Clothing For Middle-Aged And Elderly: Pioneer Market

In China's population proportion, between 40 and 60 years of age, the number of groups has exceeded 400 million, while those over 60 reach 202 million, which add up to more than 600 million, accounting for nearly half of the total population of the country.

Statistics show that by 2015, the per capita purchasing power of the elderly in China will rise to 4112 US dollars from 1620 US dollars in 2005.

Macroscopical data reflect the considerable base of the middle aged and elderly market, and from the micro perspective, the consumption pattern of the middle and old aged people is becoming more and more modern. Data show that 32% of the elderly have had online shopping experience, and they mainly buy clothes and daily necessities, among which there are many online shopper.

In the middle and old age market, Xiao Er Xuan Gu defines the market as four words: Sunset crowd, sunrise industry.

Correspondingly, China's middle and old products market and service industry is still in its infancy, and special products and services in the fields of pension, health care products, tourism, real estate and so on are also urgently needed to develop.

Whether online or offline, the industry targeting the middle aged and elderly market is being further broken down. Some online shopping centers have opened up the middle and old age clothing area, others have followed the form of specialized departments to link the middle and old aged market.

In Ali, the middle-aged and elderly clothing, as a sub business of women's clothing business in Taobao bazaar, has not been subdivided before 2012.

And this year,

The trading volume of apparel industry began to soar, and the excellent performance showed the platform's potential to be excavated. In 2013, the middle and old age channel, as a market segment covering the whole category, was cut out of the women's clothing business and became an independent business in the Taobao market.

In the first half of 2014, the middle and old age clothing market was separated from the original category channels and began to cover 4 categories, namely, women's wear, men's wear, women's shoes and men's shoes.

At present, the Taobao middle and old age market defines the business of the main middle aged and elderly categories as: the number of middle-aged and elderly goods in the shop is 40% of the whole store, or the turnover of the middle-aged and elderly goods exceeds 40%.

Such businessmen in the middle and old age channel cut 2014 in April statistics, about 5100, to July has risen to more than 7750.

As a platform side, the middle-aged and elderly channel team has gradually summed up the two focal points for the development of the middle-aged and old age channel: seize the pain point of the whole middle-aged and old market, and pay close attention to the middle-aged and elderly clothing businesses.

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The problem of homogenization and lack of style is what we need to do now.

Middle and old age channel Xiao Er Gu told reporters.

In the 2013, middle aged and elderly people were still on the market of all kinds of channels. Clothing is one of the most important categories.

Due to the particularity of the middle-aged and elderly people, the operation mode of young women's clothing is very different from that of the old people. The choice of clothing styles and functional demands require a more professional attitude.

For middle-aged and elderly women's clothing, the proportion of mother's clothing occupies nearly 80% of the entire middle-aged and old women's wear. Taking mother's clothing as an example, the age and mentality of the crowd make them relatively conservative when choosing clothes: as the age increases, their weight is generally increased to 110 to 160 Jin, waist circumference usually reaches 2 feet, 2 to 2 feet 8, and arms are also coarsely young. Therefore, designing sleeved garments is always more suitable for them than sleeveless ones.

These differences in details make mothers need to avoid some styles that are very demanding and have a strong sense of design when they are designed. But after 50 and 60, the sensitivity of the design elements is not high. Instead, they want the choice of patterns, loose and comfortable tailoring and fabric care. Therefore, the functional elements are more attractive to them.

The style tends to be functional, which means that the popularity of the style is enhanced.

The change of fabric and pattern can make the clothes directly reflect the difference, but greatly reduces the difficulty of duplication.

From the perspective of the whole supply chain, the upstream factories of the middle-aged and elderly women's clothing are mostly confined to places like Wuhan, Beijing and Jiangsu. Due to the regionality of too much concentration, the styles of the middle-aged and elderly clothing sellers are very similar. The merchants who do not have shop opening cost or design ability are hard to form differentiated brands on their mother's clothing.

The age of 40 is the dividing line between middle age and youth. Most of the people in this age group are still in their careers, having certain deposits and high consumption ability.

The middle-aged people in the first tier cities tend to have more brand stores in large shopping malls. They have their own dress requirements. With the improvement of their consumption ability, some international brands have also become the scope of their dabbling.

Such people are in line with the necessary conditions for online brand development: they will have access to the Internet, be receptive to new things, have high consumption ability and have a high sense of brand identity.

But the real problem is that such people are unlikely to shop online, especially clothing.

Large shopping malls under the line have basically met their needs, and online because of the weak style and brand effect, it is often difficult to attract their attention.

Since it is hard to keep the high-end crowd under the line, online merchants have turned their attention to the middle and low level consumer groups.

In the 2 and 3 tier cities, the consumption capacity of the middle and old age population is also breaking out, and the popularity of the style is more in line with their demand for clothing.

But compared with the first tier cities, they often do not want to spend too much energy and money on clothing. Cheap and convenient shopping are the decisive factors for their purchase.

What's more, most of them do not buy online. The super market and town shops under the line, even the stalls, are the scenes of buying clothes for a long time.

However, the characteristics of gifts for middle-aged and elderly clothing are bridging the gap to some extent.

From the crowd, middle-aged and elderly people are often the filial piety of their children. They are busy with their work, or because they work in different places, shopping behavior is often done through the network.

This is the reason why most middle-aged and elderly apparel want to take the gift market route, and they eventually want to circle the crowd, often not the middle aged or the elderly themselves, but their children - the young people who really pay the bill, "this group of people has higher purchasing power and user stickiness."

Xuan Gu said.

Aiming at a series of characteristics of the middle aged and elderly market, Taobao hopes to adopt a step-by-step approach to further the market in the marketing side.

Take Papa as an example, this is a particularly weak link in the development of the online market. There are seven wolves, YOUNGOR and other brands on line. But on the Internet, the search results are basically black and white, and users can not choose good products.

Aiming at the problem of Papa's installation, the mysterious ancient team defined a theme called "lottery dad", and regularly arranged the style of the new cowboy style and the style of the style, so that Dad could fit into more fashion elements such as color.

In view of the relatively rich styles of women's clothing, Taobao is trying to give some suggestions on wear and wear, with various festivals and commemorative days launched to increase user stickiness.

Secondly, smashing the brand of the elderly, the channel hopes to interact with merchants, and make the brand of the elderly more explicit.

Xuan Gu told reporters that the channel has developed a special holiday warning software for the middle-aged and elderly market with the technology team. Users who visit the middle and old age market and have completed the data will be able to remind users in the form of sending information in advance of the time set up by users, and push short links or related products at the same time.

For example, let the staff in the nursing home help the elderly who are not willing to spend money in the nursing home online shopping, and the platform can provide rewards in the form of commission.

For example, for empty nest elderly at home, you can provide merchandise shopping guide through Tmall magic box.