Grey-haired generation constitute new driving force during this year’s Double 11 shopping spree

An older generation of consumers in China has emerged as a new driving force behind this year’s Double 11 online shopping festival, reflecting their pursuit and enthusiasm for a better life.

A volunteer teaches elderly people to shop online in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province on June 4, 2020. (Photo/Xinhua)

Statistics produced by China's e-commerce giant JD.com showed that the volume of transactions made by seniors during this year’s shopping spree surged by 54 percent year-on-year.

A report on consumption patterns during Double 11, jointly released by Xinhua and China’s e-commerce giant Suning revealed that silver-haired consumers are showing an increasing interest in intelligent products, particularly smart home appliances.

An elderly woman surnamed Feng from Yinchuan, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, who has been shopping online for years said that she bought a biometric lock, a smart camera and a voice-activated light during this year’s shopping festival, suggesting that these products would make her life more convenient in some extents.

Health care products were also popular among silver-haired consumers, including shoe insoles with massage functions and food processors.

Meanwhile, senior citizens have a preference for purchasing quality products from all over the world on cross-border online shopping platforms, according to data from NetEase Kaola, a leading Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform. The platform’s data also showed that the elderly in China's first-tier cities, such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, prefer to purchase items that they consider special and fashionable. Furthermore, on average those born in the 1960s typically spend some four times more money annually on cross-border e-commerce platforms than young people born after 2000.

To give the elderly population a better shopping experience, e-commerce platforms like Suning and the giant online marketplace affiliated to Alibaba Group, Taobao, launched their respective “elderly-friendly versions” of their platforms before Double 11, which offer a simplified user interface and larger-sized graphic designs and texts.