A Study On The "Pinduoduo Pattern" Consumption Behavior Of Middle-income Groups

Consumption plays a more and more important role in China’s economic development.Consumption policies,consumption contents and consumption patterns are constantly innovated.Pinduoduo,which is characterized by low price,has won a large number of consumers and developed continuously,including some middle-income groups.However,in public opinion,Pinduoduo has been labeled as "low-end","poor quality" and other stigmatized labels.Therefore,based on the consumer identity theory,this paper took the use of Pinduoduo by middle-income consumers as the starting point,collected data through interviews,and analyzed what characteristics these consumers show in Pinduoduo consumption,and why they consume like this.Through the research,this paper finds that consumers’ consumption behavior in Pinduoduo presents four characteristics: seeking low symbolic value,pursuing high use value,"impulsive" consumption and operating freely in a diversified consumption platform.This paper summarizes this as "Pinduoduo pattern" consumption.Such consumption characteristics are based on the duality of consumers’ identity.There are three reasons.First,affected by economic capital and social capital,these consumers agree that their social stratification status is not high,and then need to consume at a low price.However,affected by rational factors and symbolic value demand,they agree that their social stratification status is not low,and they cannot give up the use value and certain symbolic value of goods for a low price,that is,the identity of consumers has the duality of less than the top and more than the bottom.By constructing "low" price and "high" quality,the Pinduoduo platform further strengthens the identity duality of consumers.Second,when they consume,they reduce the consumption of symbols,that is,when the use value of goods is not damaged,they flow to various consumption platforms and select goods with low symbolic value to seek low prices.The dazzling and low-cost goods provided by the consumption platform also enhance consumers’ consumption desire and make their consumption quantity expected to grow.Third,in the whole consumer life of consumers,the commodities purchased by Pinduoduo do not reduce the consumption quality of consumers,but expand the consumption quantity.At the same time,Pinduoduo’s low-cost commodities provide the possibility for consumers to save money and expand the consumption of other commodities.Therefore,even if consumers do not achieve obvious consumption upgrading in Pinduoduo,their "Pinduoduo pattern” consumption is helpful to the consumption upgrading of the whole consumer life.