Analysis of Consumer Behavior in the Context of the Digital Economy

Yanqiong PENG, Fang FANG, Fanxin LIU, Wenjiao LU, Kai GAO, Dan LIU, Mingquan SHA

Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Forestry, Jurong 212400, China

Abstract Under the condition that the digital economy model has penetrated into the consumption field, the consumer market environment is improving, the consumption structure is upgrading, the consumption content is diversified, and the consumer behavior is showing new epoch-making characteristics. But at the same time, there are also some problems, such as consumer privacy disclosure, and price discrimination based on consumer behavior. The future development of consumer economy needs the joint efforts of the government, the market and consumers to establish a new cycle of the economic system from top to bottom.

Key words Digital economy, Consumption, Path, Consumer privacy

1 Introduction

Since the 21stcentury, the level of digital technology with digital science and technology as the core in China is improving day by day, and the digital economy and society are developing vigorously. According to the statistical results of theWhitePaperontheDevelopmentofChina’sDigitalEconomyreleased by the China Academy of Information and Communications, the scale of China’s digital economy will exceed 39.2 trillion yuan in 2020, accounting for 38.6% of China’s GDP. At present, China’s domestic consumption behavior has been influenced by digital economic and social science and technology, such as big data analysis, artificial intelligence, mobile Internet technology, virtual reality, and Internet of things. By constantly changing the consumption connotation, consumption behavior habits, consumption behavior model or consumption behavior concept of Internet consumers, digital economy and society have produced new consumption phenomena, such as digital consumption behavior, targeted online advertising, and situational consumption behavior. This is the digital transformation of the traditional consumption behavior. To a certain extent, it activates the market vitality, increases the scale of domestic demand, improves the effectiveness of the realization of consumer behavior, and promotes the vigorous development of digital economy and society.

2 Characteristics of consumer behavior in the context of the digital economy

2.1 Increased uncertainty of consumption due to information jumble and asymmetryCompared with the traditional consumption pattern, the consumption pattern in the context of the current digital economy increases the uncertainty of consumer behavior. With the upgrading of Internet technology, the information increases exponentially, and the jumbled information that consumers receive in their daily life increases the information asymmetry. The supervision of e-commerce live broadcast platform is lax, and there are absolutely many kinds of goods purchased by consumers through e-commerce platform, which promotes the continuous increase in consumers’ impulsive consumption behavior, makes their consumption choices more susceptible to the influence of environment and language, thereby enhancing the bandwagon effect.

In addition, the current supervision of the network environment in China is not strong, which leads to the jumble of information in the network environment, which promotes the consumption behavior of consumers who are sensitive to commodity information to become perceptual and fall into the dilemma of choice, thus to a certain extent affecting the consumption behavior of some consumers.

2.2 Technology-driven consumer content personalization, customization and diversificationCompared with the consumption of the traditional physical economy, the behavior of consumers is relatively free in the context of the digital economy, with the characteristics of personalization, customization and diversity. With the development of new technologies such as network information technology, big digital technology and artificial intelligence technology, in the context of the new digital economy, the personalization, customization and diversification of consumer behavior have formed the development trend of consumer behavior characteristics.

Different from the traditional economic model in which we can only buy goods that have already been produced, in the context of the digital economy, producers will cater to the personalized requirements of consumers, and consumers can also make use of Internet technology to customize goods with characteristics. Making use of the characteristics of personalized consumer behavior can not only promote the creativity of consumers, but also force China’s digital economy to develop more consumer markets and new consumer communities.

The diversification of consumer behavior is mainly the diversification of consumer content. With the development of commodity consumption and service consumption, the consumption needs of different consumer groups are constantly met, and different consumer groups create different business opportunities, such as the consumption demand of high-and middle-income groups for new energy vehicles and tourism.

2.3 Increased demand for social consumptionFor a large part of consumers, social consumption is the product of social activities. Social consumption is a marketing model that uses social ecology to influence consumers’ shopping behavior. The main marketing means are: using online social media to communicate with consumers, or using key opinion leader (KOL) or community methods to communicate with consumers to influence their consumption.

As the young new generation of Internet users have become the main body of digital consumption, their quality and personalized consumption propositions accelerate the transformation of consumption patterns and drive the overall upgrading of consumption ecology. Under the influence of various social circles and social sharing forces, the emergence of social APP also provides convenience for social shopping, and consumers can make use of fragmented time for social consumption. China’s domestic social consumption demand is on the rise.

