A huge market has been established in China thanks to square dancing, an exercise routine performed to music in squares, plazas, and parks of the country’s cities by middle-aged and retired women.

It is estimated that 100 million square dancers in the country are creating a 100 billion-RMB ($15 billion) market.

Just go to e-commerce platform Taobao and search for key words like “dancing costume,” “boombox,” and “portable video player,” and hundreds of thousands of items will pop up.

These three items, which are closely related with square dancing, are responsible for 25 million RMB of transactions on Taobao each month. Based on a conservative projection, the sales volume of the offline market is thought to be 10 times of that online.

Portable video player for square dancing sold on taobao.com

Statistics by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba show that in the first nine months of 2017 people aged 50 and over purchased an average of 44 items online, spending nearly 5,000 RMB on average.

An Amazon report also suggested that consumers over 60 years old took up the highest proportion among the buyers who purchased foreign products with a value of over 5,000 RMB.

Though the market is obviously huge, it is not always easy to bring home the bacon. It calls for patience and careful observation to enter the “silver hair” market, because consumers in this age group have a variety of demands.

Costumes for square dancing on taobao.com

The population of Chinese people above the age of 60 has for the first time exceeded 200 million in 2013. Amid a new round of technological revolution, the “silver hair” market is also ready to embrace changes.

Smart physical exams, smart wheelchairs, remote health monitoring devices, and other new products are emerging, offering new experiences for China’s elderly population. Innovative services such as community-based cafeterias, household keeping, and even bath aid have also been created.

To meet the demands of the aging population will become a big task of Chinese economy.