Article · AI translation
IT Home reported on November 6 that the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the China National Committee on Ageing recently issued the Measures on Cultivating Diverse Scenarios to Promote Consumption of Products for Older Adults (the “Measures”).
The Measures state that, in conjunction with home-based eldercare services, products for age-friendly home modifications, health management, smart security and other purposes should be brought into homes. Community eldercare facilities such as community eldercare service centers and day care centers may, where conditions permit, set up outlets where older adults can experience, rent and purchase age-friendly products, promoting their adoption through community eldercare services. Eldercare institutions are encouraged to use their access to concentrated groups of older customers to offer trials, displays, rentals and sales of age-friendly products, promoting their use on a larger scale.
Elderly education institutions, meal service sites for older adults and other facilities serving older people that have the necessary conditions should be guided to incorporate settings for purchasing age-friendly products and expand their display, rental and sales services. This would enable resource sharing and coordinated services while meeting older adults’ needs for convenient shopping nearby. Localities should be guided to integrate and use existing facilities according to local conditions to develop a number of comprehensive service centers for older adults (Le Ling Centers), establish dedicated areas for purchasing age-friendly products, and promote the integrated development of such purchases with cultural and recreational activities, education, training and other services for older adults.
Localities with the necessary conditions are encouraged to select high-quality businesses and social organizations to set up age-friendly product displays in community public service facilities and use local exhibition halls, pedestrian streets, cultural squares and other venues to exhibit and sell quality products. The Measures call for expanding and upgrading 15-minute neighborhood service circles to offer older adults more places to shop close to home. Large supermarkets, department stores and commercial distribution companies are encouraged to establish dedicated sections for age-friendly products. Chain pharmacies and neighborhood convenience stores should be guided to expand their ranges of mobility aids, foods for older adults and other everyday products to make shopping more convenient. Commercial complexes and established shopping districts with the necessary conditions are encouraged to develop malls for older consumers, fashion streets for older consumers and “Active Living Spaces for Older Adults,” carrying out necessary accessibility and age-friendly modifications to create urban shopping environments friendly to older adults.
E-commerce platforms are encouraged to establish sections for older consumers that bring together quality age-friendly products for display and sale. Specialized e-commerce companies should be guided to explore developing online marketplaces for older consumers, with simpler interfaces and streamlined processes, to create shopping platforms specifically for older adults. The Measures call for integrating online and offline shopping by combining in-person displays and experiences with online sales and payment by family members or friends, among other approaches, to make it easier for older adults to shop.
IT Home noted that the Measures also call for major national science and technology projects to drive faster application of frontier technologies, including embodied AI, large language models, brain-computer interfaces and exoskeletons, in eldercare, and for the development and upgrading of smart devices for the care of older adults with disabilities, rehabilitation nursing and emotional companionship. They encourage the faster deployment, across various consumer settings, of health management products such as smart health management and intelligent rehabilitation assessment and treatment tools, as well as smart eldercare service robots for toileting assistance, rehabilitation support and daily care. These would provide older adults with smart care solutions for help with daily living, safety protection, health monitoring and emergency assistance.
The Measures encourage setting up different types of age-friendly product shopping settings to address older adults’ varying needs, improving display and trial functions, and offering tailored age-friendly solutions. They support using full-scale model rooms, augmented reality (AR) and other technologies to recreate age-friendly living environments and provide immersive, interactive experiences. They also call for trained staff to strengthen guidance before purchases and advise older adults on assessing their needs and choosing suitable products. After-sales safeguards should be improved, including regular follow-ups, responses to faults, repairs and maintenance.
Flexible rental models such as “renting instead of buying” and combined rental and sales are to be promoted, with providers of age-friendly home furnishings, rehabilitation aids, smart eldercare equipment and other products guided to offer rental services to reduce costs for older adults. Localities are encouraged to develop services for cleaning and disinfecting, inspecting and testing, and reusing rental products to ensure they are safe and easy to use.
The Measures call for an “Silver Economy+” initiative to foster new business models, integrate eldercare with the health, culture, tourism and sports industries, and develop services for older adults including health management, education and training, cultural and recreational activities, social interaction and legal aid, turning various consumer settings into multipurpose activity venues for older adults. They also call for using radio and television network platforms, service outlets, e-commerce platforms, short videos and other channels to share information about age-friendly products, policies on ageing, and health and wellness.