Young generation drives imported goods consumption in China
Updated 09:57, 04-Nov-2018
By CGTN’s Wu Lei, Li Ang, Wang Kaidi
["china"]
02:03
China's young generation, defined as people who were born in the mid 90's and later, make up the largest segment of imported goods buyers, according to Chinese Imported Consumer Goods Market Report jointly released by Deloitte China, the China Chamber of International Commerce and AliResearch.
They are also the majority of online spending, accounting for 45.2 percent of online buyers in 2017, the report said. 
These young buyers show a different preference in purchasing as they are willing to spend more and choose brands that are more individualized, Zhang Tianbing, leader of Deloitte Asia Pacific Consumer Products & Retail Industry told CGTN. 
China's online retail market is the world's largest and it reached 7.2 trillion yuan (1.03 trillion US dollars) in 2017, an increase of nearly 32.2 percent year-on-year. This huge potential is mainly due to the rapid growth of the digital economy. 
"These foreign brands can use this online market as a testing ground for their brand upgrading, category expansion, and marketing strategies," observed Gao Hongbing, vice president of Alibaba Group. "China has become the world's largest consumption market, accounting for a quarter of the globe's consumption amount."