Analysis of Changes in Young Chinese Pet Consumer Market

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Press release: China International Pet Show (CIPS)

Recently, China International Pet Show (CIPS) released the following analysis of young Chinese consumers, including pet owners.

DT Finance and China Business Data Center (CBNData) released the Portrait of Young Consumer. The report takes the post-’90s as the main research object, studies the changes in the consumption habits of young people, why young people buy, what influences the decision-making of young consumers, and how young people view brands.

According to the survey of the 2020 China Pet Industry White Paper, the post-’90s generation is already the largest group of pet owners. At present, and in the next 10 years, this group will be the main force in the pet consumer market.

Practicality
According to the consumer portrait, the most concerned factor during purchase is need of the product, which 93 percent of the consumers think highly of 49.7 percent of the consumers consider to purchase high cost-effective products. The consumer portrait shows that young people have a trend of backing to the nature of products and service.

Contrary to the stereotype, consumerism is not prevalent among young people, and some even express clear opposition against it. Meanwhile, the factors that might have an effect on young consumers attention, such as friends’ advice or recommendation, is gradually less affected.

Value
The current anti-consumerism of young people cannot simply be equated with the pursuit of practicality. In addition to material needs, spiritual satisfaction is also a factor of their concern. The consumer portrait shows that 30.8 percent of consumers will still spend more money on good appearance. Brand and characteristics can also take money out of consumers’ pocket. Young consumers obtain happiness through purchase, which is the reason behind consumer behavior.

Among the influencing factors that cause consumers to make a repeat purchase on a product, the quality of a product and the laziness of the consumer are the two key factors. In this area, 77.6 percent of consumers will make a repeat purchase because of good sense of use, while 56.4 percent of consumers will repurchase the product simply because they are too lazy to find an alternative. In addition, consumers noted that high cost performance and large discounts also played a role in purchasing a product more than once.

Overall, consumers pay more attention to their own feelings during purchase rather than others opinion. Only 3.2 percent of consumers believe that the approval of the people around them will impact their decision to make a repeat purchase, while 1.6 percent of the consumer noted being influenced by a celebrity endorsement.

Cultural Identity
Most young people are tired of labeling themselves with consumption. The consumer portrait shows that demonstrating individuality through purchase only ranks No. 5 of the influencing factors.

Compared with individuality, young consumers are more concerned about cultural identity and the resulting social circle. The analysis believes that by purchasing the same product, strangers will reach mutual recognition, share knowledge and experience on social media, offline activities, online platforms, etc., to form a community of same interests.

Regarding the cultural identity of young consumers, since young people’s consumption of brands comes from social interaction, the purpose is also to socialize. Young people are more inclined to get connected with people who have the same values, attitudes and hobbies. Different social groups form specific social and consumer circles. Moreover, the smaller the circle, the stronger the closeness of young people.

Consumer decision: Spontaneous feedback 
Although there are more and more channels for obtaining information, the factors that can influence consumers to really like a product have hardly changed. The consumer portrait shows that from the post-’80s to post-00s, friend recommendation is the primary channel for concerning to purchase. Regarding the choice of purchase, e-commerce platforms are the second most important channels for the post-’80s and post-2000s when making purchase, yet KOL recommendations have not entered the top five channels.

The consumer portrait shows that more than 95 percent of young people will perform their own background research on a product before consumption, which is enough to prove that young people are becoming rational in shopping. However, as the channels for obtaining information become more abundant, young people also show different characteristics in the choice of channels for reviews.

Among the post-’80s and post-’85s, an online search engine is where they look for reviews. Meanwhile, among the post-’90s, post-’95s and 2000s, the highest ranking channel is social media — for example, Xiaohongshu and Weibo. Video platforms are especially popular among post-2000s, with 43.3 percent of these respondents using Bilibili, TikTok and other video platforms.

Brand recognition: Technology determines loyalty
The younger the consumers are, the less they care about the big brand concept. Among the post-’85s respondents, 20.5 percent of consumers think it is not worth spending more money on big brands. In addition, 25.5 percent of post-’90s agree on this concept while this figure rises to 29.8 percent among post-’95s. The figure reaches 32.3 percent among post-2000s. This trend shows that young people’s consumption structure has changed rapidly.

In terms of brand loyalty, according to the survey, consumers have relatively high brand loyalty to products with certain technical thresholds such as 3C digital, beauty and personal care, while shows relatively low brand loyalty to low technical thresholds products in FMCG.

This trend is also confirmed in the 2020 China Pet Industry White Paper. According to the white paper, 67.7 percent and 55.3 percent of respondents in pet toys and leash categories, respectively, chose not to pay attention to brand attributes. In the survey of consumers’ preference for cat litter brands, N1 ranked first with only 11.6 percent consumer loyalty rate. In contrast, Petkit and Mi reached 38 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in the ranking of smart product brands.

Many pet brands have begun incorporating celebrities into their marketing. However, despite the decline in brand loyalty of pet owners, according to the consumer portrait and white paper, providing products with higher technical barriers remains the most effective means to increase brand loyalty.