Elderly sold on online shopping

By Du Xiaoying (China Daily) Updated: 2015-01-02 11:59

HeYing, 58, are tired doctor living in Beijing, is also accustomed to paying telephone bills online because of convenience. Low prices draw her to shop online.

Like many Chinese middle-and-old aged, He was not familiar with the online shopping process and worried about the paying safety, so she asked her daughter for help.

After several online shopping experiences with assistance from her daughter, He is not worried about the safety of online shopping anymore. But quality is still a concern to her.

"It is too cheap to be good," he said. "Sometimes I was quite disappointed when I received the goods I bought online, as a lot of them were of bad quality. Many goods do not have the quality that their pictures show, some don't fit well, and some even don't have a label."

After a number of refund experiences, He decided to only buy from reliable brands and shops in the future, ones with good reputations.

Stories such as those from Liu and He are representative of millions of middle-aged and older Chinese, and which show the great potential of the aging in the Chinese consumption market. Yet, the market seems not to be valued, as it should be.

The Chinese marketing and consumption researchers have largely remained a vacuum for the market. It is hard to get professional and systematic reports on the elderly's consumption habits, consumer behavior and consumption trends. Information or reports that can be found either need updating or lack credibility.

Just like researchers, Chinese e-commerce websites have not paid much attention to older consumers. JD.com, dangdang.com and Amazon.cn don't have a specific category for goods for the elderly on their main pages. After keyword searching, there are only limited options available like clothes, food, healthcare appliances, etc.

Alibaba's platform Taobao.com does have a specific elderly goods category on the main page. But still, the goods in the category are not as abundant as other categories such as babycare.

Moreover, Taobao's category is not really designed for elders, but their children. The "Mum's clothes", "Dad's shoes" subdivision categories more or less show Taobao doesn't consider the middle-to older ages as their target customers.