2.4 Higher requirements for quality and efficiencyDifferent from traditional consumption, consumers in digital background are not easily influenced by brand concept. They have personal judgment and are more willing to buy goods through personal judgment. In recent years, with the integration of intelligent manufacturing and other technologies into the production process, the quality of China’s domestic products has been improved, and high-quality goods are more and more welcomed by consumers. A survey shows that when consumers shop online, the price factor is no longer the non-main factor affecting consumption. The feeling of using goods is also paid more attention to by many consumers, goods should meet consumers’ expectations of quality, and more consumers are more inclined to pay for quality.

Efficiency is also paid attention to by modern consumers, and the (Online-to-offline) O2O platform is more convenient and easier for buying goods, so more and more consumers choose this model. For example, consumers pay more attention to the delivery speed of goods, hoping to receive goods quickly, and sometimes even willing to pay extra for it. In some consumer ideas, time is more valuable, and time is efficiency.

3 Problems caused by consumption in the context of the digital economy

3.1 Information security issues lead to consumer privacy disclosureIn big data analysis environment, the personal data, consumer behavior characteristics, market development and evolution, action traces and other big data information of online consumer groups will be collected, observed or analyzed by merchants, and will be found by search engines. The privacy of consumer groups has been exposed and they have even become "transparent persons" in the eyes of merchants. And consumer groups’ payment passwords, consumption passwords and any personal information that can leave an imprint on the Internet will also be exposed. The disclosure of personal information, the private use or transfer of other people’s information, the crime of obtaining personal information without approval, as well as some crimes also emerge one after another. At the same time, the "data sharing" management mode implemented among various platforms of consumers, operators and enterprises undoubtedly increases the personal safety and property risks of consumer groups.

3.2 False marketing misleads consumersIn the context of digital operation, the company will use big data to mine market trends and consumer behavior, so as to achieve accurate sales. However, false advertising is also very common, which is mainly based on the large-scale, high-speed, multi-dimensional and low-density characteristics of big data analysis, making the conclusion of big data analysis often contrary to the actual situation. And through the fictional presentation of goods or services, exaggerated way to spread information, enterprises will mislead consumers to make shopping decisions, so that consumer groups themselves are confused.

3.3 Accurate involuntary consumption guided by public opinion increases consumers’ irrational consumptionAlthough the digital economy can activate the market vitality of residents’ consumption, it also brings some negative problems. The problem of accurate consumption is particularly typical. Businesses use the analysis of consumer behavior to issue marketing signals to consumer behavior groups, so as to guide consumer groups to have shopping impulses, and there is widespread "involuntary consumption guided by public opinion". The functions of giving likes or rewards on Internet digital media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, as well as live commerce have catered to the greed and mind of rivalry of consumer groups, causing all kinds of irrational consumption that violates the actual needs of consumer groups, such as blind consumption behavior, catch-up purchase, and conspicuous consumption behavior. Consumers "buy but not use", which exceeds the level of personal income, resulting in a waste of public resources.

4 Analysis and hypothesis

4.1 Propose a hypothesisBased on the influence of digital economy on consumption behavior, this paper puts forward the hypothesis that the development of digital economy can promote the upgrading of consumption.

4.2 Set the modelIn order to study the impact of the development of digital economy on consumption upgrading, the following model will be set for empirical analysis:

CSit=β0+β1DEIit+β2lnDIit+β3DIit+β4ISOit+β5ERit+β6ISit+β7CPIit+εit

whereCSitrepresents consumption upgrading,DEIitrepresents digital economic development,DIitrepresents per capita disposable income,ISOitrepresents upgrading of industrial structure,ERitrepresents employment rate,ISitrepresents income structure,CPIitrepresents consumer price index,βnrepresents variable coefficient,εitrepresents error disturbance term.

4.3 Data sourcesConsidering the availability of the data, the sample data are selected from the panel data of 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2013 to 2019. All the variable data sources are:ChinaStatisticalYearbook, the official website of the National Bureau of Statistics and Wind database. The per capita disposable income takes 2012 as base period, and price reduction and logarithm treatment are carried out. The descriptive characteristics of specific variables are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Panel data of 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2013 to 2019

4.4 Regression analysisAccording to the benchmark model setting and the idea of endogenous problem solving, the benchmark model analysis and tool variable analysis are carried out. In the model, in the case of no control variables, the coefficient of digital economic development (DEI) is 0.084 3, and passes the significance test of 1%, which shows that the development of digital economy plays a significant role in promoting consumption upgrading.

