Consumption Characteristics and Evaluation Methods in Era Z

Sihui Ming

Bachelor of Business, RMIT University, 3001 Melbourne, Australia

Keywords: Buyer Behaviour, Social Media, E-Commerce.

Abstract: With the rapid development of the network in the information age, online consumption has

gradually

become popular, thereby also promoting the development of e-commerce platforms. Internet shopping has

brought a lot of convenience to people so that people can buy the items they need without going shopping;

with the gradual development of distribution transportation, fruit, and fresh food have become easier to save,

and able to reach buyers more quickly! Then, buyers must understand the characteristics and behavior of

consumers so that they can better develop marketing strategies. This paper uses case study and literature

analysis to analyze the behavioral characteristics of the consumers of 'East Buy' brand, user profiles, age

composition ratio, regional distribution, urban class distribution, and consumer groups, including factors

affecting consumer behavior, and concludes that most of the consumers who buy the products of 'East buy'

are women between 31-40 years old from first-tier cities, and this group of people can buy the products of

'East Buy'. It is concluded that most of the consumers who buy 'East Buy' products are women between 31-

40 years old from first-tier cities, who have a stable source of income and pursue a high quality of life.

1 INTRODUCTION

As born in the age of the Internet, social networks are

very advanced. The rise of short videos is changing

people's lifestyles, and the pursuit of trends, trends.

With the rise of e-commerce platforms, a variety of

hybrid shopping methods is appearing, such as the

live bandwagon. According to CNNIC research data,

in the first half of 2023, the national online retail sales

amounted to 7.16 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.1%

year-on-year. Among them, the online retail sales of

physical goods amounted to 6.06 trillion yuan, an

increase of 10.8%, accounting for 26.6% of the total

retail sales of consumer goods (Li 2023). In 2022, the

nation's online retail sales reached 13.79 trillion,

accounting for 31% of total retail sales of consumer

goods. Although the overall growth of the market is

declining, the proportion in the total retail sales of

social consumer goods is climbing year by year. This

shows that e-commerce consumption has become one

of the main consumption channels for people

nowadays (Huang 2023).

This study focuses on the live broadcast of e-

commerce platforms, which is of great significance

for e-commerce platforms to formulate marketing

strategies; this study focuses on analyzing the

consumer groups of specific anchors of 'East Buy' and

gives rationalized suggestions. In this paper, the

literature analysis method is used to find and read

relevant information and literature, the advantage of

this method is that it can well analyze the

characteristics of consumers who buy more and the

characteristics of consumer behavior. The ultimate

research objective of this study is to explore the

characteristics of consumers who purchase products

under the 'East Buy' brand that are different from

other consumers in general and the factors that may

influence them, including providing some feasible

references for the brand.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

To achieve the research objectives, this paper has

carried out data collection, looked for relevant

information in the literature, referred to the literature

with the same research direction as this paper,

compared the research object and objectives of the

article, and supplemented the shortcomings of the

previous literature.

Huang Qingqing in the article "college students'

network consumption characteristics and their

influencing factors" studied the characteristics of

college students' network consumption and, through

242

Ming, S.

Consumption Characteristics and Evaluation Methods in Era Z.

DOI: 10.5220/0012817900004547

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Data Science and Engineering (ICDSE 2024), pages 242-247

ISBN: 978-989-758-690-3

the questionnaire survey, constructed a model,

sample empirical analysis to analyze its causes, and

finally concluded (Jiang 2023). This article analyzes

the consumption characteristics of a class of people,

not much involved in a specific class of products in

terms of the consumer population, not comprehensive

enough. This article will be from a specific anchor

room of product sales for the portrait analysis, to

analyze the consumption characteristics of the

audience and its influencing factors. This paper uses

literature analysis to find and read relevant

information and literature, to study and discuss the

consumption characteristics of people currently, and

to study the consumption behaviors and habits of

specific groups of people.

Jiang Mengzhen analyzes the multiple factors

affecting youth cultural network consumption and

gives the guiding strategies of contemporary youth

network cultural consumption in the article

"Contemporary Youth Network Cultural

Consumption: Characteristics, Causes and Guidance"

(Xiang et al. 2023). The article mainly analyzes the

symbolic value marketing, the media public opinion

influences the consumption decision, how the

multicultural concept enters the youth network

culture consumption market, and the strategy. It

mainly mentions improving the youth's value identity

to the mainstream ideology, creating the network

culture works that meet the needs of the youth's

beautiful life, creating a good public opinion

environment for network culture consumption, and

shaping the youth's healthy and rational network

culture consumption spirit. The article uses

synthesized expressions and gives sound advice

clearly and logically, but lacks relevant data to

support it.

