Greater China Forum
On 2nd September 2017, Allen Wang, Founder and CEO of Babytree participated in the University of Chicago and Booth School of Business-hosted Greater China Forum to explore and discuss Chinese consumption trends, and how this is impacting global economic development.
President Zimmer of the University of Chicago gave a keynote speech at the forum on China’s position and contribution to international economic growth, where it explored new habits, the nation’s consumption upgrade, Chinese entrepreneurship, and corporate leadership with four other entrepreneur and investor panelists.
Entrepreneurial and investor worries
“The ever-escalating complexities of understanding the verticalised Chinese consumption areas”, is a key area of concern, Babytree revealed in a recent press release, referring to Wang Cen, a Sequoia Capital China partner’s talk on these investment considerations.
Allen Wang, Founder and CEO of Babytree, emphasised that Chinese entrepreneurs should access and leverage opportunities developed by macroeconomic and social changes that are currently taking shape in the country.
"The capability to keep pace with societal transformation as well as to extend one's imagination boundaries are crucial for the ambitious entrepreneurs who aim to affect changes in China," Wang noted.
Inner beauty
Nowadays, Chinese consumers are far more interested in looking after their inner selves through body care and spiritual richness, rather than their outer appearance.
Heavily influenced by income rises and living standards, while US shoppers spend 60% of their expenses on facial products and 40% on body care, these figures are 95% and 5% respectively in China.
Babytree’s recent big data tracking also shows that Chinese consumers are now much more concerned than before about body care and are “vigorously converting the mindset shift into action”.
Customised specific action
Meeting consumers' specific needs is an area that is being developed. Babytree’s study shows that shoppers are “willing to pay for products or services that meet their specific needs”. Of those asked, Babytree big data research reveals how more than “64% of household consumers feel unsatisfied with current product classification”.
Interestingly, data also found that “the practice of creating one single product or brand to meet as many demands as possible has seen its day”.
Personalised items, however, are on the up. Babytree is exploring this, unveiling a C2M (Customer-to-Manufacturer) project which develops specific products to meet particular consumer needs by using specific consumer insights and collaborating with experts.
Targeted body care
In China, “people began to care more about convenience”, and so this is also a key factor in decision-making. In addition, high-quality products and brand reputation are important, with high-performance product categories a key focus for Babytree through its e-commerce platform Meitun.com, and other Chinese-based brands.