China Snacks & Condiments: Brand Innovation in Q1 2024

Newer data: China Online Snack Sales Rose 9.5% in H1 2026 as Volume Fell

Executive Summary#

China's online snack market reached CN¥ 36.81 billion in Q1 2024, up 22.1% year on year, while the online condiments market reached CN¥ 4.90 billion, up 10.1%. The two markets share the same growth logic. Content-led commerce is the main launchpad for fast-growing new brands, and the health credentials of ingredients are the main way products set themselves apart. Consumers, particularly young women buying snacks and family-oriented buyers of condiments, are asking more of brands on safety and on transparency about formulation. Two brand case studies show how this works in practice. Deboned Warrior (脱骨侠) is a boneless chicken-foot specialist that built its business in under four years through live-streaming by KOCs, and Buji (不集) is a condiment start-up that grew quickly within nine months of launch with a zero-sugar, low-fat positioning built entirely on health.

Snack Market: Scale, Channels, and the Gift-Box Surge#

China's snack market grew to CN¥ 36.81 billion online in Q1 2024, lifted by the first unimpeded Chinese New Year since the end of pandemic restrictions. Gift boxes were the quarter's standout format, with examples including the nut gift boxes of Three Squirrels (三只松鼠) and Liangpinpuzi (良品铺子) and Norvan's truffle chocolate gift box, which sold at a unit price of just CN¥ 38.75.

The structure of snack retail channels is changing quickly. In 2023, online channels reached parity with traditional offline retail at roughly 40% each, after traditional offline had held the largest share in every earlier year, while specialty stores held 14%. Discount snack stores, which put direct downward pressure on online prices, grew from 8,000–10,000 outlets nationally in 2022 to an estimated 22,000–25,000 by the end of 2023, and that rapid expansion is already shaping what consumers expect to pay online.

The snack category remains fragmented, with low concentration among its largest brands, and that leaves real room for new entrants, although the way in has changed. Almost every fast-growing snack brand in the quarter, among them Norvan, Zhenmo Fang, Jiangzhong Food Therapy (江中食疗) and Deboned Warrior, built its growth on content-led commerce instead of traditional search-based e-commerce.

Snack Consumer Profile: Gifting First, Then Self#

Snack buyers in Q1 2024 were mostly young women aged 16–30. In this quarter, gifting to family and friends ranked above buying for oneself as the main motivation, a seasonal effect that the New Year surge on social media amplified. The hashtag #StockUpForAGreatNewYear generated 920 million interactions, up 161.9% year on year.

Beyond the core gifting audience, five consumer segments are growing at the same time:

• Foodies and office workers, who buy for taste, emotional reward and novelty, such as spicy, sweet and nostalgic flavours and distinctive textures
• Fitness and weight-loss consumers, who look for low-fat, high-protein and low-calorie ingredients
• Functional and health-focused consumers, who look for specific wellness outcomes including gut health, anti-ageing and bone health
• Middle-aged and senior consumers, who put efficacy, safety and the integrity of the formulation first
• Expectant mothers, who need clean-label, zero-additive and functional ingredients

We believe the presence of both emotional and functional motivations in a single category is the central consumer tension that snack brands need to resolve in their strategy.

Snack Ingredient Trends: Where the Growth Is#

Ingredients moved from a compliance item on the back of the pack to the growth story on the front of it in Q1 2024. Nuts and roasted goods were the largest ingredient segment at CN¥ 8,200 million (+35.0% YoY), and food-medicine homology (药食同源) ingredients, monkey head mushroom among them, reached CN¥ 1,700 million at +101.2% YoY. Plant-milk and dairy-derivative concepts are smaller but growing faster:

• Soy milk (豆乳) concept: CN¥ 68.03 million, +73.3% YoY
• Buffalo milk (水牛乳) concept: CN¥ 19.75 million, +104.3% YoY

Breakout products in these ingredient segments include the Qingchengshan Baixuzhen Soy Milk Bread Roll and the Tangxiao Wheat Buffalo Milk Protein Bar, both of which use the ingredient claim as their main message to consumers in place of flavour or brand heritage.

Brand Case Study: Deboned Warrior (脱骨侠) and KOC-Led Category Creation#

Deboned Warrior, which operates under Zhuoxi Food and is headquartered in Hangzhou, launched in 2020 with a single-category focus on boneless chicken feet, and by Q1 2024 it had helped establish boneless chicken feet as a named online sub-category. Its bestselling products, garlic sweet-spicy and lemon sweet-spicy boneless chicken feet, combine the comfort-food appeal of a traditional Chinese snack with modern flavours.

The brand's growth came almost entirely from KOC content on content-led commerce, where 97% of its content is created by KOCs and KOLs account for just 3%. On a community-led social platform, 92% of its content is generated by consumers, which shows a brand that has earned word-of-mouth instead of paying for it. We believe this split, with KOC seeding to drive sales on content-led commerce and consumer conversation on community platforms, is a model that other snack brands targeting women aged 16–30 can repeat.

The Deboned Warrior case shows that a tightly defined product proposition (boneless, a single protein and two flavours), carried out consistently on one main content channel, can build a brand quickly even in a fragmented category.

