A Clear Trend Towards Segmentation In Dairy Market Demand

　　Consumer keywords for 2021 include "self-pleasing consumption", flagship products, landmark agricultural products, omni-channel integration, and national products and trends. The dairy industry is a clear example of the rise in quality consumption.

　　Since 2020, the epidemic has made consumers pay more attention to health, not only in the purchase of health products, but also in a large number of consumption behaviours to improve their physical fitness and immunity from the inside out, such as the continued growth of consumption in the sports category and the hot sale of health foods represented by dairy products.

　　Jingdong sales data shows that "eating better and being healthier" has become a common pursuit for consumers in 2021, with online consumption of food and beverages and fresh produce both experiencing sustained high growth, and per capita consumption of food and beverage products increasing by 20% year-on-year. The growth rate of milk and dairy sales was even more impressive, with an average annual growth rate of 58% over the past three years.

　　The growth in online dairy sales is not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality, with dairy products continuing to consolidate their position as an indicator category for consumer upgrading.

　　Analysis of consumption data shows that consumers' preference for "efficacy" and "ingredients" in the beverage market is gradually overtaking the "value effect"; health-based beverage consumption is becoming mainstream. A large number of functional segmentation products have been recognised by target consumer groups. According to Jingdong Supermarket, in 2021, the turnover of active lactic acid bacteria drinks increased by 205% year-on-year, while the turnover of plant protein plant milk increased by 77% year-on-year, becoming the leader of healthy food and beverage.

　　Analysing consumers' choices and consumption habits, it is also easy to see that they are increasingly concerned about the quality of food categories, especially dairy products. The percentage of consumers buying food and beverages who rated their concerns was significantly higher than the site-wide average, and the highest rated concern among the segmented categories was beverage brewing.

　　 This means that a large number of consumers will read the reviews of other users when choosing dairy products and other beverages, and will even change their purchasing goals because of the reviews. The trend of caring more about quality because of the pursuit of health has become a typical trend in dairy consumption.

　　Another trend that can be observed during the Chinese New Year is the "everydayness" of online consumption, with food, beverages and fresh produce continuing to account for an increasing proportion of daily consumption.

      With the continuous sinking of logistics and the improvement of infrastructure, Jingdong has launched its tenth consecutive year of express delivery service during the Spring Festival in 2022, allowing orders to be received normally even on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. From 2013 to 2021, Jingdong's online turnover during the Spring Festival grew 11 times in nine years, while consumers' online shopping during the Spring Festival became more diversified, with category concentration decreasing year on year, indicating that it has become a habit for consumers to meet their living and entertainment needs through online retail during the long Spring Festival holiday.

     For the dairy industry, the change in consumer demand from gift boxes of liquid milk becoming the "standard" gift for visiting friends and relatives, to the convenient availability of various dairy products online during the Chinese New Year, is noteworthy.

　　Looking ahead to 2022, the geographical and demographic penetration of online dairy retailing will further increase, and the growth rate will remain high; the trend of upgrading dairy consumption will remain unchanged, and the trend of quality, functionality and segmentation will become more obvious; the integration of the dairy industry online and offline will accelerate, and new consumer models will continue to expand.