Text Mining Analysis of Consumer Preferences for Products Across Age Groups in China

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

As China transitions into an aging society, understanding the preferences of elderly consumers has become increasingly important. This study conducts a comparative analysis of product preferences between elderly and younger consumers by examining review data from Jingdong (www.jd.com). We collected 3,000 reviews for electronics, food, and clothing from both age groups. After preprocessing to remove duplicates and irrelevant reviews, we analyzed 2,897 electronics, 2,915 food, and 2,799 clothing reviews for young consumers, and 2,586 electronics, 2,598 food, and 2,899 clothing reviews for elderly consumers using Pythons Jieba package. The findings reveal that elderly consumers prioritize taste, price, packaging, and overall experience in food products, while younger consumers emphasize the purchasing process and satisfaction. In the electronics category, elderly consumers focus on sound, appearance, screen, and ease of use, whereas younger consumers value functionality, quality, and portability. For clothing, elderly consumers are concerned with craftsmanship, fabric, wearing experience, quality, and style, with negative reviews highlighting issues such as quality and size. Conversely, younger consumers prioritize fabric, comfort, quality, and style. These insights provide valuable guidance for tailoring product development and marketing strategies to meet the specific needs of the aging consumer market in China, with implications thatmay also be relevant for Korea.