Young people are becoming more and more stingy, so those who buy at full price are the ones being cheated?

"You can buy expensive things, but you can't buy more expensive things." This is the new consumption concept of contemporary young people. In this article, the author explains the reasons for the formation of this consumption concept and analyzes the future consumption situation from the perspectives of consumers and merchants. Let's take a look together

"Rational consumption, happy shopping" is a slogan in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, and it is also the shopping principle of many young people today. Although many marketing campaigns can hit the "hearts" of young people, they are becoming more and more rational and it is actually becoming more and more difficult to control them.

Some people call the consumption concept of young people "twisted consumption". When choosing products, they browse social platforms everywhere and need to use other people's experience to save their own entanglement. They compare multiple sources before paying and cannot be cheated even a penny more. Therefore, activities such as wool strategy, 10 billion subsidies, and big brand VIP day have attracted much attention.

In order to cater to the changing tastes of young people, businesses have to take the initiative to keep up with this "new consumption revolution". Faced with this "smarter generation", new trends are quietly becoming mainstream.

1. Consumers who have become more sophisticated: They can buy expensive things, but they cannot buy things that are too expensive

"No matter what the merchant's price is, I feel that buying at the original price is a loss." In the opinion of Yang Anan, a senior student, there is nothing that can't be found at a discount on the Internet. For example, the battle between Luckin Coffee and Coodi has been fierce recently. You offer a 9.9 yuan promotion, and I offer an 8.8 yuan promotion, as if neither of us is willing to give in. However, Yang Anan did not show much interest in this. "I often get 0 yuan or 1 yuan of wool, so there is no need to make unnecessary purchases just because of 8.8 yuan or 9.9 yuan."

Yang Anan claims that she is not a stingy person. She states that "things can be expensive, but they must not be too expensive."

For example, as a senior "milk tea star", 2 to 3 cups of milk tea a week is her standard. In addition to the regular discounts such as product discount coupons issued by new tea brands in their own live broadcast rooms and coupons for group purchase to store platforms, Yang Anan also shared a relatively niche "money-saving method" with Zinc Scale.

As new tea brands such as Heytea, Nayuki, and Lelecha have started to reduce prices to expand the market, the room for taking advantage of these brands has become smaller. Therefore, Yang Anan turned her attention to high-priced brands such as Jasmine Yogurt and Blueglass.

The price of Jasmine Yogurt products is generally above 25 yuan, and the original avocado series is as high as 30 yuan+, but Yang Anan can usually control the price within a more "fragrant" range. The method is very simple. For brands such as Jasmine Yogurt and Blueglss, the order-placing service is widely popular among young consumers.

Zinc Scale learned that there are two main ways to place orders for milk tea on behalf of others. One is to sell coupons for single cups of products that are lower than the store price. For example, an original avocado yogurt shake that costs 29 yuan in the store can get a discount coupon of 24.9 yuan by placing an order on behalf of others. The other is to buy one and get one free for any combination of the whole store, and charge an additional order fee. For example, an almond avocado yogurt shake that costs 34 yuan in the store will be charged an additional 17 yuan by the merchant who places the order on your behalf.

In Yang Anan's view, getting discounts with just a few clicks is a very simple thing, and this has become an important part of her consumption habits. "Since merchants have left different discounts in different channels, of course we have to take advantage of them," she said.

Douban group about saving money

There are more and more young consumers who share the same view as Yang Anan. Zinc Scale has seen from different social platforms that young people have a set of process-based money-saving templates for everything from daily food and clothing to large household items.

To buy milk tea, you need to find an agent to place the order. To shop on e-commerce platforms, you need to "follow the cart" and get rebates. The mentality of "saving money is a waste" dominates their daily consumption. Sometimes, when faced with two similar options, the one with a bigger discount will have greater appeal. In short, for contemporary young consumers, spending every penny consciously is a major consumption principle, and "being thrifty" is a lifestyle they pursue.

2. Tired merchants: It takes 11 points of effort to survive

Cassie, who has more than a decade of experience in the catering industry, has lamented countless times this year: "It's getting harder and harder for young people to make money." In the post-epidemic era, many people are rushing into the already thriving catering industry with the mentality of revenge consumption in offline catering. This has caused new restaurants to fail one after another under the test of cruel reality, and old restaurants need to work harder to survive.

