The sunset is infinitely good, and the world is sunny at night. Today's Chongyang Festival, years of good health.
When the "silver economy" is opened at an accelerated pace, the consumer market for many subdivisions such as elderly health care, "sunset red" tourism, and age-appropriate supplies is surging, and a beautiful blueprint for the "silver economy" is drawn together.
Eating for the elderly: Healthy eating has become a new consumer trend
For the silver-haired group, a healthy diet is a great source of nourishment. Nowadays, healthy and leisure diets such as traditional Chinese medicine tea drinks and health snacks are favored by elderly consumer groups.
In response to the different health needs of the elderly, many personalized teas have emerged. On the e-commerce platform, traditional Chinese medicine tea bags are popular because of their health effects, and tea bags suitable for the elderly such as bitter gourd burdock tea and three-way tea are selling well.
"We elderly people also want to drink milk tea in a fashionable way, and now there are many tea drinks on the market that are suitable for us to drink, which can be healthy and fresh." With the name of tea and the use of medicine, traditional Chinese medicine health tea is quietly becoming the new favorite of the silver-haired people with its unique medicinal and edible homologous properties and health effects. Walking through the streets and alleys of Zhengzhou, all kinds of milk tea shops can be seen everywhere, and the "Chinese medicine milk tea shop" has gradually risen in recent years, and the new Chinese health tea drink launched by it has captured the elderly consumer groups, such as the red jade white fungus dew launched by Zhongjing Life, yam oat milkshake and other herbal teas, and the lotus leaf hawthorn drink, orange peel pear drink, refreshing sour plum drink and other health teas made of medicinal herbs have become the "first cup of milk tea" loved by the elderly.
Most of the elderly take taste and texture as the first criterion for choosing snacks, and when delicious snacks have some kind of "health" function at the same time, they can win the favor of the elderly. Tang Hong, a 68-year-old citizen, told reporters that the elderly group also has a "appetite" and likes to eat sweet and delicious snacks, but for health reasons, she will choose low-sucrose, additive-free healthy foods such as "nourishing stomach shaqima", "nourishing kidney black grains" and "sucrose-free bread", which can not only eat happily, but also eat at ease. "I often buy low-sugar, low-salt snacks for my parents, especially dried fruits and sugar-free biscuits that they like." Ms. Zhang, a citizen, said that low-sugar and healthy snacks not only meet parents' pursuit of deliciousness, but also meet the expectations of healthy eating.
In addition, as an important part of traditional Chinese medicine and dietary health care in mainland China, traditional Chinese medicine resources are unique health resources and a major consumer market for the silver-haired group. The reporter learned that the introduction of the health diet of the Chinese medicine hall has become a major place for the elderly to eat, yam, lion's mane mushroom, mulberry and a large number of medicinal and edible food out of the Chinese medicine shop, turned into biscuits, preserved fruits and other "medicine and food" snacks to meet the needs of the elderly group for leisure snacks.
The old have fun: pull the "Golden Nine and Silver Ten" market consumption
"The most beautiful is the sunset red, warm and calm." In the golden autumn season, Ms. He, a newly retired citizen, went north and south with several old classmates, first spent a week to Heilongjiang and Jilin to experience the golden autumn scenery of Northeast China, and then took the high-speed rail to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River. "I have been working for more than 30 years since graduating from university, and now that I am retired, I can finally relax and enjoy the great rivers and mountains of my motherland." Ms. He told reporters that she and several classmates who retired together this year had already made an appointment to choose a group trip to open a new "sunset red" life model.
With the end of the National Day holiday, many elderly people have also started the off-peak travel mode. On the 10th, relevant data released by Ctrip showed that the Double Ninth Festival coincided with the National Day holiday, and the number of travel bookings for "silver-haired people" on the platform increased by nearly 20% year-on-year compared with 2023. Data from Meituan, Fliggy and other platforms show that since the beginning of this year, the online consumption of silver-haired people has grown rapidly, and the per capita consumption amount has increased.
