The transition from offline to online is usually gradual. But the coronavirus epidemic has pushed lots of offline retail businesses to the edge of bankruptcy, and many of them have to choose between going online or die. BESTSELLER Fashion Group China is one of the biggest fashion retailers in China, with more than 7,000 retail stores. BESTSELLER encourages all of its store employees to become an online salesperson during the virus period. Driven by the high commission, it only took 2 days for the Mini Program sales to exceed offline sales.

The movie “囧妈” (Lost in Russia) was gearing up for a big splash on the big screen, with 46M RMB in pre-sale tickets. But this Chinese New Year health concerns are pushing people to stay indoors during, and especially avoid crowded places such as cinemas. The production company chose to mitigate its risks and accept 630 million RMB from ByteDance to distribute the movie for free via Douyin and Xigua. This also meant they received the backing of the powerful ByteDance ecosystem to promote the movie. Douyin and Xigua promoted movie trailers and interviews of the movie, and Douyin influencers pushed the film to their fan, sometimes with direct collaborations with star actor Xu Kun.

The e-commerce channel, growing at an annual rate of 35%, is now the primary growth engine for China’s FMCG market, according to a report of consulting firm Bain. It has achieved high levels of penetration and become a core sales channel in subcategories. Using Alibaba’s data, Bain identified eight strategic segments of China’s online consumers that collectively account for 80% of FMCG platform users and represent over 90% of gross merchandise volume: Rookie White Collars, Wealthy Middle Class, Supermoms, Small-Town Youth, Gen Z, Urban Gray Hairs, Small-Town Mature Crowd, and Urban Blue Collars. Read more about these segments in this article.

Luxury brands are taking their runway shows to China in attempts to earn shares of this valuable market. When asked about this by Jing Daily, Claudia Verbost raised 2 questions. Whether these brands put enough thought into the choice of “online partner” for these ventures? They might be forced to choose between the giants Alibaba or Tencent, and possibly even Bytedance. Additionally, she wonders if the big luxury brands can adapt to the fast changing needs of a post-90s generation, particularly when it seems these younger generations are focusing on local independent designers. “Having only lived through the years in which China was experiencing double-digit growth and worldwide success, the Post-90s generation is proud to be Chinese and therefore also proud of the Chinese luxury lines that the country has to offer,” she adds. Read on for all pros and cons.

As the Year of the Rat is about to start millions of Chinese are starting the countdown to the Chinese New Year by watching the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, commonly abbreviated in Chinese as Chunwan (春晚). Every year, the Gala has a different theme. Sometimes, these themes are very clear, such as the “Chinese Dream” in 2016, or “National Unity” in 2017. This year the Gala seems to have an umbrella theme capturing everything from the celebration of 70 years ‘New China,’ the fight against poverty, unity among all languages and ethnic groups within China, and China’s important role in international society. The show even switched to one of Wuhan’s main hospitals to get an update from the nurses there who are spending their Chinese New Year night taking care of patients. A very inclusive annual Gala. Keep reading for summary of all major highlights.

Perfect Diary has been running a succesful virtual influencer-led strategy to gain private traffic. The fictitious Xiao Wanzi now even has a product line bearing her name. The line is being sold exclusively on her own e-commerce and makeup tutorial Mini Program on WeChat. The whole concept is build on the idea to encourages customers to join one of the hundreds of private WeChat groups led by the fictional Xiao Wanzi. Then, once consumers are in the groups, Xiao Wanzi shares special offers, new product launches, and beauty and skincare advice with them. Read on to find out what other tricks this brand has up it’s sleave to win over young Chinese consumers.

The WeChat Brand Zone is a specific area that shows up on the very top in the search result page when users enter a brand name (and related terms) that has set up their zone. It was first launched early in 2018 and provides great opportunities to build up the brand awareness and unique selling point of the brand. Not only product sales, official account, mini-programs are displayed compactly and neatly, but also the value-adding services are following up to enhance the after-sale side brand image. The latest update, relevant only for “A-level” brands is WeChat’s way of tapping further into the great potential in the Livestreaming – e-commerce business model. WeChat is promoting the native livestreaming booking feature in this brand zone update. Official Livestreaming can now be promoted in the prominent area in the brand zone.

Video-sharing site Bilibili on Tuesday announced a partnership with gaming giant Tencent’s music streaming platform QQ Music to promote and support independent artists. The partnership will allow verified artists to receive support and exposure across Bilibili’s and QQ Music’s platforms. Bilibili has been broadening its content beyond the anime, comic, and game (ACG) content it was known for to more mainstream entertainment offerings. As a major draw to users, music is increasingly one of its primary focuses.