ali health x yicai business school: lower-tier markets and the elderly become the main force of new online health consumption
2024-09-13
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in china, several structural changes with certainty are accelerating: the number of newborns is decreasing, the aging population is deepening, and the "middle class" is no longer a popular consumer narrative. behind the new changes are the continuous emergence of new demands. especially when the consumer confidence index hit a new low, people prioritize saving in their health accounts, and drug retail sales still maintain a high growth rate.
what new health consumption demands have arisen from the new social structure and new consumption context?
characteristics of online health consumption: geographical penetration and population expansion
with the advancement of "internet + healthcare" and digital medicine, online drug purchase has become an indispensable habit of people's lives, and e-commerce platforms have become the core growth point of the outpatient drug retail market.
judging from the trend of user behavior, consumers in the health industry showregional sinking and population expansioncharacteristics.
among the new online drug purchasers, the elderly and residents in the lower-tier markets have become the main force. the 2024 ali health special population consumption trend report released by yicai business school and ali health shows that users aged 60 and above who purchase drugs online have increased by 64.5% year-on-year, the fastest growth rate among all age groups (nearly 90 days as of august 2024).
at the same time, drug spending by users in third-tier and below cities grew faster: sales from users in fourth-tier and below cities grew 11.4% year-on-year, 3.4% higher than those in first- to third-tier cities.
2024, four major trends in health consumption
"learning medicine on content platforms and searching on e-commerce platforms" has become a daily routine for many health consumers. in 2024, with the deeper and wider promotion and popularization of the health industry on social media platforms, consumers have a richer reserve of health knowledge, and four major trends have emerged in the industry.
trend 1: refined medication needs
consumers are beginning to seek more sophisticated solutions to their own problems.
according to the "2024 alibaba health special population consumption trend report", on taobao e-commerce, search traffic about health is increasing rapidly, and the search conversion rate of generic drug names and ingredient words (such as ibuprofen, amoxicillin, acetaminophen, etc.) is continuing to increase - this means that after consumers obtain health knowledge through content platforms, they open e-commerce platforms to search with a clearer purpose.
for example, china's 120 million acne patients originally used skin care products to "remove acne", but as skin care with topical medications has become a new skill passed down by word of mouth among young people, the market for topical acne medications continues to expand. on content platforms, many users have begun to share their experience of using metronidazole for skin care: compared with skin care products, topical medications are "cheaper and more expensive", and can also be used to treat specific problems such as closed comedones, rosacea, and acne scars. this has further led to an increase in the sales of metronidazole products on e-commerce platforms.
trend 2: scientific purchase of medicines
more and more popular health knowledge online is helping consumers have a higher level of health literacy. the report shows that young healthy consumers are increasingly paying attention to health care products with "blue hats" or national medicine standards: among the top ten health consumer categories for first- to third-tier cities and consumers aged 18 to 25, the gmv growth rates of blue hat health foods and otc qi and blood tonic categories reached 121% and 123% respectively.
in addition, the health field has its own "ingredient party". young people have conducted more in-depth research on drug ingredients and pursue higher concentrations within a reasonable range. for example, they are not satisfied with ordinary fish oil with a purity of 40%, but pursue high-purity fish oil with a purity of more than 95%, or they pursue iron supplements with higher absorption rates when supplementing iron.
trend 3: enrichment of medication scenarios
in recent years, many drugs have been used in new ways beyond the mainstream usage. for example, viagra is not only used to treat male dysfunction, but also used to treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases; mayinglong hemorrhoid cream treats hemorrhoids, and is also used by netizens to reduce dark circles and fine lines; huiren shenbao is used to nourish the kidneys, and is also used by young white-collar workers to save "low fatigue points" and relieve fatigue.
in order to boost business growth, many pharmaceutical companies have begun to proactively explore more "slash drugs" and try to find new growth points. there are two main ways: launching new products based on old formulas; and finding new selling points based on old products.
trend 4: chinese health regimen is becoming younger
as consumers' health awareness is awakened, health needs are changing from single "disease treatment" to integrated "prevention-treatment-care". on content platforms, health-care methods that are more in line with the physique of "chinese babies" continue to emerge:
offline, traditional chinese medicine clinics in foshan, zhengzhou and other places have opened health teahouses; the "light tea" of zhejiang provincial hospital of traditional chinese medicine was once sold out; "back sunning" has become a new trend. online, "health care" and "traditional chinese medicine health care" have become traffic hotspots; health teas such as ginseng, wolfberry, nine treasures tea, five-fingered peach and tuckahoe tea have become new hot items.
in the 1 billion-scale tcm health track, plasters and tcm health products are showing a trend of younger people. according to ali health data, in tcm health and plasters, the consumption amount of young and middle-aged people aged 35 to 39 has the characteristics of large base and high growth, and the growth rate is second only to the elderly over 60 years old, and exceeds the 40-49 and 50-59 age groups.
when social structural changes generate a large number of new demands, the health industry, as a new sunrise industry, has a large number of players responding to changes in a more flexible way. relying on the data tools of e-commerce platforms and content platforms, companies are closer to consumers than ever before and have a more sensitive market sense. they tap into demand from consumers' scattered behaviors, amplify or even create trends, and ultimately bring about sustained growth in the scale of categories or industries.
(this article comes from china business network)
