Young people's "New Year" behavior awards

From the 60s and 70s to the 80s, 90s and even the 00s, the "hosts" of the New Year have been changing. People are also happy to see young people celebrate the New Year in a new way, and the New Year atmosphere has continued in new forms.

As soon as I entered the house, I received calls from couriers one after another.

As the Spring Festival approaches, Julia is one of the young people who went home early. Along with Julia, her New Year's goods also arrived home. From large and small home appliances to nuts and snacks, the express delivery filled up the living room in just a few days.

Food and drink are understandable, but the “non-essentials” such as dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, and massagers inevitably make parents warn against “wasting money”. At the same time, Julia’s parents, who need to go to the vegetable and seafood markets to buy things before the New Year, find it even more difficult to understand the large and small boxes of ready-made “New Year’s Eve dinner” gift packages.

In response to her parents' repeated questions, Julia said, "This is the 'really delicious' New Year's gift I prepared. Just ignore it and wait until the Spring Festival comes."

Today, the first batch of post-90s have entered the "30-year-old" stage, and their value expression of "pursuing self" always makes them labeled as "immature". But in fact, this group of young people are transitioning to become the "heads" of the family, and the decision-making power of the family is also shifting to them.

The Spring Festival in 2024 is their "actual combat" battlefield, and more and more young people are joining in. Data shows that young people aged 18-34 have become the main consumer group for New Year's goods. Among them, those born in the 1990s and 1995s aged 25-34 are the core consumer group, and those born in the 2000s aged 18-24 are the most potential consumer group. According to the recently released "Tmall New Year's Goods Festival 2024 New Year's Flavor New Trends", among the users who currently place orders for New Year's goods on the platform, those born after 1995 account for more than half. Obviously, this generation of young people has become the main force in the purchase of family New Year's goods.

Compared with the "escape" in previous years, the active participation of young people may make the "older generation" feel gratified. But when the young people "in power" open the Spring Festival in their own way, a collision of "new" and "old" concepts also occurs.

01 New Year's goods: When you do it yourself, you encounter "technology & hard work"

Each generation has its own Spring Festival, but no matter which generation, purchasing New Year’s goods is their top priority during the Spring Festival.

As the "older generation" who have experienced the era of material scarcity, parents always focus on "eating enough and wearing warm clothes" when choosing New Year's goods. Therefore, food, drinks, and clothing are the core of their New Year's goods.

In an era without e-commerce and live streaming, they bought New Year's goods by going to crowded shopping malls, supermarkets and vegetable markets near the end of the year. At the same time, they also devoted themselves to cooking the fresh vegetables, chickens, ducks and fish they bought into exquisite dishes to serve for the New Year's Eve dinner and for friends and relatives to visit. The main point is to do it themselves.

However, when young people take control of the Spring Festival, the way the older generation celebrates the New Year is completely overturned.

For example, Julia, who believes in "getting the goods when I arrive", doesn't like to go out on a daily basis. With the "rush buff" of the Spring Festival travel rush, she naturally won't carry large and small bags of New Year's goods back by herself. Instead of crowding the vegetable markets before the festival, Julia chooses to take advantage of the "New Year's Goods Festival" of major e-commerce companies to make online purchases. Of course, Julia also has her own experience in buying New Year's goods, "Offline, I may have to go to several different markets to buy all the New Year's goods. With a single click on the phone, I can buy good things from all over the country, and if it's fast, it can be delivered on the same day, saving time and effort, so why not?"

Therefore, compared with the older generation who "conquered" the vegetable market during the Spring Festival, this generation of young people has their own "shopping warehouse". According to Douyin e-commerce data, from January 13 to 28, the average daily GMV of the Douyin Mall in the shelf field increased by 98% compared with last year's New Year Goods Festival, and the number of views of short videos with shopping carts reached 143.6 billion times.

At the same time, the New Year's Eve dinner is the highlight of the Spring Festival and is often the most time-consuming and labor-intensive. There are all kinds of cuisines from all over the world on the table, as well as exquisite dishes cooked by various methods such as frying, stir-frying, boiling, steaming, and deep-frying. Different ingredients are processed in different ways, including those flying in the sky, running on the ground, and swimming in the water.

However, this does not stump this generation of young people. Taobao's public data shows that during the 2024 New Year Goods Festival, the search volume for keywords such as "New Year's Eve dinner", "pre-prepared dishes", and "semi-finished New Year's Eve dinner" on the Taobao APP increased by more than 20 times month-on-month, and the transaction volume of pre-prepared dishes in Taobao live broadcast rooms increased by 148%.