According to industry insiders, in recent years, with the introduction of policies to promote the development of the silver economy such as the "Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Service Consumption", coupled with the popularity of smart phones, the service level of smart travel and smart malls has been continuously upgraded, and then the rapid development of the "silver economy" has been promoted. According to Ctrip data, in the first nine months of this year, travel orders for silver-haired people aged 50 and above increased by 26% year-on-year, higher than that of other age groups, among which 61 to 65-year-olds were the silver-haired group with the highest growth rate, with a year-on-year growth rate of 58%. It is worth noting that many silver-haired people choose to buy air tickets to travel, prefer to stay in high-star hotels, and pay more attention to the comfort and high-quality service of the journey. Wang Xinxin, general manager of the agile project department of Trip.com Group and project leader of Ctrip Alumni Club, said: "Willing to travel by plane and live in high-star hotels, 'rich and free' are the distinctive characteristics of silver-haired people. ”
In the interview, the reporter learned that compared with the National Day holiday, the prices of hotels, air tickets and restaurants on many online travel service platforms have been adjusted to varying degrees after the holiday, and the prices of travel services such as car rentals have also dropped by more than 30% on average. Industry insiders said that after the National Day holiday every year, it is the peak period for the elderly to travel leisurely, which has strongly stimulated the consumption of the "Golden Nine and Silver Ten" market.
Enjoy for the elderly: the smart products market is booming
"Xiaodu Xiaodu, will it rain today" and "Play square dance"...... During the National Day holiday just past, Yang of the post-00s bought a gift for his grandmother - intelligent voice audio. He said that his grandmother lived alone, and her eyes were not very good, so he was always worried that she would bump into her. Due to the rich functions of intelligent voice audio, within a few days, grandma and audio have become "good friends".
The progress of science and technology has provided a new direction for the development of products for the elderly. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently announced the "2024 Elderly Products Product Promotion Catalog", which can be seen from home escort robots, intelligent electric water heaters for the elderly, to smart toilet covers for the elderly, multi-functional sofas, etc., covering many aspects such as daily auxiliary products, elderly care products, rehabilitation training and health promotion aids.
A sensor night light, a wireless pager, these smart small items, let the elderly from "pension" to "enjoy the old", the distance has become closer. In old age, people's physical functions gradually decline, and accidents such as falls and beds occur from time to time. Especially for seniors who live alone, a simple fall can have unforeseen consequences. Therefore, smart products have become a "good friend" of the elderly and a good helper for families.
The old and the old, and the old of the people.
What is the "silver economy"? According to professionals, the "silver economy" refers to the sum of a series of economic activities such as providing products or services to the elderly and preparing for the aging stage, including the actual consumption of products in daily life and service-oriented consumption such as leisure and entertainment.
Looking to the future, with the growing needs of the elderly for a better life, the "silver economy" has ushered in a broad market development space, and many companies are aiming at the opportunities of the aging track to fight the new business sea.
How big is the market for elderly products? According to statistics, in 2023, the market size of elderly products in mainland China will reach 5 trillion yuan. In 2023, the number of JD.com's exclusive stores for the elderly will increase by more than 130% year-on-year, and the number of home appliances and household age-related products will increase by more than 50% year-on-year. In addition, in the first half of 2024, the search volume of JD.com's online users for the elderly has doubled year-on-year, and the demand for age-appropriate transformation continues to grow.
"Wisdom is the means, pension is the goal, and both are indispensable." Many experts believe that in the process of developing smart pension services, we should pay attention to avoiding focusing on technology and demand, products and services, and concepts and scenarios, and should be based on the elderly to make their lives more convenient.
The development of the "silver economy" is not only a "new requirement" for people's livelihood, but also a "new track" for economic development.
"Although the demand of the silver-haired group contains huge economic opportunities, from the perspective of the supply side, there are still many issues that require companies to continuously create, respond and meet the needs of this group." Yesterday, Hu Yu, deputy secretary-general of the Henan Provincial Business Economics Association and associate professor of Zhengzhou Institute of Engineering and Technology, said that at present, the quality of products and services in the "silver economy" market is not high. There is a general perception in the market that the elderly tend to buy cheap goods and services, and there is a lack of attention to quality on the supply side, and there is a lack of a standard system for the development of the silver economy. Some products in the market are uneven, and the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly are not effectively protected. She suggested that relevant enterprises should pay attention to the needs of the elderly, so that the elderly group has more high-quality services and high-quality products to choose from, and promote the sustainable development of the market.
Source: Zhengguan News