Consumption is the ultimate demand, which is not only the ultimate goal and motive force of production, but also the direct embodiment of people’s needs for a better life. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that it is necessary to establish an effective system to expand domestic demand, release the potential of domestic demand, speed up the cultivation of a complete domestic demand system, strengthen demand-side management, expand household consumption, and upgrade consumption levels, so as to make the construction of a super-large domestic market a sustainable historical process. Since the beginning of this year, China has effectively coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, intensified macro-policy adjustment, effectively implemented a package of policies and measures to stabilize the economy, and withstood the downward pressure on the economy brought about by unexpected unexpected unexpected factors. However, we should also see that the foundation of China’s economic recovery is still unstable, the contradiction of insufficient demand is still outstanding, and the recovery of consumer demand is still weak. To enhance the basic role of consumption in economic recovery, we must conform to the new trend of consumption structure upgrading and give play to the traction and driving role of service consumption in expanding consumption.
The development of service consumption in China presents three major trends.
Service consumption is an important force to release consumption potential. With the growth of residents’ income and the expansion of middle-income groups, China’s consumption structure has been accelerated, and the trend of residents’ consumption service has accelerated, which has become an important driving force for expanding domestic demand. In recent years, communication services, mass catering, culture and entertainment, leisure travel, education and training, health and wellness are becoming new consumption hotspots. In 2019, China’s per capita service consumption expenditure was close to 10,000 yuan, accounting for 45.9% of residents’ per capita consumption expenditure, and the consumption structure accelerated the transformation from physical consumption to service consumption. From the international experience, the proportion of service consumption in the final consumption of major developed countries is about 74% on average. In 2021, China’s per capita GDP has reached $12,500, and the increase in the proportion of service consumption will be the general trend.
Different from the development stage of service consumption in developed countries, China’s accelerated development of service consumption is in the period of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, in the period of residents’ pursuit of high-quality life in the new era and new stage, in the period of demographic changes and younger consumers, showing a series of new characteristics.
First, the development of service consumption and the rapid rise of digital economy meet, showing a trend of accelerating digitalization. A new generation of digital technologies, such as big data, 5G and artificial intelligence, have rapidly penetrated into the field of service consumption, accelerating the online and offline integration of service industry, enriching service consumption scenarios, improving service consumption experience, promoting service consumption reform, and promoting more effective matching between service supply and service consumption demand, which has provided a strong impetus for the development of new service consumption formats and new models.
Second, the development of service consumption and residents’ pursuit of high-quality life meet, showing a trend of accelerating high-end. Residents’ demand for service quality and quality is increasing day by day, which accelerates the transformation of service consumption from focusing on quantity satisfaction to pursuing quality improvement. For example, in the tourism industry, the order volume of holiday four-star and five-star hotels has increased, and the willingness and ability of tourists to spend high-end has been further enhanced.
Third, the development of service consumption meets the change of population age structure, showing the trend of younger consumers. The characteristics of service consumption largely depend on the characteristics of consumer groups. With the younger consumer groups, a new generation of consumer groups with "post-90 s" and "post-00 s" as the main body pursue fashion and brands, are willing to try new things, accelerate the rise of personalized consumption, and promote the segmentation of service consumption and the development of diversified consumer markets.
In a word, the new trend of service consumption transformation and upgrading in China promotes the service market to glow with new vitality and vitality, and promotes the model innovation of service consumption and the iterative upgrading of supply.
Digital transformation promotes profound changes in service consumption.
The digital transformation of service consumption is of great significance for releasing consumption potential. Digitalization solves the problem of information asymmetry between supply and demand, and both ends of supply and demand realize quick search and matching of supply and demand information through internet platform, releasing potential consumption potential; Digitalization realizes the matching of supply and demand in time and space, guides different people to spend at the wrong peak and time, and greatly improves service capacity and service efficiency; Digitalization better meets the needs of customers, and further enhances customer satisfaction by providing customers with more customized services. With the wide penetration of digital technology into the service field, the digitalization of service consumption in China presents two new trends.
