In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, China’s consumers are spending less time on the shopping process — but they’re spending more money on luxury and cosmetics than before, according to Chen Xiaodong, CEO of InTime. InTime has has 62 department stores in 33 Chinese cities.

A report from CLSA, surveying 2400 consumers from 24 Chinese cities, suggests trade tension between Australia and China hasn’t dampened Chinese consumers’ attitudes towards Australian products.

European entrants into China need to be aware that Chinese consumers don’t quite have the same understanding of ‘organic’ as customers in Europe. Although organic food imports to China have strong growth tailwinds, consumer education on organic propositions still has a long way to go.

No industry is safe from Chinese Netizen’s scrutiny. Not even Formula 1. During Sunday’s Grand Prix Bottas finished 14th, ending his chances of possibly becoming world champion. Afterwards a television broadcaster asked him: “If there was one day from 2020 you could skip from your calendar would it be today?” Bottas replied: “Today, yes,” then added jokingly, “or maybe the day when someone bought a bat in Wuhan.” Following heavy criticism of Bottas’s remarks on Chinese social media, Mercedes issued a clarification from their official account on Weibo. Read on for the full story!

Following years of success attracting outbound tourist-shoppers to stores worldwide and, more recently, seeing Chinese consumers shopping locally, Canada Goose recently announced plans to double its retail footprint in China by opening four new stores in the country by March 2021 (representing 60% of its new stores globally).

Germany, long famous for its beer, sausages, soccer and sedans, is now increasingly catching the eye of young Chinese consumers seeking premium cosmetics and health products. It’s happening thanks to a new class of digitally-minded German brands establishing a strong presence in China through e-commerce, said Karl Wehner, managing director of the Germany, Austria and Switzerland markets at Alibaba Group.

Last week our very own Michael Norris moderated a panel with Pablo Mauron and Maggie Fu, where they discussed all things livestream e-commerce. Michael posted afterwards: “What struck me was there are a growing number of examples where livestreaming is used for brand-building, rather than sales channel.” At present, luxury arguably leads the way in this “brand-building first” use of livestream. Read a short summary of the discussion on Technode.

If you’re really looking to use video content to engage with audiences, you’ll need a customized approach to each platform. Each platform has its own unique user base, different content quality expectations, and in the case of Bilibili, some cultural unwritten contempt towards other platforms. If you try and cut corners with your content strategies in China, you’ll end up with a bunch of savvy netizens hating on you – and that’s not a good look.