The aging of the nation’s society has sparked a fundamental change in the country’s consumer market, with demand growing for nutritional supplements and functional daily devices that help senior citizens live more comfortably and conveniently.
According to leading department stores, vitamins and other supplements along with health care products have become increasingly popular in Taipei, in line with the country’s growing over-65 population.
Dayeh Takashimaya Department Store in Tianmu said its sales of products targeting senior consumers have grown steadily in recent years.
That growth has been particularly evident this year, the retailer said, citing sales statistics at a department store pharmacy from January to last month growing between 7 percent and 10 percent year-on-year, with vitamins and nutritional supplements accounting for between 40 percent and 50 percent of total revenue.
Aside from nutritional supplements, there has also been growing interest in daily appliances catering to older consumers, Dayeh Takashimaya said.
The trend is not likely to fade anytime soon.
RISING PROPORTION
The proportion of the nation’s population aged 65 or over has gone from 8.62 percent in 2000 to 10.6 percent last year and is expected to hit 14 percent by 2017, according to government statistics and estimates.
Also, the country’s aging index — the ratio of the over-65 population to the population of people aged between 0 and 14 — was the second-highest in Asia last year, trailing only Japan.
Another major retailer in Taipei, Pacific Sogo Department Stores, said it has also felt the impact of the demographic changes. It said it plans to open more counters selling items catering to seniors because sales of such goods have demonstrated steady growth.
According to the department stores, the most popular items in the senior market are imported from Japan, whose society began aging 20 years to 30 years earlier than Taiwan’s.
The products range from rolling walkers and light, folding crutches to ultra-light walking shoes and necklaces with magnifying glasses attached.
The retailers predicted that commercial opportunities related to elderly consumers would become as ripe as those in Japan within three to five years and expected more products geared to this market to be introduced in Taiwan in the near future.
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