Gen Z shoppers flex their spending power on Double 11

The Double 11 shopping festival this year has seen new changes in terms of channel preference and consumer categories, according to the latest study by NielsenIQ.

There is a conscious effort to encourage rational shopping in this year's event, and China e-commerce platforms are leading the way as they look to build a more sustainable e-commerce environment.

Established e-commerce platforms such as T-Mall and JD.com continue to lead on transaction volume in this year's festival.

However, fast short-video apps developers such as Kuaishou and Douyin are emerging as e-commerce power brands, creating a "multi-master competition."

The total transaction value of T-mall during Double 11 was 540.3 billion yuan ($84.56 billion), and the transaction value of nearly 700 small and medium-sized brands jumped from millions to tens of millions. JD.com broke the record by placing 349.1 billion yuan of orders during the shopping spree. The number of merchants on Kuaishou increased by 391 percent year-on-year, and orders of brand goods increased by 350 percent on a yearly basis. On the other hand, Douyin's e-commerce data reveals consumers' enthusiasm for the "Chinese fad", with the number of domestic products in the list of popular products accounting for 87.5 percent. Its e-commerce livestreaming reached 39.5 billion hits.

Nancy Song, managing director of NielsenIQ China, commented that livestreaming has performed well in terms of sales during this year's Double 11 shopping festival, hitting a new high with 82.1 billion yuan in sales during the first stage of pre-sales, justifying the investment from leading e-commerce platforms whose upgraded livestreaming tap into the pre-sale brand referral traffic.

"After 13 years of rapid growth, the shopping festival has gradually matured, and we are seeing the emergence of the 'rational consumer'. When it comes to the future development of e-commerce, improving the shopping experience is the key for e-commerce platforms to enhance their core competitiveness," Song said.

Meanwhile, NielsenIQ's study also found that Generation Z (people born between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s) are the major consumers of the "Double-11" event. This group, with a large population and considerable spending powers, is now regarded as a super consumer group for brands to focus on.

According to NielsenIQ, Generation Z makes up about 19 percent of China's population, or 260 million people. About 55 percent of Gen Z are still students, with an average monthly pocket money of nearly 1,680 yuan.

Although they have formed good consumption habits, they are still in a period of mental cultivation. Leveraging their higher spending power and in line with the network information age, Generation Z, who grew up with digital information technology, smart phones and other products, are now gradually releasing their spending power.

In this year's "Double-11" shopping spree, Generation Z has shown its fabled consumption needs and characteristics. Among the most representative group—college students of generation Z, most of them shopped during "Double-11" due to low prices and new products, with 86.9 percent of them attracted to the competitive price of products. In terms of product categories, they focused on makeup cosmetics, personal care products, food and clothing, and 51 percent of them spent almost their entire monthly pocket money (1,680 yuan on average) on the shopping spree.

According to NielsenIQ, Generation Z also has a different point of view on this year's "Double-11.". Despite being adept at using mobile phones, this group has little tolerance for complex gameplay and hype. In their opinion, the main problems of this year's Double 11 are the overly complicated promotion rules, too much publicity and advertising push as well as misleading prices. This means there are opportunities for brands to simplify promotion and pricing methods.

Wang Hao contributed to this story