In recent years, the rise of pre-prepared meals has enabled young people who can’t cook to become “master chefs”, and even a “full-course meal” can be easily prepared. As industry standards and policies become more complete, consumers’ trust and acceptance of pre-prepared meals will also increase significantly.

Unlike their parents who focus on "food and clothing" in preparing for the New Year, young people have more diverse choices for New Year's shopping. For example, buying home appliances. It is a custom in Julia's hometown to invite relatives to have dinner at home during the New Year, but more people will inevitably increase the difficulty of cleaning up after the meal. Therefore, Julia listed dishwashers and sweeping robots as two essential items on her New Year's shopping list.

Since these home appliances can help parents free their hands in future household chores outside of the Spring Festival, they have become a common choice for the younger generation when buying New Year goods. According to the data report of the "Douyin Mall Good Goods New Year Goods Festival", during the New Year Goods Festival, people born in the 1990s became the main force in purchasing smart small home appliances on the platform. The sales of window cleaning robots, sweeping robots and other products increased rapidly before the festival, reaching 1014% and 335%.

"I can buy New Year's goods with just one click on my mobile phone, avoiding the offline crowds; I can prepare the New Year's Eve dinner in an hour with pre-prepared dishes, avoiding the time and effort; I can place orders for cleaning appliances, avoiding the added labor burden. From preparation to finishing, we want to celebrate the New Year with ease." Julia said proudly about her New Year's shopping list.

The collision of old and new concepts has brought new changes to the consumption of New Year goods. It is obvious that during the Spring Festival, under the "Z generation consumption" dominated by young people, the weight of experience value in making purchase decisions has surpassed the use value of the product itself. From a certain perspective, this is also a return to the value of consumer experience.

02 Behavior: From "following the rules" to "I have my own way in the Spring Festival"

In previous years, topics such as "Young people don't like the Chinese New Year" and "Anxiety about the Chinese New Year" have always been frequent visitors on the hot search list, and the original problems of all these are due to the "curiosity" of "aunts and uncles".

When we were young, we were asked, "How is your study?", "How many points did you get in the exam?", "What's your ranking in the grade?". When we grew up, we were asked, "Have you got a job?", "Are you dating?", "When are you going to have a child?", "How much money have you saved this year?". No matter what age, there are always endless "death questions" to answer, and "debates" that may be triggered at any time due to different concepts. After the questions, there is always a "child from another family" who becomes a role model for everyone to learn from.

The unintentional "gossip" of relatives actually brings anxiety and helplessness to young people. In the past, they had no ability to "resist" and could only complain online in order to gain more empathy. Now, with years of mental training and "power in hand", they have also figured out their own way of coping.

[Tidal Business Review] also randomly contacted several readers and discussed the question "What would you do about the soul-searching questions of your relatives?"

For example, Lily, a female worker in a large factory who brought her pet home for the New Year.

"Whenever they talk about my personal problems, I will bring up my furry children and 'play dumb', telling them that having a pet is worse than having a relationship. The problem naturally shifts to the fact that I have a dog, and no one will keep talking about my marriage and love. If that doesn't work, I will just run away and go back to my room to play with the dog, which can also distract myself." Lily shared.

According to the "Pet Industry Blue Book: 2023 China Pet Industry Development Report" released by Euromonitor International, Asia Pet Research Institute and other institutions, the growth rate of the number of pets in my country will rebound from -1.5% in 2022 to 2.7% in 2023, and the number of pets will increase to nearly 200 million.

Therefore, bringing pets back home to visit relatives has become the choice of many young people. Pets serve as a savior to help young people "make a feint to the east and attack in the west" during the Spring Festival and divert social firepower.

There are also those who take their parents on a spring walk to pursue young people who have briefly escaped.

"On weekends, we'll take a citywalk. During the holidays, we'll go home for a springwalk to experience the urban landscape of our hometown. This year, we plan to send our relatives away after every meal without leaving them any room. Then we'll take our parents out for a springwalk and check in every day. We'll hide away for as long as we can." said Echo.

In 2023, citywalk quickly spread across major social media platforms like a whirlwind, becoming a way for urban youth to relax in their daily lives. During the Spring Festival, young people returning home will use this leisure method and take a springwalk to seek a moment of relaxation.

Going on a family trip to seek peace and tranquility is Andy's best strategy. "It's not easy for the family to get together, and the holiday is only a few days, so it's better to be friendly and go on a trip. I can't see my relatives, and there are no more life-threatening questions." Andy said. Ctrip's "2024 Spring Festival Tourism Market Forecast Report" shows that travel orders during the Spring Festival will increase by more than 7 times year-on-year. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Harbin, Chengdu, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Sanya, and Kunming are popular domestic destinations. Among them, Harbin, which has been very popular recently, has a year-on-year increase of more than 14 times in travel booking orders in 2024.

