Health & Beauty

Like the millions of other Tokyoites who endure month after month of “house arrest” due to the epidemic in isolation at home, Japanese consumer Megumi Takezawa (transliteration) has been hoarding canned tuna, tomatoes and corned beef, and cooked curry. Non-perishable foods-because the chances of eating out and partying are greatly reduced, Keiko's storage cabinet even contains a variety of drinks including wine, sake, beer, etc. In addition, Keiko said that for safety, even if the epidemic is over, she will always keep the habit of carrying disinfectant spray and hand-cleaning wipes with her.

The situation of small people can often reflect a certain trend of the entire society.

The outbreak of the epidemic has subverted the consumption habits of most Japanese people. The proliferation of "social status quo" such as home isolation policies, safe social distancing, and non-contact work has pushed Japanese consumers to think about their own idiosyncratic needs nowadays. In order to keep their distance, online consumption has become the first choice of most consumers; preference for healthy eating and healthy lifestyle, as well as the demand for home cooking and baking, has caused a surge in sales of baking ingredients including flour; and masks The necessity of the existence of beauty products has severely hit the sales of beauty products.

Whether it is a seller who has benefited from this situation, or a seller who is trapped by this situation, it is difficult to move forward or even stagnant forever, they are asking: How long will this day and this trend last?

Intage Inc is a data research company specializing in market analysis. It collects and analyzes data from more than 4,000 physical retail stores (convenience stores, supermarkets, pharmacies) in Japan every week to assess market consumption trends. Toshimitsu Kiji, a data analyst at Intage, described the current Japanese market as "never seen such a situation."

According to the relevant data of the Japanese market in 2020 provided by Intage, the sales of masks, disinfectants and thermometers have soared by 380%, 296% and 255% year-on-year, respectively. The surge in sales of these products may not be surprising, after all. Under the epidemic situation, such anti-epidemic products are almost the people’s "life necessities", but in addition, there are more unexpected products that have entered the top 30 list of 2020 best-selling products in Intage's inventory:

For example, "Malt Drink" ranked No. 6-a soft drink whose sales increased by 173%. The reason behind this is the traffic that “Milo, a beverage containing chocolate and malt ingredients produced by Nestlé, is good for health” after it exploded on social media platforms. The sudden explosion of Milo caused it to be "ransacked" by consumers, and some speculators even sold Milo at high prices on resale sites.

And ranked 7th is a series of "snacks made by toy suppliers", sales of this category surged 154% year-on-year in 2020. Investigator Kiji said that the popularity of such products may be due to consumers’ feelings of the Demon Slayer Blade (Nichiman, the Demon Slayer Blade · Infinite Train movie was launched in Japan in 2020, setting the box office history of Japanese movies). ) A fanatical love of animation peripherals including limited stickers.

Protein powder ranked eighth on the list with an increase of 141%. Kiji explained that starting from around June 2020, a large number of young women in Japan began to buy protein powders, hoping to maintain a good shape during the epidemic. “Under the non-contact working atmosphere, maintaining a healthy lifestyle has always been an impact. A big factor in shopping trends."

Other foods that are not perishable, such as frozen seafood, whipped cream for home cooking, and baking-related products are also very well sold in the market. Kiji said that as consumers spend more time at home, the sales of detergents, deodorants and dehumidifiers are also increasing at a rate that is visible to the naked eye. In addition, because restaurants cannot open for business (or must reduce business hours in accordance with relevant regulatory measures), alcohol sales in the Japanese market have been strong.

While some categories ushered in gratifying growth, some products also fell into the "darkest moment".

In 2020, the epidemic has brought severe damage to the beauty market in Japan. Among them, the sales of lipsticks fell the most astonishing. The year-on-year sales level was only 42% of the previous year's sales level, which is even more exaggerated than the waist cut. Others such as face blush, foundation and foundation. The sales of liquid foundation also plummeted year-on-year to 63%, 68% and 72% of the previous year's sales level.

As opportunities for going out have decreased, travel has become less frequent, the demand for drugs for motion sickness has declined, and the incidental improvement in sanitation while preventing and controlling the epidemic has also restrained the sales of common cold medicines to a certain extent.

In addition, Kiji also mentioned that the sales of chewing gum and candies previously reserved by professionals will also decrease in 2020.

So, after the epidemic in Japan is over, what other categories will remain strong in the Japanese market?

Kiji believes that products that consumers find useful tend to have the last laugh. For example, recent data shows that hairdressing and hair care products are gaining popularity in the market. If people feel that they can take care of their hair at home without going to beauty salons and salons, hair care products may become evergreens in hot-selling categories. The same is true for bathing agents-if consumers feel that they can effectively help them relax and refresh, even if they are free to go out, they will continue to use this product.

