As consumption becomes the new engine for the Chinese economy, Chinese manufacturers of consumer goods seeking domestic expansion will have to calculate and take advantage of the shifting trends in people's consumption pattern, an executive at market research firm Nielsen Group told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The message came as the Chinese central government has been trying to rebalance the economy away from infrastructure, heavy industry and export-led growth and toward domestic consumption and a rising wave of anti-globalization around the world.
The big trend about the Chinese consumption market for consumers is all about improving the quality of life and becoming more sophisticated, said Vishal Bali, managing director of Nielsen China.
"Appearance, fitness, convenience, digitally-connectedness are the buzzwords currently summarizing Chinese consumers' understanding of better life quality," Bali told the Global Times Tuesday.
Emphasis on these conceptions translated into better sales for related products and services, and "the days when manufacturers flood the market with any product and people will buy it is over," Bali said.
Nielsen data showed that fresh products are the fastest growing online shopping category in 2016, followed by the beverage, packaged food, health products category. Daily necessities, service products, clothing, personal care and other categories of online shopping also rose over the previous year.
The Chinese Consumer Confidence Index rose from 106 in the third quarter of 2016 to 108 in the fourth, according to the latest Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index survey, released on Tuesday.
