to have one child during that period of time. As a result of this, children who were born while this policy was still intact, were all treated like royalty, and still are treated like royalty to this day.

Due to them being their parent’s only child they are the center of attention in their family. This means that they would always get the best of the best. When you pair this with the fact that most of these Chinese millennials, aged 18 – 35, still live in their elderly home and have no student loan debt. You can clearly see how this policy built a great platform to create the Chinese ‘Super Consumer’, a generation with a lot of wealth to spend.

What do they want?

But what does this generation want exactly? According to Ellen Hou, former group managing director of McCann Worldgroup Shanghai and current CEO of Carat China, the motto this generation is following is one quite similar to the western motto of ‘carpe diem’. “They really want to make this moment interesting and happy rather than living for the future of others’.

From this insight we can conclude that the thing the Chinese Super Consumer wants is enjoyment. They want a product that does more than just being a product, an experience really. This trend is something that should most definitely be taken into account when starting your business in China. Keep in mind that branding and the customer experience is now equally important as the product or service itself.

How do we reach them?

The Chinese Super Consumer lives in a world that is constantly connected. They grew up with the Internet and social media being in full swing, and the importance of being connected and online constantly for this generation is something you simply cannot ignore.

Besides this statement, it is evident when you view the numbers. Around 90 percent of China’s 549 million Internet users access the Internet via their mobile phone in June 2015 with 55.5 percent of total online retail shopping converting via their mobile. To give a comparison the total population of the EU was 508 million around this time. It is evident which direction your business should take. All that matters for your now business is to find the right platform for your product, and you are set to go.