Analysis from Chinese ecommerce giant JD.com has provided us with insight into post-COVID consumer trends and behaviour.

👦 Younger Consumers are Driving Shopping for Households

Young people in China have been the main driver of lockdown shopping, as they are savvier about using online shopping apps. Data from 2020 shows that 70% of consumers born after 1995 have shifted from "buying only for themselves" to “buying necessities for the whole family”.

📈 Livestream & Community Group Buying Accelerates

As a result of social distancing, consumers are using digital to connect, entertain and shop, fuelling a surge in livestreaming (live commerce) by retailers. On the 19th of March, luxury Canadian fashion brand PORTS did a 9-hour livestream on JD Live. Over 1.3 million customers visited the live stream and PORTS’ sales surpassed $1.4 million on that day.

🎯 Custom Products & Consumer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) Data Grows

Consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) products have become increasingly popular. These products are designed based on insights gleaned from data generated by targeted consumers and can provide more customised product functions at a more reasonable cost, resulting in better value for money. Despite COVID-19 driving consolidation of production capacity in the industry, JD continues to promote customisation to help better match consumers and goods.

💵 Offline to Online Purchasing Behaviour Has Accelerated

In the first 4 months of 2020, China’s total retail sales of consumer goods amounted to $1.5 trillion, a decrease of 16.2% year-on-year, while sales of online retail reached $360 billion, an increase of 8.6%. This shift from offline to online is significant and has continued post-lockdown. This is driving consumers online shopping habits forward, especially in the grocery category. For example, on the first day of the 618 Grand Promotion, JD Super (JD’s online supermarket) saw its sales increase by 100% while online sales of fresh groceries rose by 140%, compared with the same promotional day last year.