The multinational Chinese company Alibaba Group and the Fung Retailing, the retail business of the Fung Group, announced a strategic partnership last week. This collaboration will be built on the strengths of both parties in online and offline retailing, since Alibaba has over 600 million users while Fung Retailing has a network of over 3000 stores in Europe and Asia. The deal that was signed at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in the beginning of this month aims to meet the increasing demand and the constantly changing needs of Chinese consumers. Furthermore, this partnership will contribute to better serve international brands and small business by utilizing Fung Retailing’s global portfolio of brands.
In the category: unexpected collaborations, Louis Vuitton and Mobike have partnered up for a Location Based Services campaign. The campaign is aimed at promoting the historical exhibition of Louis Vuitton in Shanghai. Users of Mobike will see the ad for the exhibition when opening the APP and even the icons of the bikes have been customized. The core mechanism of LBS is that it will automatically recognize the current location of the user, and inform them of the events in surrounding areas, where to sign up, acquire the virtual badges of the brand, and participate in certain events. Although we doubt this is the first LBS campaign Mobike does, this case is an interesting example of how brands and tech companies are finding each other in co-branded efforts.
China became the world’s largest online retail market in 2013 and has continued growing year after year, as last week’s Alibaba’s Singles’ Day has indicated. Despite the exponential growth, the industry’s development has long been plagued by shady business practices from selling counterfeits to “brushing” of orders, the uncontrolled business practice aimed at crippling competitors by creating fake orders. Thus, to control and bring discipline to the Chinese e-commerce, the government has approved a new Electronic Commerce Law that will take effect on January 2019. The new regulations broaden the definition of e-commerce operators. Previously these only included regular e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD but will now also include non-traditional channels such as WeChat and Douyin. It will require unregistered online vendors to get approval from the regulatory authorities before selling which helps protect customer-rights and will improve the online shopping experience.
The first China International Import Expo (CIIE), hailed as symbol of China opening up, was held from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10, 2018 in Shanghai. During the expo Chinese firms signed import deals worth more than 57.8 billion US dollars which included sectors such as smart manufacturing, consumer goods, food and agricultural products and services.
However, business figures said that many of the deals had been agreed in advance and only announced at the event to dress up the overall numbers. Furthermore, some deals would have gone ahead even without the expo. This could point to the government’s intentions of merely using the event to enhance its image as a powerful global buyer.
The Singles’ Day event has grown into the world’s largest online shopping festival. The total revenue of 2018 represents a 27% increase from 2017 setting a new record with $30.8 billion in sales. However, this represent the lowest-ever annual growth rate for the event which might be a consequence of the economic downturn that hit China and it might be indicating that the shopping day is hitting it’s ceiling. This year, merchants from over 200 countries participated in the tenth edition of November 11 shopping festival. Some of the fastest growing categories by GMV were health supplements, small home appliances and skincare.
Short video apps, such as China’s Douyin, have become an important marketing tool targeting the short attention spans of Gen-Z consumers. Douyin seems to be one of the most conducive for comments and engagement among the Chinese social media platforms.
Beijing-based key opinion leader (KOL) Antoine Bunel suggest that brands should strike a balance between creating catchy, striking content that communicates a brand’s image without being too brand or logo-heavy. It is also important to remind that Douyin is now a hot platform, however in China trends are constantly changing. So, don’t put all your eggs in one basket and diversify your presence in Chinese social medias.
WeChat dominance in China’s mobile space has been declining. According to a recent report, the average read count of articles published on WeChat decreased 24 percent in 2017 from the previous year; the average open rate for articles has fallen to under 5 percent in 2017; and the share of mobile time consumers spent on WeChat decreased from 28 percent in 2017 to 23 percent in 2018.
These trends indicate that it is necessary for brands to re-evaluate their strategies on the platform. Investing in WeChat without clear objectives and strategies may lead to huge disappointments and monetary losses, so it is necessary to understand how WeChat is able to help you address your business needs. Prioritize audience engagement over follower acquisition and pay attention to community development are some good tips. And our favourite tip, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, especially in China where there are so many platforms to diversify your presence with!
Knowing every customer and being able to communicate with them anytime & anywhere have always been the goal for companies. With Social CRM (SCRM), this is no longer a trouble. In short, SCRM is the use of social media for organizations to engage customers. Companies use the tool to dig out customer information and online behaviour. This information is used for personalized communication later.
What’s more, SCRM not only allows you to follow your online shoppers along their journey, but also be there for your offline shoppers whenever and wherever. Let’s look at how it works.
Know the very details about your customers
With SCRM, your knowledge about customers is no longer just the basics (e.g. gender or date of birth). Nonetheless, you are able to know every aspect of their life! For example, if someone post a selfie on Weibo with the location ‘Great wall’, your SCRM will immediately recognize and mark down the location as ‘Beijing’. Moreover, your knowledge of your customer also extends to the people in his/her network. For instance, if a lot of people in the person’s network ‘liked’ a post of a Christmas party, then it’s very likely that your customer is also interested in attending this party.
Nurture interest
Now that you already know the details about your audiences. It’s time to be the little fairy who offers each person exactly what they want.
With the information stored in your SCRM, you are able to personalize content for your readers based on their labels. For example, send your store information in Beijing to the person who just posted a picture at the Great Wall. Similarly, you can also personalize your website for different viewers: show winter jackets for those who are living in the cold north; and sweaters for those living in the warm south.
Strengthen loyalty & expect more
Once someone’s interest has been fully nurtured and made a purchase, it’s time to strengthen his/her loyalty and expect repeated purchases. With SCRM, an email is triggered real-time as an order confirmation and a thank you note. What’s more, product recommendation should also be included in the email to attract further purchase. The recommendation could be based on previous purchase (e.g. supplementary good), location (special promotions going on in the city where the person lives) or any other attribute that could intrigue them.
Remind your customers as if they are gold fishes
It’s common that someone check out on a product (or add it to the shopping cart) and forgets about it. With SCRM, a remarketing campaign will be triggered to remind the person of his/her view history. In the ad, you can also provoke the purchase by showing that his/her friends are also interested in the same product. If the person still leaves the product behind, send a text message to offer a special deal on the abandoned order.
Not online? Follow wherever your customers are!
Of course we don’t want to miss out on those who prefer to shop in offline stores. SCRM enables to you to follow your customers when they are walking on the street. With the beacons, you are able to trigger an SMS/Wechat message when someone is close to your store and invite him/her for a visit. What’s more, you can also include a coupon in this message to further motivate this person to come.
The main platforms used by B2B KOLs around the world are different. While in the west influencers usually use LinkedIn, email lists and podcasts, in China that is very different. Popular platforms used in China for B2B KOLs are Zhihu, Ximalaya FM and Zhishi Xingqiu. Each platform has its own distinct features and serves a different purpose, however all of them enable leaders to monetize their expertise. In China, this trend even has its own name: 知识付费 or “Pay-for-Knowledge”
Daigou is an overseas personal shopper that brings anything from vitamins to luxuries goods to Mainland China. Chinese consumers love them because they can buy products at lower prices that might not even be available in China. But most brands detest daigou as they undercut their traditional sales and spread their branding with rogue messaging. And then there is the Chinese government, they too would prefer legitimate cross border commerce over the daiguo trade. That is why they will implement another round of rules and regulations in 2019 to suppress this grey market.
This could be tricky for those brands that did actually work with daiguo and have build their entire China strategy on these foot soldiers. Even though it is a powerful marketing and advocacy channel, putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea in China.
