Consumption migration in “Double 11”

Many netizens have observed that this year's "Double 11" has undergone new changes: young people's shopping carts are occupied by rice, flour, grains, oils, household items and other items, and the promotional methods of e-commerce platforms have become more pragmatic and simple.

Some voices question: Is there insufficient motivation for consumption? Young people are just making do with their money. Isn’t this a downgrade of consumption?

The answer is not so. Let’s first look at what the data “says”. According to third-party statistics, from 2023 to 2025, the sales of the entire "Double 11" network will be approximately 1.14 trillion yuan, 1.44 trillion yuan, and 1.70 trillion yuan, achieving continuous growth. This proves that the stimulating effect of concentrated promotions on consumption is still obvious.

Structural data is more worthy of careful reading: in the first three quarters of this year, my country's service retail sales increased by 5.0% year-on-year, 4 percentage points higher than the growth rate of commodity retail sales; residents' per capita service consumption expenditure increased by 4.6% year-on-year, which was 1 percentage point faster than the growth rate of residents' per capita consumption expenditure. This means that consumers are not only pursuing good things, but also “good experiences”.

Such a change is in line with the law of development. Some research shows that when per capita GDP reaches about 15,000 US dollars, consumption begins to shift from meeting the demand for basic commodities to the service sector, ushering in a "structural transition." In 2025, my country's per capita GDP will be close to US$14,000, and we are in this critical transition period. Offline service consumption has become more popular, while "Double 11", which mainly focuses on online commodity consumption, is growing steadily.

What’s more, the scenes are diverse. In addition to offline shopping and online shopping, instant retail, community group buying, and private communities are all attracting consumers. The irreplaceability of “Double 11”, once an “annual price depression”, is being diluted by abundant daily promotion scenes. Rather than saying that consumers have ignored "Double 11", it is better to say that the "Double 11 effect" is more common and more common.

To put it simply, the demand is still there and money is still being spent, but the way of spending it has changed. This means that after the supply of goods is greatly enriched, consumers reallocate their budget, time and attention, and use daily expenses to truly improve the quality of life - a trip to "poetry and distance", an exquisite figure, and a long-awaited performance. This is not a consumption downgrade, but a far-reaching consumption migration.

The key is that the mentality has changed. On the one hand, they become more rational, "you can buy expensive things, but not too expensive" and pursue "quality-price ratio"; on the other hand, they are more willing to pay for self-pleasure, stress relief, companionship, and recognition, and pursue "price-performance ratio." Instead of making do with it, he became more particular about it. Young people who focus on "the province and the flowers" are becoming more and more dominant in consumption.

Looking at a deeper level, a rational and calm consumption mentality is just an active choice to return to purity, and it is also the result of a rich material foundation.

Yan Li

"People's Daily" (November 11, 2026, Page 05)