Young people today are abandoning "showing off wealth" and even "brands"

Taking the 1688 platform as an example, this article explores the changes in consumption concepts among contemporary young people, especially the preference of the post-00 generation for "substitute" consumption.

Consumption trends have changed!

After Perfect Diary popularized the concept of "brand substitutes", it has now extended to a wider range of consumer categories. Growth Black Box captured the comprehensive index of Douyin keywords and found that the term "brand substitute" has been increasingly followed and discussed by users since the second half of 2023.

Data source: Juliang Index

The root cause is that the consumption concept has changed. When the post-70s generation was still pursuing taste, the post-80s generation was still pursuing style, and the post-90s generation was still pursuing quality, the core guiding ideology of the post-00s generation is: you can buy expensive things, and you can afford expensive things, but you must not buy more expensive things.

1. Young people seek low prices, not low prices

Have you noticed that in the past, we felt ashamed of being poor, and even had to put on a brave face when facing the outside world. We would secretly compete with each other and feel happy that our consumption was more expensive.

Nowadays, young people have started to compete with each other to see who gets the most out of the brands and who makes the most of the coupons . The source of happiness has changed from "high-priced consumption" to "affordable consumption."

Because in the dictionary of those born after 1995 and 2000, "poor" is a positive word without shame, which means disenchantment, authenticity and simplicity. Contemporary young people are abandoning "showing off wealth".

Instead, the pursuit is - how to save money more intelligently.

So, when consumers discuss “substitutes,” what exactly are they discussing?

We captured the word cloud that co-occurs with the term "substitute" through the Shushuo aggregation platform and found that it involves almost all aspects of the fast-moving consumer goods sector.

Data source: Shushuojuhe under Shushuoshi

The only platform-related keyword that appears in the word cloud is Xiaohongshu .

This is very interesting. Previously, the impression given by Xiaohongshu users was that they were sophisticated and wealthy, and their portraits were mainly people born after 1995 and 2000 in first- and second-tier cities, mostly women. The key user groups were college students, young mothers and new white-collar workers.

In fact, this group of people is very closely related to "substitutes", because there is another APP whose user portrait highly overlaps with Xiaohongshu, and that is 1688.

Many people's impression and understanding of 1688 may still remain that it is a platform for B2B business, where dealers can wholesale and purchase goods. However, they do not know that it has become a must-have shopping item, or even the first choice, for college students.

Although college students don't have a lot of money, it doesn't stop them from demanding quality . What they define as a substitute is the price, but the quality. Only products of the same style, same source, same factory, same craftsmanship, and same materials are considered substitutes.

Therefore, what young people are pursuing as substitutes is not consumption downgrade, nor is it extremely low prices .

To be precise, it is not even about price-performance ratio, but about quality-price ratio . As the Internet becomes more and more developed, business becomes more and more transparent, and information becomes easier to trace, consumers will naturally become more "picky" about consumer goods and will not waste their money.

2. 1688 becomes the optimal solution for alternative consumption

1688 just hit upon this demand, adhered to the genes of a direct sales platform for source factory goods, and started the "brand substitute" business.

On June 1, 1688 held the "Infinite Happiness Conference" and "Poor Happiness Night" in Chengdu, Sichuan, accurately deconstructing the consumption concept and behavior of young people into "poor but happy". But being poor is not the point, happiness is the point, spending less money to get more happiness is what young people are pursuing now .

1688 released a report on substitute consumption during the event. The report shows that substitute consumption presents four major trends, namely origin consumption, parameter consumption, ingredient/material consumption, and functional consumption .

These four aspects happen to be the important criteria for consumers to judge whether a product can be called a "substitute".

The reason why 1688 can become the optimal solution for substitute consumption is due to its product palette - mainly brand OEM factories, well-known brands in industrial belts, and brand original factories . The three types of goods are essentially white-label source factory goods. Their quality is online and their prices are advantageous, but due to the lack of brand power, they are not easily discovered by end users.

You can understand that the reason you buy cheap goods on 1688 is not because they are cheap in themselves, but because your information gap and your disenchantment with the brand help you save money.

Currently, the 1688 platform has more than 1 million source manufacturers, of which more than 60% are factories. Because it concentrates the source factories, source goods and source prices of the industrial belts, 1688 is also known as the "source cargo tray of Chinese e-commerce". Its products have no intermediaries when they are sold and have no brand premium.

As more and more consumers have learned to achieve substitution consumption through 1688, as shown in the figure below, 1688's overall online voice has also been rising.

Data source: Shushuojuhe under Shushuoshi

On Xiaohongshu, there are currently more than 2 million comments about 1688. Half of them praise the source factory for its excellent quality, and many bloggers spontaneously share stories of treasure hunting; the other half criticize the poor user experience.

In response to the most authentic market feedback, starting from March 8 this year, 1688 buyers have experienced the newly upgraded service - 0 yuan order, free shipping for one piece, two or three days to receive the goods, and free return shipping.

After the service upgrade, the search volume in various categories of 1688 has increased significantly.

In the final analysis, this generation of young people pursues substitutes because they are no longer willing to pay extra premium for brand logos, but are unwilling to reduce their quality of life. They want everything except the brand logo, and they pursue the social attributes and emotional value of the product.

Substitution is not low-end, but a new trend of youth. From Zibo special forces travel, Erbin substitutes Sanya, Village Super League substitutes Chinese Super League, Village BA substitutes NBA, Citywalk substitutes long-distance travel, military coats, flowered cotton jackets and Lei Feng hat substitutes branded down jackets... we should have a deeper understanding of the new generation of consumers' expectations for a new life.

Author: Zou Xiaokun; WeChat public account: Growthbox