This Year's Consumer Trend is 'INSIDE'... Focusing on 'The Inner Me'

Preference for 'Me-Centered Consumption' Including Personal Taste, Data, and Convenience
Young Taste and Spending Power of 'Yojum Senior' Also Draw Attention

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Shinhan Card has presented 'INSIDE' as the domestic consumption trend for this year. INSIDE stands for Indolent consumption (I), Life curation (N), My data collector (S), Popup economy (I), Digital healing (D), and Young-taste seniors (E).

On the 15th, Shinhan Card stated that as more people focus solely on themselves amid rapidly changing environments, such consumption phenomena are expected to spread.

First, Shinhan Card predicted that services catering to the indolent, such as household agency services and errand services that reduce labor, as well as time-saving services like meal kits and drive-thrus, will become more active.

In fact, an analysis by Shinhan Card of customer and transaction growth rates at fast-food drive-thru stores in 2018 and 2019 showed that while customers at regular stores increased by 1%, those using drive-thru stores increased by 6%. The number of transactions also rose by 2% at regular stores but by 9% at drive-thru stores.

Additionally, services for the simplifiers are expected to grow, including news and book/movie summary content that highlight only the essentials for faster consumption of educational and entertainment content, and skip-care that reduces complicated skincare steps.

Shinhan Card also focused on the phenomenon where people curate their entire lifestyle beyond simply purchasing products that match their tastes, expressing their individuality through this. Representative examples include ultra-personalized services such as customized nutritional supplement subscription services and in-home personal training services that can precisely tailor individual preferences, consumption time, place, and situations.

Moreover, as hobbies and tastes become means of self-expression, recommendation services utilizing experts and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are expected to grow. The omakase course, once focused on Japanese cuisine, is expanding into various culinary fields including Chinese, Korean, and desserts, while AI recommendation services are being applied to diverse areas such as fashion, books, and insurance.

Furthermore, with increased awareness of personal data protection, a trend is emerging where individuals directly collect, manage, and actively utilize their own data in daily life. Following the passage of the Data 3 Act, the my data sector is expected to be activated. As the purpose of individual data collection becomes more sophisticated, environments are being created where data can be collected and managed across various fields including finance, leisure, and hobbies, beyond health-centered data management.

The 'popup economy' consumption culture, which assigns premium value to rare experiences and opens wallets without hesitation, is also expected to strengthen. An analysis of changes in usage amounts and transaction counts of major popup intermediary platforms that plan popup markets or rent spaces showed that, based on credit card usage, from the first quarter of 2018 to the third quarter of last year, usage amounts grew by an average of 14% per quarter, and transaction counts grew by an average of 17% per quarter.

Additionally, popup communities formed for exercising or reading together saw a 349% increase in transactions last year compared to 2018. Unlike the early stage when most users were in their 20s, the proportion of users in their 30s rose from 21% to 49%, more than doubling, and the average transaction amount per use also grew by 60%.

As the importance of mental health as well as physical health rises, services for caring for the mind are diversifying. With mobile and smart devices dominating daily life, ways of managing the mind are also becoming digitalized.

Anonymous non-face-to-face services such as meditation and psychological counseling applications and compliment communities for self-esteem recovery are emerging, increasing movements to gain empathy from others and enhance individual resilience. Also, playful content featuring candid, raw characters like Jang Sung-kyu, as well as vicarious satisfaction content such as mukbang and vlogs, are gaining great popularity on YouTube channels, providing small comforts to modern people.

Finally, Shinhan Card paid attention to lively seniors with young tastes, that is, the 'modern seniors' who enjoy their lives with youthful tastes and purchasing power. Age boundaries are disappearing with ageless brands leading the fashion industry and senior models aged 60 and above appearing, while senior influencers like Grandma Park Mak-rye and Grandpa Yeo Yong-gi are gaining popularity.

In fact, an analysis by Shinhan Card of age proportions by industry between 2016 and 2019 showed that the proportion of customers aged 50 and above increased by more than 5 percentage points in lifestyle sectors such as clothing (SPA brands) and online shopping, leisure sectors such as billiard halls and travel agencies, and beauty sectors such as skincare and plastic surgery. Music and video streaming services also saw a 60% increase in usage amount among those aged 50 and above last year compared to 2016, which is 11 percentage points higher than the 49% increase among those under 50.

The Shinhan Card Big Data Research Institute said, "As people seek to live the lives they want without following others' standards, it is becoming increasingly important to look at the consumer's inner self (INSIDE). We will continue to discover new consumption areas in line with evolving consumption trends and expand advanced lifestyle services that meet diversified market needs."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.