In "Spatial Design of Immersive Sports Brand

Stores Based on Consumer Demand in "Z Era", Xiang

Jianlu, Liu Ruochen, and Chen Xi study how the

consumer behavior of young people in this era

influences the spatial structure of brick-and-mortar

businesses, to create a more diversified consumer

experience for consumers (Meng 2023). Analyzing

the status quo and problems of traditional stores leads

to the future development trend of brick-and-mortar

stores and gives reasonable suggestions, such as

personalized service, interactive experience design,

and so on. The article lacks specific consumer

behavior data and the comparison between traditional

and modern.

Meng Qiuni in the "Expanding Domestic Demand

under the Background of the "Home Economy" new

consumption mode of marketing strategy research"

discusses the new consumption, and the "home

economy" consumption mode under the future

development trend of enterprise marketing (Luo & Lu

2023). By analyzing the current situation of enterprise

marketing under the new consumption mode of the

"home economy" and the future development trend of

enterprise marketing, it identifies the existing

problems of enterprises and provides rationalized

suggestions, such as upgrading the sense of customer

experience, providing one-stop service, and

improving the value of the database, etc. The article

only mentions the current situation and suggestions.

The article only mentions the suggestions and the

current situation but does not specify the consumption

patterns of people in today's era, while this article

specifically analyzes the consumption patterns and

consumption behavior of specific groups.

Luo Jun, and Lu Kunxiu in "Guangdong Tea-

drinking Residents of Tea Consumption Behavior and

Influencing Factors Investigation and Analysis"

explore the residents of tea consumption behavior and

influencing factors on the impact of consumer

decision-making (LU 2023). Through the

questionnaire survey, the Logistic regression analysis

of the influence of tea sales channels on consumption

behavior concluded that: tea varieties, packaging

materials, and sales channels on the Guangdong

residents tea consumption behavior have obvious

differences, and put forward limitations and

recommendations.

Lu Yingdan in the "her economy" background of

e-commerce platforms in the female consumer

behavior research" study explores the behavior of

female consumers and develops some marketing

strategies for e-commerce platforms (Xu 2023). By

analyzing women's common consumption platforms

and their characteristic behaviors, it can be found that

women's consumption trends in e-commerce

platforms - live shopping increases, self-accreditation

shopping increases, and then put forward some

optimization strategies by analyzing the influencing

factors of women's consumption in e-commerce

platforms. The article is too generalized and lacks age

data, while this paper gives suggestions by analyzing

the consumption characteristics of specific groups

and their consumption behaviors.

Based on the above research status, this paper will

analyze the characteristics of the consumers of 'East

Buy' in terms of their age characteristics,

consumption behavior, geographical characteristics,

and so on. Age characteristics, consumption

behavior, and geographical characteristics have

important reference significance for consumption

decisions. Different age groups have different

consumption needs, by analyzing the age

Consumption Characteristics and Evaluation Methods in Era Z

243

composition ratio of 'East Buy’ consumers and then

analyzing their demand characteristics. In addition,

the economic development level of each region is

different, which also determines the consumption

level of people in each region is different, and

consumers with a high level of consumption can

afford higher-cost products. Consumers with higher

levels of consumption can afford to pay more for the

products.

3 CONSUMPTION

CHARACTERISTICS AND

EVALUATION METHODS IN

THE Z ERA

3.1 Enjoy Yourself over Self-Interest

Today's young people's consumption concepts are

gradually changing. They are willing to pay for all the

goods or services that please them, and "pleasing

oneself" and "socializing" have become one of the

most important reasons for young people to shop.

According to the research data of the Ai.com website,

more than 60% of new young consumers purchase

interest consumption products with the consumption

core of pleasing themselves and improving their sense

of well-being; more than 50% of new young

consumers purchase interest consumption products

because they are "planted" by their friends or circle

members to integrate into their social circle and share

topics with their peers. Satisfying the needs of new

young consumers for self-fulfillment and integration

into the social circle has become the direction of

product iteration for brands (Gu 2023). According to

the 2022 Survey on the Main Categories of

Consumers in China's "Grass-Seeding Economy",

clothing, shoes and bags, food, and cosmetics and

skincare accounted for more than others, with

clothing, shoes, and bags accounting for 58.5%, food

for 55.5%, and cosmetics and skincare for 41.6%,

according to AiMedia.com. Secondly, according to

the Survey on the Main Reasons for Consumers to be

Seeded in China's "Grass-planting Economy" in

2022, 67.1% of consumers want to get the same style

of Netroots celebrities, and 55.4% of consumers are

motivated by their trust in original content. In

addition, 64.3% of the group of people who buy

sports shoes in the era of Z will give priority to the

appearance of the style, which not only reflects the

behavior of the young people of today's era but also

highlights that the young people buy their favorite

products to enhance the sense of well-being (Gu

2023). Also, meeting consumer needs is gradually

becoming the direction of product iteration. The main

reasons for product iteration include meeting market

demand, improving product quality, enhancing

innovation, increasing product life cycle value,

improving brand image, and fulfilling social

responsibility. This requires companies to understand

the market demand, and user needs promptly, and

make timely improvements to the product, to increase

the sales volume and market share of goods.

