The retiree also shares links for items with a group of her friends on the social networking platform WeChat, where they discuss and recommend listings.

“It’s exciting to find new items … It gives me something to look forward to every day,” she said.

While younger people were responsible for buying products for their older relatives before 2020, the tide has turned, according to a report released last week by e-tailer JD.com.

The company found that retirees living in major cities, with money to spend and plenty of time, were some of the most prolific shoppers since the pandemic, with over half of the goods catering to the elderly bought by users themselves this year.

In the first three quarters of this year, purchases by the silver-haired demographic grew almost fivefold year on year, with users focusing on leisure purchases, such as gardening supplies and package tours.

“Making sure your elderly are well cared for and your children are safe, is essential to the happiness of every family,”JD.com vice-president Feng Quanpu said, releasing the report.

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That demographic is expected to expand by more than 10 million annually between 2021 and 2025 by some estimates, growing the potential pool for goods and services for the elderly.

There are signs that the shift is already occurring.

The state-run China Internet Network Information Centre said over-60s accounted for the bulk of China’s internet user growth in the past year, with more than 123.3 million older users active online as of June. In March last year, about 6.7 per cent, or so around 60.6 million, of the country’s 904 million internet users were aged 60 or above.

Doris Fung, an economist at the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council and author of several research papers on older consumers in China, said older shoppers on the mainland were more socially connected and had begun to shift from offline to online experiences, particularly since the pandemic.

“Elderly shoppers go for online shopping as they would like to feel young and try something new,” she said.

But to really tap this market, online vendors needed to simplify their designs or offer user-friendly guides for their apps or websites, Fung said.

Liu Zengrui, director of the rights protection department of the China National Committee on Ageing, agreed, saying the business community needed to change the way it viewed older shoppers.

“Businesses should abandon their outdated perceptions of the elderly, and develop a more accurate portrait of this special consumer group … in doing so, develop a strong supply side for this economy,” Liu said.

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It is a point being driven home by the central government.

The 2021-25 five-year plan lists development of the “silver economy” as a goal and mainland policymakers have begun to implement measures to ensure websites and apps are more accessible to older users.

In April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published guidelines asking for “elderly friendliness modifications” to web pages and apps, including bigger fonts and a ban on certain forms of potentially misleading advertising.

There are signs that some companies are making their products and services more accessible.

Taobao, an e-commerce platform owned by tech giant Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post, launched “family accounts” in 2018, allowing younger users to help their parents pay for the items in their shopping trolleys.

Duan Mingjie, founder of the Beijing-based consultancy AgeClub, said these industry changes were heading in the right direction.

Duan said his clients were trying to break into the aged market – even during the pandemic.

“It’s important that they seize the opportunity now,” Duan said. “The elderly were long overlooked, but not any more.”