According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2023, China's population aged 60 and above will exceed 296 million. Experts predict that the number will exceed 400 million around 2035 and reach about 500 million by the middle of this century. The continuous increase of the elderly population has expanded the potential of the silver economy. It is estimated that the economic scale of China's silver industry is expected to reach about 30 trillion yuan by 2035. The development of silver economy is the need to comply with the trend of population change, meet the needs of the elderly to pursue a better life, and maintain the continuous expansion and quality improvement of domestic consumption demand.
The industry is rooted in the market, and the silver economy is driven by the living needs of the elderly population. To develop the silver hair economy, we should start from the needs of the elderly in four aspects: first, we should meet the needs of the elderly for health care, improve their health level and improve their quality of life by providing health care products or services. The second is to meet the needs of the elderly in their daily life. Focusing on the inconvenient "worries" in their daily life, they can provide door-to-door services or centralized services nearby, so that the elderly no longer have to worry about trivial things in life. The third is to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the elderly, provide a variety of spiritual and cultural products for the elderly of different ages, enrich the spiritual life of the elderly, and achieve "happiness in old age". The fourth is to meet the psychological care needs of the elderly. By providing more psychological services and products, the elderly can reduce their sense of loneliness, depression and depression, and protect their mental health.
The core logic of silver economy related products and services is to improve the quality of life of the elderly and care for the elderly. Only by accurately grasping the consumption psychology and characteristics of the elderly can they better meet their needs, provide products and services that meet their expectations, and make their old life better.
The consumption demand of the elderly has its uniqueness due to various reasons, such as the decline of physical function, the slow updating of knowledge structure, and the lack of relatives and friends. First of all, the elderly belong to the "price sensitive" consumer group. Many elderly people who are deeply influenced by traditional consumption concepts tend to pay attention to thrift and require "high cost performance" when consuming. Secondly, the consumption of the elderly is also service sensitive. Compared with online shopping, many elderly people prefer to buy products and services in physical stores, and their consumption habits are more inclined to experience them personally. For the elderly, the service experience in the shopping process is very important. Good pre-sales, in sales and after-sales services are more likely to win their trust. For example, the elderly are not familiar with new technology concepts and intelligent operations, and the pre-sales and after-sales tracking services of related products are particularly important. For another example, in terms of service-oriented consumption, they hope to get more enthusiastic and proactive services.
In this process, attention should also be paid to preventing the consumption psychology and needs of the elderly from being used by some illegal businesses, leading to blind consumption or even being cheated. For example, some practitioners in the health care products industry use the characteristics of the elderly, such as their ignorance of scientific health care knowledge and their preference for offline experience, to induce them to buy fake and inferior products.
The development of the silver economy is an economic act of trade between the supply and demand sides, as well as a social act of promoting the traditional virtues of respecting and loving the elderly. Whether it is to provide tangible products or intangible services, relevant practitioners need to maintain respect and patience for the elderly, provide high-quality and thoughtful services for the elderly with a stronger sense of service, correct service attitude, and excellent service ability, and continue to promote the vigorous development of the silver economy.
(Source of this article: Economic Daily Author: Qiao Ruiqing, contributed by China Economic Network)