3.2 Valuing Commodities

People in the Z era pay more attention to the quality

of goods and are more inclined to choose to buy high-

quality goods. Secondly, the social value of products

is emphasized. The brands preferred by a generation

are made by quality companies that are socially

responsible and environmentally conscious.

Compared to millennials, young and middle-aged

people of today's generation are more focused on the

quality of goods rather than on price issues. In other

words, people nowadays are more willing to buy

high-quality items and do not go for small bargains

due to financial stability and a good source of income.

First, high-quality goods have a beautiful appearance,

with fine design and details; second, high-quality

products have stable performance, for example, food

products have a very tasty taste; finally,

manufacturers of high-quality products provide a

wide range of after-sales services, including

providing technical support, reasonable return and

exchange policies, and a commitment to quality

assurance.

4 RESEARCH METHOD

The data source of this paper is based on the official

propaganda website platform, combined with the

existing research on the current state of the East Buy

propaganda methods, the data are as follows: East

Buy is the new platform launched by the New

Oriental Live with goods; as a live platform focusing

on the selection of high-quality products for the

customer, East Buy Holding Ltd. is a company that

continues to provide "East Buy "self-managed

agricultural products as the core product of the

excellent product and technology companies, as well

as to provide customers with enjoyable cultural

communication (Wang 2023). East Buy's live account

has 3145.6w fans, 75.67% of fan purchases, 100w+

total sales, and 100 million+ total sales. The brand's

anchors' carry products are mainly fruit and farm

ICDSE 2024 - International Conference on Data Science and Engineering

244

fresh drinks, and the selection focuses on helping

farmers. The brand has attracted more people's

attention through the bilingual live broadcast of the

goods, combining the goods with the teaching of

English, and utilizing the way of live emotional

resonance and emotional marketing to output

sentiment and knowledge, which resonates with the

viewers. In addition, unlike traditional live streaming,

the brand's anchors have a humorous and literate way

of expressing themselves, which can resonate with

users who are fond of culture.

5 ANALYSIS

5.1 Consumers

East Buy is a fruit farmer with goods anchor and

contains a wide range of goods, mostly food and fresh

food and household goods. Data from the chart can be

seen, food and beverage (47.74%) and fresh (27.16%)

accounted for a large part of the household, toiletries,

and mother and baby accounted for a small part of the

total share of 25.1%. From the sales data, fresh food

accounted for 51.31%, food, and beverage accounted

for 37.18%, personal care, home and clothing and

underwear accounted for a total of 11.51%. It can be

inferred that contemporary people have a high

demand and interest in fresh food and beverages

(Song & Ling 2023).

Figure 1: Age composition ratio (Picture credit:

Original).

Through the male-to-female ratio data, women

accounted for a large proportion (83.66%) and men

accounted for a small proportion. In the age

distribution ratio (Fig. 1), 31-40 year old women are

predominant, accounting for 41,18%, and 18-23 years

old women account for a smaller proportion. This

shows that women are interested in food freshness,

especially middle-aged women. Guess the reason:

middle-aged women pay more attention to food

health safety and nutrition. According to the data on

the distribution of consumer groups, senior-heavy

assets (25.11%) and exquisite mothers (21.78%)

account for the majority, and new white-collar

occupies the third place (19.25%). It shows that

between 30-50 years old people pay more attention to

Oriental Selection's goods because this group of

people have a more stable source of income and are

more likely to buy East Buy's products (Bai & Guo

2023).

5.2 Loyal User Profile

Based on users' video comments and live comments,

the analog portraits of loyal users can be roughly

divided into two categories. The first category of

users are parents of students in New Oriental offline

classes, and the other category is former Oriental

students (Zhang & Zhang 2023). The first category of

users is portrayed as women, mostly aged between

31-40 years old. According to the Research on

Middle-aged Women's Online Consumption View in

the Live E-commerce Context, middle-aged women

between the ages of 36-25 will be more conservative

in their consumption because they are facing several

expenditures, such as children's education, family

expenses, and so on. The second type of audience

users is the senior middle class, which has a more

stable source of income and has high requirements for

the quality of products, with the keywords 'willing to

spend money to buy happiness, enjoy the moment and

love life' (Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Loyal user profile (Picture credit: Original).