4.5 Stability testIn order to further verify the stability of the regression results, the system GMM and POOL regression will be used to test the stability. The results show that except for the change of the significant difference level, the symbol direction of the explanatory variable has not changed, and the value of digital economic development (DEI) is 0.004 6, which passes the significance level test at 5% respectively. Therefore, it shows that the research results are stable, that is, the development of digital economy can contribute to the upgrading of consumption.

5 Consumption upgrading paths in the context of the digital economy

5.1 Promoting demand-side reform and unleashing consumption potentialThe new technologies and new models brought about by the digital economy have effectively promoted the optimization and upgrading of the consumption structure. Specifically, we can guide consumers to increase the proportion of consumption in areas such as online education through the application of consumer innovation and digital technology in the context of the digital economy. At the same time, with the help of the characteristics of fragmented current consumption time, Weibo, Wechat and other major media are used to expand the online consumption path and release the consumption potential of consumers.

5.2 Promoting the organic integration of online and offline consumptionFor consumers, it is very important to promote the organic integration of online and offline consumption behavior and promote the two-way acceleration of online and offline consumption behavior. At present, in response to the requirements of Chinese consumers to pay more and more attention to the purchase experience online and offline, Chinese retail industry will take measures such as technology upgrading, shared supply chain and fine marketing to increase e-commerce penetration and improve customer stickiness. At the same time, we should vigorously develop the "cloud shopping" model, so that consumers can accurately understand the current activities in season of shopping malls through the Internet, and finally form consumption behavior through online shopping portal.

5.3 Promoting green consumption and healthy consumption

The concept of green consumption is "health, happiness, quality, environmental protection and sustainability", which guides consumers to spend in a healthy and sustainable way. Green consumption is a new type of consumption that balances the level of economic and social development and the carrying capacity of the ecological environment, and will bring new growth opportunities for the consumer market. The second is health consumption, mainly using big digital technology, artificial intelligence technology and other emerging technologies to provide consumers who love sports with a more enjoyable and real life experience. At the same time, relevant companies can also guide consumers by linking their products and marketing activities with physical fitness culture and health concepts. In addition, we should promote a green and healthy way of life, improve the construction of mechanisms, and implement policies and measures that give consideration to both encouragement and punishment. At the same time, ideological education should be strengthened to enable people to develop green and healthy consumption habits and form a good atmosphere in which all people love green and healthy life and advocate ecological civilization.

5.4 Promoting the upgrading of online service consumption

At present, the proportion of China’s service consumption is increasing, and the consumption structure is upgrading. Some Internet platform enterprises combine with millions of offline store resources to provide online and offline services with the same price and quality. At the same time, it is necessary to actively promote the "digital" transformation of offline services, explore new service consumption patterns, and constantly meet the new needs of consumers. Therefore, based on the analytical technology of big consumption data, we must form a smooth consumption mechanism from both the supply side and the demand side, further improve the construction of service infrastructure and system, promote the healthy and standardized development of service consumption, guide small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their service awareness and make use of advanced innovation elements and new technological innovation service methods to continuously improve the service level, vigorously promote the development and improvement of manufacturing and consumption chains in key service consumption areas such as online medicine and online education at home and abroad, and take technological innovation as a fundamental force to realize the new demand for increasing service consumption, to achieve the layout of innovative economic development with the large circular economy at home and abroad as the main body of the market.

5.5 Promoting the construction of online marketing service system and actively guiding consumer behaviorThe starting point of marketing reform in the digital era is still customer demand. It is necessary to complete the reshaping of the marketing system with customer demand as the core, and win consumers by being close to customer demand and accurately perceiving the changes of customer demand. At present, the important content of innovative marketing service for enterprises is to promote the construction of network marketing service system, and to establish diversified marketing service models, including experiential marketing, one-to-one marketing, global localized marketing, relationship marketing, chain marketing and so on, in order to adapt to the actual needs of different consumer groups, guide consumer behavior, and establish the new marketing model dominated by marketing services. The construction of the network marketing service system is huge and complex. In order to ensure that the marketing service system plays its due role in the development of enterprises, and to better improve the competitiveness of enterprises, it is necessary to consider various factors for systematic analysis.

The future development of consumer economy needs the joint efforts of the government, the market and consumers to establish a new cycle of the economic system from top to bottom.