Before the Spring Festival, the consumer goods annual gift market resumed growth, and consumers chose more pragmatic products

Near the Spring Festival, it is also the peak season for the traditional annual gift sales of FMCG enterprises such as dairy, liquor, and food. The recent investigation by the first financial reporter found that a number of FMCG companies and channels reflect that the impact of the epidemic has been normalized, and the orders and sales of the New Year gift market before the Spring Festival in 2022 are good, different from previous years, consumer demand is becoming more pragmatic, and the situation of uneven heat and cold online and offline also occurs occasionally.

Before the Spring Festival in 2021, due to the impact of the epidemic, some consumers celebrated the New Year on the spot, and reduced the activities of gatherings and visiting relatives and friends, resulting in a great impact on the Annual Gift market of the previous year. On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022, the first financial reporter visited and found that although there are still sporadic epidemics in many parts of the country, the situation in the Annual Gift Market has improved significantly.

Junlebao Dairy Group President Assistant Feng Jinmao told the first financial reporter that from the expected point of view of this year's Spring Festival market should be good, the current jane alcohol and other products with gift attributes orders are very good, year-on-year and month-on-month have a substantial increase.

China Want Want (00151. HK) also told the first financial reporter that after the normalization of the impact of the epidemic, the market at this stage is more calm, compared with the pre-holiday market that was cold in the previous year, this year, in addition to the local orders with local epidemics, it will be affected a little, and the overall Annual Gift market is currently relatively normal. Bama Tea also told the first financial reporter that although there is no specific data, it can be felt that the demand for gifts from consumers was stronger years ago.

According to the data provided by JD.com, after analyzing the data of the Jingdong New Year Goods Festival that began on January 9, 2022, it was found that within one week of the opening of the New Year Goods Festival, the search volume of related "New Year gifts" and "sending elders or men/girlfriends" increased by 200% month-on-month.

In the first week of the New Year's Festival, the volume of "off-site orders" sent to non-residential addresses increased by 30% year-on-year, and the proportion of off-site orders has increased by 50% compared with usual. Among them, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu and Sichuan are the regions that accept the most off-site orders, while the cities that issue the most off-site orders are Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou, respectively. From the perspective of categories, in addition to seafood or tonic products, there are mobile phone digital and quality home appliances sent from high-tier cities to low-tier cities, while the local specialties sent from high-tier cities to high-tier cities are mainly local specialties, including fresh meat, dry goods, tea and so on with regional characteristics.

Miss Yang, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing, told the first financial reporter that due to the epidemic in Beijing a few years ago, out of the idea of avoiding trouble, she decided to celebrate the New Year in Beijing, in order to send her thoughts, she bought a lot of New Year goods for the elderly at home through the e-commerce website a few years ago. Mr. Zhu, who lives in Shanghai, also said that relatives in Weihai's hometown also sent him seafood from Weihai after hearing that he was on the spot for the New Year. During the visit, the reporter found that similar situations are not in the minority.

However, some dealers gave feedback to the first financial reporter that although the market recovered, consumers were more rational in their choices this year, and the performance of the category showed uneven heat and cold.

According to dealers in many places, some higher-priced gift boxes such as high-end liquor are sold flatly, compared with more "affordable" gift boxes such as rice flour grains and oils, beer, etc., and some large tobacco hotels have also begun to choose to add gift boxes of other products to increase revenue.

In addition, affected by e-commerce and community group buying, the sales of some terminal physical stores are less than expected.

Ren Tianhua, a local food distributor in Linyi, Shandong, told the first financial reporter that the current peak season has entered the peak season of the year before, and the current gift box sales business can only be regarded as "few"; and Miss Niu, a food distributor in Weihai, Shandong, also reflected that the sales of gift boxes in local physical stores are not optimistic, especially the low-price impact of community group buying makes the sales of physical stores difficult, and the new year flavor on the street is not very sufficient.

Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told the first financial reporter that gift box sales play an important role in the income of FMCG companies, especially in the Annual Gift market, some categories of New Year goods sales will account for 50% or even higher in revenue, and the recovery of the Annual Gift market is good news for FMCG companies. At present, online sales are becoming more and more important, but most FMCG companies are still dominated by offline traditional channels, and this change should attract more attention from FMCG companies.