Whether it is moving pet rescuers, taking the Spring Festival limited citywalk, or going out for a trip... young people have their own set of behaviors during the Spring Festival. Unlike their parents who greet and see off guests on the first and fifth days of the New Year and pursue "socializing with friends and relatives" in the "big family", young people have found their own comfort zone and emotional anchor around their "small family".

03 Update: Love your family and friends, but love yourself even more

From buying New Year's goods before the Spring Festival to "avoiding relatives and friends" after New Year's Eve, this generation of young people has broken all the "rules and regulations" of the older generation, opening the Spring Festival for the new generation in their own way and bringing the focus of the Spring Festival back to "themselves".

If we say that each generation has its own Spring Festival, then the Spring Festival of different generations has the character background of different dominant groups. Take our parents’ generation as an example. They grew up in the great waves of the times. Their character traits are not to be reckless, to work hard, and to be collectivist. They tend to abide by the rules and take “striving to gain collective recognition and respect” as their life goal.

Therefore, during the Spring Festival dominated by our parents' generation, we can always feel the concept of a large family and the conventional custom of spending the New Year with friends and relatives in order to gain recognition and satisfaction from them. Sometimes we cannot help but do the so-called "face-saving project" and put ourselves in a difficult position.

Today, when this generation of young people takes over as the "manager" of the Spring Festival, although there are often fierce sparks due to different concepts between the two generations, this generation is gradually shifting the satisfaction of the Spring Festival from "pleasing others" to "pleasing themselves". We always say that modern young people pay more attention to self-expression, advocate freedom and independence, are not influenced by the emotions of others, and seem to love themselves more. But in fact, it is their attention to their own emotions that gives the Spring Festival a new meaning.

Julia's New Year's goods mean that her parents don't have to squeeze into the crowded vegetable market, don't have to rush to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner in the afternoon, and don't have to clean up the "battlefield" after a busy day of entertaining relatives; Lily's furry friends have added a "new member" to the family and added a new topic to the Spring Festival; Echo's spring walk allows parents who have been busy for several years but have never savored the charm of this city to see the different style of their hometown; Andy's holiday trip allows parents who are always busy entertaining relatives and friends to feel the tranquility and relaxation of the Spring Festival for the first time.

“It’s really convenient to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner with pre-prepared dishes. Some semi-finished products only need to be cooked, while others can be finished products just need to be heated. This saves a lot of time in preparing, buying and cooking vegetables. I used to think that new home appliances like dishwashers and vacuum cleaners consumed a lot of electricity and water, but after using them, I save much more water than cleaning by myself. You know what, this year’s New Year is much easier.” Julia’s mother said happily.

"To be honest, since I started working, I've become less and less fond of the Chinese New Year. But the dozen days before the New Year are actually the happiest time of my life. You can imagine that it's the feeling of being on the road to happiness. On the contrary, the few days after New Year's Eve always make me feel bored and exhausted, and yes, a little lost!" Lily sighed.

From the 1960s and 1970s to the 1980s, 1990s, and even the 2000s, the "hosts" of the New Year have been changing. People are also happy to see young people celebrate the New Year in a new way, and the New Year atmosphere has continued in new forms.

Young people are changing the "Spring Festival" in their own way. They love the "big family" and they love their own "small family" even more.

Just as fashion is a cycle, "celebrating the Spring Festival" as a trend will naturally have its own cycle. The development of science and technology has made communication between people simpler and more direct. Once upon a time, the days of gathering thousands of miles and only being able to reunite with family during the Spring Festival have long become a thing of the past. "Spring Festival Reunion" is also witnessing this change in a new way.

Just like the major merchants in the market, the once lively market hawking sounds have turned into "hawking" in the live broadcast room behind the mobile phone screen. The tide is tantamount to commenting on right and wrong. The symbiosis of various forms of commercial transactions may be its best "presentation".

“Although we have prepared all the big items, our family of three still has to go to the supermarket before New Year’s Eve to check for any missing items and most importantly, feel the lively atmosphere. Just think about it, when 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' is echoing in the major shopping malls, and we look at our parents around us, we feel that the New Year has really arrived.” Julia said with a smile.

You see, that's how business works.

Author: Camille; Editor: Ray

Source public account: Tidal Business Review (ID: daily-case), focusing on mass consumption, TMT and financial sectors, sharing interesting business reviews and business insights.