First, the digitalization of service consumption has changed from a single breakthrough to full chain coverage, which has bred new business models. At the enterprise level, digital technology is infiltrating from front-end links such as customer diversion, online order and after-sales service to back-end links such as supply chain management, personnel management and operational decision-making, opening up front-end and back-end data to enhance linkage effect and promote enterprise management efficiency. At the industry level, digital technology is extending to upstream and downstream industries along the industrial chain, promoting enterprises to digitize all business processes such as material procurement, logistics, processing, retail, distribution and financing services, improving the efficiency of resource allocation through data integration, and forming a digital ecology of service consumption. For example, with the development of technologies such as drone distribution, Beidou navigation, and 5G cloud intelligent robots, retail links, including fresh food, will realize instant point-to-point supply, and expand the development space of new formats such as direct supply of e-commerce and unmanned retail. For another example, the integration of material supply is strengthened, the trend of seamless docking is accelerated, and the intelligent level of supply chain is continuously improved, which will greatly improve the collaborative efficiency of supply system. Taking the catering industry as an example, the construction of smart restaurants further promotes the traceability of agricultural products in smart agriculture, the efficiency of procurement and distribution in smart logistics, and the convenience of financing for SMEs in financial technology, which further promotes the high-quality development of service consumption.
Second, the digitalization of service consumption expands from the demand side to the supply side, and promotes the digitalization of the entire upstream and downstream chain. With the improvement of users’ requirements for service experience such as quality and efficiency, the digitalization of demand side will force the supply side to accelerate the digital transformation and promote the shift of development focus from consumer Internet to industrial Internet. At the same time, with the reduction of the application cost of digital technology, the increase of third-party service providers and the emergence of more successful cases, the willingness of suppliers to actively promote digital transformation is increasing. If we say that in the past period, China’s consumer Internet rose rapidly, forming a number of platform enterprises in the forefront of the world. It can be expected that the development of industrial Internet on the supply side will also breed a number of large-scale platform enterprises in the coming period.
Accelerate the expansion and quality improvement of service consumption
Accelerating the expansion and upgrading of service consumption is not only an important way to expand domestic demand, but also will inject new impetus into the upgrading of consumption structure and high-quality economic development. In the coming period, efforts should be made at the levels of supply, demand and system to encourage the development of new modes and formats of service consumption and help upgrade the consumption structure.
The first is to tap the potential of the service consumption market. Expand middle-income groups, give play to the backbone role of middle-income groups in leading the upgrading of service consumption, and make them the main force of middle and high-end service consumption such as education, medical care and leisure tourism. Adhere to the positioning of "houses are for living, not for speculation", accelerate the establishment of a housing system with multi-agent supply, multi-channel guarantee and simultaneous rent and purchase, and steadily implement a long-term real estate mechanism to stabilize land prices, house prices and expectations, promote the stable and healthy development of the real estate market and reduce the crowding-out effect on consumption. Improve the holiday system, implement the paid vacation system, and encourage holiday consumption and night economic development. Support the construction of consumption center cities and cultivate international consumption center cities.
The second is to promote the structural reform of the supply side of service consumption. Further liberalize the market access of the service industry and encourage social capital to participate in the development of the service industry. Further expand the opening up of the service industry and promote the deepening reform and efficiency improvement of the domestic service industry. Improve the service industry standard system, promote the benchmarking of domestic standards and international standards, and improve the quality of service consumption. Accelerate the deep integration of online and offline service consumption, and cultivate new consumption patterns and new formats such as online retail, online education, smart tourism and internet medical care. Improve the consumer rights protection system, innovate the supervision methods, and create a secure consumption environment.
The third is to deepen the digital transformation of service consumption. Encourage the digital transformation of different sub-sectors and continuously expand the field and scope. Accelerate the service enterprises to "use the number to give wisdom" and accurately solve the problem of capital shortage of small and medium-sized enterprises through tax deduction and financial subsidies. Promote the widespread use of SaaS and other systems in small and medium-sized service enterprises, so that more enterprises can join the digital transformation process. Give full play to the advantages of data and technology of service consumption platform, and build a "internet plus" service consumption ecology. Strengthen vocational skills training, improve the digital skills of service consumers, and enhance the digital transformation ability of service enterprises.
The fourth is to increase government expenditure on public services. From the international experience, in the range of per capita GDP from $10,000 to $25,000, the increase in the proportion of government expenditure is the most significant, and this period is often the accelerated period of service consumption development. In the coming period, China’s economic development is at this stage. It is necessary to gradually increase government spending on education, medical care, housing, social security and other fields, improve the level and equalization of basic public services, further enhance residents’ service consumption capacity, and expand the development space of service consumption.