The current global financial crisis is obviously a major concern for consumers around globe. While consumer spending and confidence remains low around the world especially the US market how do Chinese consumers react and what are their expectations for the future? A recent national survey done by China Polling shows that despite the global slowdown, consumers feel more optimistic compare to rest of the world.

When asked whether consumers believe China will weather the economic situation better or worse than rest of the world, 70.2% believe that China will be better off, while only 8.4% believe China will be worse off. The remaining 23.6% think China will go through some tough time the same as other countries. But, Chinese consumers feel quite confident about its local market. As we take a closer look at some comparisons around the country, results show that consumers in Beijing have the highest confidence level at 73.7% who believes that China will be better off and Shanghai consumers have the lowest confidence level with only 56.3% believe, with 18.8% believe that China would be worse off. Guangzhou and Shenzhen consumers are also feel much less confident.

Powered by China Polling Real Time Stats, January 2009

However, 80% of the consumers think it’ll take at most 4 years to recover from current global economic downturn. With 46.5% believe such recovery would take place in 2010. Under such economic circumstances, 52.6% replied that they would certainly change their lifestyles this year because of the economic situations. But what are the things and spending they will do less of? Dinning out less is the first thing that they will do to start saving money, followed by entertain less and fewer purchases of home appliances.

Powered by China Polling Real Time Stats, January 2009

When it comes to weight quality against price in making a purchase decision, majority of consumer still regard quality as the most important factor even if they have to pay a little more.

Powered by China Polling Real Time Stats, January 2009

Though Chinese consumers’ confidence has remained higher than those of people in many other countries, they have started to react and respond to the global economic crisis, such as cutting spending and/or delaying and putting off major purchases. Less investing seems to be the choice for those who live in Shanghai and Guangdong.

Number of Samples: 226

Data Capture Period: 2009.1.1 – 2009.1.31

China Polling conducts Omnibus Surveys on an ongoing basis to provide continuous tracking of consumer trends in China. This innovative approach to tracking consumer behavior will allow companies looking to enter the China market to get the most up to date information about what’s hot and what’s not here in China. All real-time datasets are available for purchase online. Additional questions can be added into the Omnibus Survey and fielded at any time.