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How Chinese Consumer Trends are Changing the CX Journey and how do we adapt as practitioners.

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It’s clear that both rising domestic companies and internationally invested companies in China can’t overlook the continuous growth in internet usage and how consumers demand products and services these days online.

Chinese consumers’ behaviours: i.e. how they spend the money, where they spend the money, and how much they spend are—shaped by several factors and CX is at the heart of this behaviour.

The change of lifestyle, the increase in income, and robust technology solutions and retail strategies, trade policies, and regulations between countries are some contributing factors. where are the Chinese consumers heading this 2019?

Let us analyse a few trends in this market and how as CX Delivery Companies we can all be better prepared to anticipate and service consumers better.

#1 Middle-class consumers to be more cautious and focus on saving more:

The middle-class income earners in China are over 400 million, and despite the growing numbers, they are burdened by the rising costs, debts, and mortgages, and worries of the future, that’s why they are cautious in spending, this however, does not mean that they do not shop but it does mean that the experience of shopping must be a great one and thus ensuring your customer service team is well prepared to have the necessary knowledge, tools, resources, and ability to anticipate, and proactively help the consumer make that crucial decision of purchase. It’s recommended that proper training and fine tuning the training delivery occurs continuously.  

#2 Senior Citizens are an emerging market with new demands

The increasing number of older people in China also creates opportunities for healthcare, pharmaceutical, and medical industries, including insurance as this market segment will be likely to spend more on these categories by 2020. Unlike their younger counterparts – millennials or the younger generation – the senior consumers are less likely to spend on travel, clothes, and leisure. Growing up in the harsh conditions of the Cultural Revolution, the mindset and spending habits are stringent and not luxury-focused. However, it’s also known that Chinese senior consumers or the coined  “silver economy” — a term for senior shoppers has an aging population: By 2020, the number of people over 60 is expected to exceed 255 million. Currently, many elderly feel left behind by technology and some struggle to make sense of the mobile payment apps widely used in online shopping as well as how to communicate with the CX Teams of organizations. Here at KKH, we stay mindful to this trend and work with our clients to ensure ways of better identifying and or treating customer of the “Silver Economy” as we manage many accounts for bigger Chinese Online ecommerce players.

 

#3 Personalization in APPs is already creating more and richer engagement.

The access to technology – mobile apps and other tools — drive consumers to desire personalization in products and services since they are aware of the busy schedules and its effect in their health and total well-being. Consumers in China are well-connected to mobile apps, and the availability of technologies and options will drive them to desire personalization to match their needs at the intersection of beauty, travel, sports, food, and travel. KKH serves many clients in these verticals and we have innovative products that have helped a famous international Fast Retail Company deal and anticipate needs that are trending in the market specifically for advancing TMall CRM Technology by programming certain functions not available via TMall to the CRM System and help them have seamless and better analytics from the platform. 

#4 O2O (online-to-offline) will elevate the shopping experience with AI at its front

According to Bain & Co. study, 100% of Chinese consumers will do their research and seek inspiration online before purchasing items offline. This trend will likely open more opportunities for retailers to bridge the gap between the in-store experience and online shopping. The traveling Chinese consumers are used to mobile payments, localized version of customer service (translation in Chinese) in-stores, and innovative shopping experience that will be consistent throughout the buying process. Furthermore, Chinese Consumers Chat with the brand more often than other consumers globally and ensuring rapid, correct information is critical for the experience of the consumer. We at KKH are pioneering AI Chat responses and are leaders in this industry in the China BPO Field. To learn more about our AI product features click here: https://www.kkh-global.com/ai-bot-and-chat/

 

 

#5 Traveling millennials  and young families will create the next wave of outbound tourism

Another market segment to watch out in 2019 are the millennials and young families (Kids 5 and above) or those born in the 1980s and 1990s. They are redefining adulthood by living in the moment and spending on experiences instead of being mortgage slaves, despite the uncertain and turbulent housing markets and economic conditions. Experts believe that regardless of the declining economy, the numbers will remain high in the next few years. There is also the Young Family effect of what in China is called  the 6:1 Ratio of the grandparents from both the father and mother contributing to the grandchild well-being in all aspects from Education, Medical, and Travel and Leisure. KKH is focusing and earning the trust of many companies in these verticals and are serving these needs as trends that are very much in front of what we do everyday.