"Last year, a colleague told me that I should learn how to run short videos and try live streaming. Because business was okay at the time, and I was somewhat resistant to appearing on camera, I never considered giving it a try." But since May this year, Cassie has been racking her brains every day to think of shooting materials, trying to establish a personal image on the short video platform and run a fan community.

As she has been in the industry for many years and has a certain fan base, Cassie currently has more than 10,000 fans. In early June, Cassie began to try live streaming to sell tickets, which could have been directly sold to platforms or KOLs, but in Cassie's opinion, instead of spreading the benefits to various channels, it is better to focus on her channel, which is also conducive to increasing fan stickiness.

“If I used to be able to live a pretty good life with only 70% to 80% of my effort, then now I have to use 11% of my effort to avoid being eliminated.” After the Spring Festival this year, Cassie sold a coffee and vintage clothing shop she owned. This five-year-old shop, located in an area where several universities are concentrated, had to say goodbye this year.

According to Cassie's observation, the consumption habits of young consumers are changing. "In the past, the young people I met, especially college students, were not very sensitive to prices. But now almost everyone likes to compare prices on various platforms before making a consumption decision. This has forced us merchants to pay more attention to online promotions and activities, while at the same time being careful not to affect our fixed offline customer base."

In terms of specific event settings, Cassie currently broadcasts live once a week, giving out a fixed amount of merchandise vouchers and a special product each time. In order to successfully increase online followers and divert traffic to offline, Cassie "painfully" stopped offline sales of a product that had very good sales and reviews, defining it as a pure online sales model.

Cassie said her idea is very simple, that is, to get through the difficult environment. "Although it is rough and tiring now, I think it is also fun. For example, the customers I get online are basically surfing the Internet, so they often have skills and can give me "tap water" on various social platforms. They can also send me many beautiful pictures, which are all unexpected gains." Cassie told Zinc Scale.

Unlike Cassie, who has rich experience in dealing with the situation, He Wenxin, who opened a clothing store in mid-2022, is a complete business novice. When opening the store, she only referred to her own shopping experience, so she opened a small store where all clothes are sold for 199 yuan. Unexpectedly, there are many young people who are tired of buying clothes online and find it difficult to buy clothes in shopping malls like He Wenxin. Therefore, the business is getting more and more prosperous now, and even out-of-town customers want to apply to join.

Faced with a completely different generation of young consumers, it seems that the amount of work experience is no longer an absolute criterion for success or failure. Whoever can grasp the real needs of young people will have the key to success.

3. A Generation Z Questionnaire with Difficult Standard Answers

In the 618 promotion that just ended, many young people have expressed new attitudes. "It doesn't feel much cheaper than usual, and my desire to shop is also low," "Saving money is the most important thing, don't buy unless it's a must-have," "I used to buy a lot of unnecessary things to get the discount, but now I've learned a trick, I'll return it when I get the discount," and so on.

If we say that almost all young people ten years ago were "living paycheck to paycheck" and were even accustomed to advance consumption through borrowing to enjoy the present, then young people today adhere to the shopping principle of not spending easily and only buying what is most needed.

In September 2022, iMedia Consulting released the "2022 China Interest Consumption Trend Insight White Paper". This "White Paper" surveyed young people born between 1990 and 2009 with certain economic capabilities and found that these "new youth" are quite frugal in traditional consumption, but are more keen on interest consumption.

Another survey data also shows that 79% of Generation Z consumers will make strategies before making decisions, read reviews, evaluations, compare prices, etc. At the same time, most of Generation Z are willing to pay for spiritual enrichment such as interests, hobbies, and cultural sentiments.

Gen Z also prioritizes price when traveling

Source: Daily Economic News

Young consumers are diverse and changeable. On the one hand, they spend a premium on their favorite action figures and idol peripherals, and on the other hand, they record their daily bargain hunting in Douban’s money-saving groups. In general, each of them has their own set of standards for the value of different commodities. Therefore, in the consumer market, how to capture them has become the most difficult and necessary issue. As mentioned above, whether it is an old merchant who has been in the industry for many years or a new merchant who has just started, facing the changeable young consumer group, they actually face the same survival challenges.

At the moment, young consumers have already made their own decision between low-price promotion or high-price branding, but as they are fickle, it is still difficult to say what the future will hold for them.

Author: Zinc Scale

Source: WeChat public account: "Zinc Scale"