Condiments Market: Steady Growth and a Structural Shift Online#

The online condiments market reached CN¥ 4.90 billion in Q1 2024, up 10.1% year on year, which is a more moderate rate than in snacks but one supported by a structural shift in where condiments are bought. Online channels account for 67.9% of all consumer condiment purchases, according to the "2024 China Condiments Industry Development Trends" report, which makes online the single largest channel in this category.

Within condiments, the split between basic and compound condiments is moving: compound condiments hold approximately 65% of the market, while basic condiments edged up from 33% to 35% between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024. Growth by sub-category leans heavily towards newer, more differentiated formats, with rice sauce growing fastest of all sub-categories at +162.0% YoY, followed by oyster sauce at +127.9% YoY and chilli sauce at +35.7% YoY.

Most of the fastest-growing new condiment brands in Q1 2024 used content-led commerce as their primary channel, and most of their lead products are compound condiments. The pattern we see is that new brands enter the category through flavourful, health-positioned compound formats and build their identity on the credentials of their ingredients, instead of competing on basic soy sauce or vinegar.

Condiments Consumer Trends: Family-Centric, with Health Gaining Ground#

Consumer reviews on leading marketplaces consistently identify children and other family members as the main reason for buying condiments, which are household products bought for family cooking. Taste, texture and portion size remain the main decision factors, while two newer factors are gaining ground:

• Convenience: in reviews on one major channel, convenience reached a 13.1% mention rate as a decision factor, and single-serve sachets, squeeze packaging and instant stir-fry sauces are the formats that answer this demand.
• Ingredient health: zero-additive, low-salt and zero-preservative attributes are influencing purchase decisions, and consumers' own reviews show the change directly: "The ingredient list is very clean, no additives. Everything I cook with it tastes much better."

Condiments Product Innovation: Safe Formulas as the Growth Driver#

Condiment products in Q1 2024 fall clearly into a large-scale, low-growth group and a small-scale, high-growth group. Spicy-flavoured products have the largest sales but limited growth, while the fastest-growing concepts are those built on innovative ingredients and safe formulas:

• Innovative ingredient concepts (cheese, truffle, parsley, matsutake, chia seeds, toon shoots): +92.8% YoY, the highest growth rate of any concept
• Safe-formula concepts (zero-additive, natural, no preservatives): +55.7% YoY, with total sales exceeding CN¥ 400 million

Individual products show the same trend. Low-Calorie Doctor Spicy Beef Sauce is formulated with 0 sugar, 0 fat and no additives, and Shao Shao Parsley Garlic Salt Seasoning, launched in March 2024, has built its appeal on a novel ingredient story instead of on price.

Brand Case Study: Buji (不集), Health Positioning and Speed on Content Platforms#

Buji launched through content-led commerce in April 2023 and within nine months had built a presence across the three major marketplaces in its category, which is unusually fast for a category in which many brands have decades of retail history behind them.

The brand's strategy is disciplined and consistent: every Buji product contains zero added refined sugar and is low-fat and low-calorie, and the portfolio maps directly onto the health and light-food (轻食) consumer segment.

Buji launched with KOL endorsements on content-led commerce and has since expanded to established marketplaces. Its expansion follows the route of other brands that began on content platforms, which build identity and consumer pull there first and then move to transactional marketplaces as brand recognition turns into search demand. At CN¥ 24.9–29.9 per unit, Buji's pricing places it as affordable premium, within reach of weight-conscious consumers who see the quality of condiment ingredients as part of a wider commitment to their diet.

Key Takeaways#

• Snack market: CN¥ 36.81 billion online in Q1 2024, up 22.1% year on year, with gift boxes the quarter's standout format and the expansion of discount snack stores lowering what consumers expect to pay online
• Condiments market: CN¥ 4.90 billion online, up 10.1% year on year, and online accounts for 67.9% of all consumer condiment purchases, according to a 2024 industry report
• Channel strategy: content-led commerce is the main channel through which new brands grow in both snacks and condiments, and established marketplaces are where they expand once consumers search for them by name
• Ingredients as the brand story: the fastest-growing product concepts in both categories are led by ingredients, with food-medicine homology, plant milk and dairy derivatives in snacks, and innovative ingredients and safe formulas in condiments
• Two kinds of consumer: snack buyers divide between those seeking emotional value, such as foodies and gift buyers, and those with functional needs such as health and weight management, while condiment buyers are focused on the family but increasingly influenced by transparency about ingredients
• The Deboned Warrior model: a narrow product focus, content that is 97% created by KOCs on content-led commerce, and organic conversation on a community platform built a brand quickly from a standing start
• The Buji model: health positioning on every product, a launch with KOL endorsements on content-led commerce and expansion to established marketplaces built a presence in a long-established category within nine months

About the Data#

This analysis draws on Moojing Market Intelligence (魔镜洞察) data on China's snack and condiment markets in Q1 2024. Market data covers three leading Chinese marketplaces, and consumer data is drawn from public social media data on major Chinese social platforms. Macro data sources include the China National Bureau of Statistics, the China Consumers Association March 2024 Annual Consumer Rights Theme Survey, and the COFCO Nutrition and Health Research Institute.