Another organization NRI (Nomura Research Institute, Nomura Research Institute; referred to as NRI) compiled a report on the impact of the epidemic on Japanese consumer behavior, saying that as the epidemic subsides, Japanese consumers hoard non-perishable items The heat may decrease, but home cooking is still one of the future trends, and the market’s interest in healthy eating may continue to grow. NRI is also optimistic about the sales prospects of large TV sets and other home entertainment audiovisual systems in the Japanese market, and the boom in outdoor activities may also increase the market's demand for SUVs.

The outbreak has accelerated the fact that online consumer spending is a certainty—not only consumer spending on daily necessities, but also consumer spending on streaming media services such as games and video-on-demand and rental-related businesses.

Hiroyuki Hayashi, a consultant & consumer trends expert at NRI, said that among the people surveyed by NRI in the two months from March to May 2020, the proportion of Amazon Prime members who subscribed to Amazon jumped from 16% to 22%, an increase of 6 percentage points. "Prior to this, the proportion of Amazon Prime members in the same population only increased by 3 percentage points in two years. This proportion increased sharply from March to May 2020, reflecting the release of the first state of emergency (referring to the epidemic) from the side. Later, it will promote Japan’s digitization."

However, Hayashi also revealed that during the epidemic, although the intensity of online consumption by Japanese people was indeed high, the average transaction amount of users declined. "In the past, consumers made large-volume purchases online, but now they are more inclined to purchase products in small-volumes."

The survey conducted by NRI in December 2018 and December 2020 showed that during this survey period, the number of online purchases of respondents increased from 33.8 to 37.4 times per year, but in terms of the amount of each transaction, Has dropped from 2,484 yen to 2,136 yen.

When analyzing the number of transactions and the amount of payment, NRI noted that young people are the main force in online consumption. “The average cost of a single online order for teenage consumers is about 600 yen. For the crowd, the amount of a single order is about 1,000 yen.” In addition, Hayashi also mentioned that second-hand trading applications such as Mercari (similar to domestic idle fish) are particularly popular among these age groups.

However, the level of online consumption in Japan still lags behind other major economies. Take China as an example. China's digital ecosystem has always been in a leading position in the world and has the world's largest e-commerce market. According to the China Consumer Report 2021 issued by McKinsey, China has more than 850 million Internet users, and the mobile payment penetration rate is three times that of the United States. In 2018 alone, China’s e-commerce sales accounted for global retail e-commerce About 45% of the transaction volume.

In contrast to Japan, in terms of digital payment, Japan has been in a slow starting state. According to data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2016, cash consumption & payment is still the king of the Japanese market, and contactless transactions including credit cards and smartphone applications account for only 20% of personal expenditures. In South Korea, the proportion is more than 95%, and in the UK it is close to 70%.

NRI’s Hayashi said that compared with other developed countries, even during the epidemic, Japanese people have been relatively hesitant to use services such as online learning, telemedicine, and smart speakers. However, when users were asked if they plan to use these services to facilitate their lives after the epidemic, a large number of people said they were willing.

Hayashi said, “Japanese (relatively conservative) are often unwilling to spend money on new things and new services, but once they start to consume for this and realize the benefits, they will become loyal customers again.”

He predicted that online shopping will occupy a strong position in the Japanese market in the future.

Hayashi added, "In modern history, no similar incident has had such an impact on consumer behavior." But at the same time, he is also worried that the widening digital divide and the financial difficulties that many people endured during the epidemic will exacerbate economic inequality. "(I) worry that the economic consequences of this epidemic will widen the gap between rich and poor in Japanese society."

The epidemic has caused serious losses to Japanese society. According to the Ministry of Health, as of early April 2021, more than 100,000 people have been dismissed or their employment contracts have not been renewed. Under this scenario, job insecurity may still be high, especially for workers in the manufacturing, retail, and catering industries that are relatively severely affected by the epidemic. This in turn affects consumer behavior.

In order to understand how the epidemic has changed consumer psychology, the market research organization Macromill Inc. analyzed 1.3 million consumers in December and divided the population into 6 sub-groups on this basis.

Among them are: ordinary consumers who are adapting to a new lifestyle but feel pressure and inconvenience (33%); consumers who "build a nest at home" to avoid virus infection and share but struggle in social life (14%); feel economical Hardship (14%); [the latter two groups are mainly women in their 40s and below]; digital natives with higher incomes, who have quickly adapted to the "new normal" (15%); and those who have not been affected by the epidemic To their personal lives and hobbies "forerunners" (11%, mostly men aged 40-60); feel inconvenient to the restrictions caused by the epidemic, but continue to go out and meet like-minded people (13%, 30 years or younger) A large number of men).

Tomoyuki Shibuya, a senior consultant at Macromill, said that half of the six sub-groups representing one third of all consumers interviewed suffered a lower quality of life during the epidemic, while the others (unaffected) The main types are elderly men and high-income white-collar workers.

Shibuya said that those who feel financially tight and financially strained are often members of small and medium-sized enterprises that are more affected by the epidemic. He believes that this (economic) gap is likely to continue beyond the epidemic. For a long time, Japan has been considered a middle-class society, but the outbreak of the epidemic is likely to overturn this conclusion.