5.3 Urban Factor

First-tier cities accounted for more, Beijing 5.38%,

Shanghai 3.26% Jiangsu Province accounted for

10.98%. Jiangsu Province pays more attention to

education, so East Buy may attract users from Jiangsu

Province (Zhu 2023). According to the geographical

9,38%

18,87%

41,18%

12,65%

17,92%

0,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

Age composition ratio

13,35%

25,83%

22,27%

19,40%

12,52%

6,58%

0,00%

5,00%

10,00%

15,00%

20,00%

25,00%

30,00%

Loyal user profile

Consumption Characteristics and Evaluation Methods in Era Z

245

data, most of the customers who buy East Buy

products come from first-tier cities, such as Beijing,

Shanghai, etc. First-tier cities have higher incomes, so

customers are more affordable. According to the "Q3

2023 China Enterprise Recruitment Salary Report -

Zhiliang Recruitment", Shanghai ranks first with an

average salary of 13,492, followed by Beijing with an

average salary of 13,161, which is in second place

(Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Proportion of urban consumption power (Picture

credit: Original).

Through most of the reviews, it can be seen that

people today are more concerned about the service

attitude, delivery speed, and the quality of the product

taste. These indicators can also become a standard for

measuring the goodness of this product. Through the

live traffic structure chart, it is easy to see that most

of the audience in the live room comes from the

recommendation feed and attention. Among them, the

recommendation feed accounted for the largest

44.53%, followed by attention accounted for the

second 27.01%. The other audience sources account

for a relatively small percentage, totaling 28.46%. It

can be concluded that the number of fans in the live

broadcast is larger, the percentage of purchases is also

larger, and the fans have great trust in Oriental

Selection's products.

6 SUGGESTION

East Buy's live broadcast not only attracts users with

spending power in first-tier cities or new first-tier

cities, but most of the consumers are middle-aged

women aged 30-50 years old, mainly targeting

consumers who love Chinese culture and are willing

to learn knowledge, and these consumers are not just

ordinary young people (Mok 2023).

Since the object of analysis in this paper is an e-

commerce platform brand, the data is changeable and

unpredictable; and the collection and analysis of data

is completed by a specific date, so it is not possible to

follow up the dynamics of the anchor and collect real-

time data.

With the development of live e-commerce, new

media, and other forms of industry, through the

integration of online and offline convergence, and

actively explore new marketing methods that are

more popular among consumers. Secondly, before

launching a new product, the brand should do market

research to find the market positioning explore which

group of people is the target group of consumers for

the new product; and use appropriate marketing

strategies. After finding the target group, the product

should be improved to meet the consumers' needs.

The following suggestions

First: 'East Buy' should expand its brand publicity

efforts to increase awareness through media channels,

such as microblogging, jittering, Xiaohongshu, and

so on.

Second: Focus on quality management, establish

a perfect quality management system and strengthen

the supervision and testing of the production process

to ensure product quality.

Third: strengthen after-sales service management,

provide timely after-sales service, and provide online

1VS customer service Q&A to help consumers better

understand the goods, and improve consumer

satisfaction.

Fourth: expand sales channels, 'East Buy' can be

used online and offline mixed sales model, to achieve

a full range of product sales coverage.

Fifth: 'East Buy' should strengthen the supply

chain, and logistics supply chain management, to

ensure that the source of raw materials is clean and

hygienic, and real-time monitoring of the production

process to ensure product quality.

7 CONCLUSION

The result of this study is that most of the buyers of

'East Buy' are middle-aged women aged 31-40 years

old, and have certain economic sources and economic

basis, all of them are middle and deep assets

consumers; secondly, most of the consumers are from

the first-tier cities, and the consumption level of the

first-tier cities is generally higher than that of the

second-tier and third-tier cities. It is further concluded

that consumers in first-tier cities are more able to

afford expensive products and emphasize high-

quality goods. This study provides a lot of valuable

references for future research in this direction, which

mainly influences most of the research on consumer

behavioral characteristics, and future research should

5,38%

3,78%

3,26%

2,08%

1,99%

1,97%

1,90%

1,89%

1,87%

0,00%

2,00%

4,00%

6,00%

Ratio

ICDSE 2024 - International Conference on Data Science and Engineering

246

focus more on the direction of the characteristics of

consumer psychology and behavior for in-depth

investigation.

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