Bosses must read! If you don’t understand these four consumer trends, you may miss out on opportunities and hinder profits next year

In the current situation of increasingly fierce business competition, grasping consumption trends is crucial for the development of enterprises. This article will deeply explore the four key consumption trends in 2025, including packaging cost-effectiveness, product value, product experience, and online and offline integration. These trends will have a profound impact on the profitability and market competitiveness of enterprises.

For bosses, whether they can make money next year, survive, or turn things around, the key is to understand consumer needs and consumption trends, and what they care about. Because products, markets, channels, and marketing must be determined based on them.

Today’s article tells you the answer!

Recently, when I was helping a client develop a growth strategy and analyzing the market, I found a report called "Road to 2025: China Consumer Outlook". After reading it, I found it so useful and valuable that I wanted to share it with you~ (This is not an advertisement, there is a free way to get it at the end of the article)

By 2024, Chinese consumers' habits will have changed, from cautious to purposeful consumption.

That is to say, people are still willing to spend money, but they just don’t spend it casually.

So why are consumers willing to spend money?

Let’s take a look at the following four trends:

1. Trend 1. Packaging cost-effectiveness: Seeking high cost-effective consumption through packaging changes

65% of consumers will buy more large-package products, such as those sold at Sam's Club, which are large in size, high in total price, and cheap in individual portions;

60% of consumers would choose smaller packaging even if the purchase cost is lower.

For example, sales of laundry detergent beads packaged in 51 pieces grew by 40% year-on-year, while sales of liquid milk boxes grew by 79% year-on-year.

Changing packaging can also meet consumers' needs in different scenarios and is also a smart marketing method.

I have written an article about packaging marketing before. If you are interested, you can check it out → Want Want becomes "bigger", and then becomes "smaller" little by little... What marketing tricks are hidden behind the packaging?

2. Trend 2: Product value: High product efficacy and innovation continue to stimulate consumer purchases

To put it bluntly, consumers are willing to pay for high-efficiency and high-performance products. For example, yours has a 7-day shelf life, while mine has a 15-day shelf life; yours has 0 sugar and 0 fat, while mine has 0 sugar and 0 fat and 0 additives. Last year, when I bought an air conditioner, I only looked at one performance factor and didn’t choose any other.

Therefore, the value of a product is reflected in its efficacy, efficiency and speed of innovation.

Just like why Luckin Coffee is so successful, product innovation has contributed greatly to it. Starbucks only launches 47 new products a year, while Luckin Coffee will be able to launch 110+ new products by 2022, directly crushing Starbucks in terms of quantity and speed and seizing the market.

3. Trend 3: Product experience: Providing a pleasant feeling can bring product premium

75% of consumers are willing to start/increase their intake of vitamins and supplements for health reasons

66% of consumers said they would spend more to make a moment more special/enjoyable

66% of consumers said they would spend more money on products that are more convenient to use

What does this mean? People are paying more attention to products and the user experience. The era of experience economy has arrived.

Nowadays, products should not only look good, but also be pleasing and comfortable in terms of design, usage and service.

The last time I went to Japan, I experienced a lot of Japan’s detailed designs, which were really well done. I think commercial design based on user experience must be the trend of the future.

IV. Trend 4: Online and offline integration: the era of omni-channel combination of offline physical stores and online channels

The report states that 85% of consumers will continue or increase their shopping in a combination of physical stores and online channels.

Instant retail is very popular in 2024. A friend of mine opened a small shop selling durian, doing live broadcasts in the store, and then delivering it instantly through Meituan, Ele.me, and Shishida. This model is the most efficient example of online and offline integration.

Today's consumers do not live in a single world; they move between online and offline. Integration is the ultimate trend.

I have been helping companies with this trend since 2021. We call it "consumer digitalization" upgrade, with the goal of tapping into the value of consumers throughout their life cycle and across all channels, improving repeat purchase conversions, and accumulating consumer assets. We will connect all consumer data from e-commerce, mini-programs, dealers, store channels, and establish a label model, and then provide precision marketing and care services.

Looking at it now, it is completely in line with the omni-channel combination consumption trend mentioned in the report.

Consumer brands may have a difficult time this year, but as the country is currently taking the lead in boosting domestic demand and encouraging society to shift from an investment-driven to a consumption-driven economy, there will definitely be money-making opportunities in the consumer industry.

By grasping the trends and understanding consumers better than our competitors, we will have a better chance of turning the tide!