We have said it many times, the younger generation in China is proud of its country and its heritage. Some clever beauty brands have already been able to tap that cultural heritage to appeal to young consumers. And this ability has only become more important now that COVID-19 has strengetend the desire of young Chinese consumers to relate to their heritage and traditions.This article outlines some great tips on how you as an International brand can use local cultural trends in order to localise your image.

Imagine if Netflix took all the costume and time-code data that it has for every one of its original productions and connected it with shopping functionality. It would mean that at any given time, a viewer could find out precisely what the person on screen was wearing—or what types of pans were used in an episode of Chef’s Table, for example—and then with a click, the viewer could buy it. Well, no need to imagine anymore, these functionalities already up and running, in China! Streaming reality shows with seamless shoppability have snowballed over the past six months. Read on to learn more about the players and the platforms that are going head to head in this competitive environment.

Fashion brands have long been struggling with the use of Chinese characters, or Hanzi. From luxury labels to streetwear brands, the fashion industry in the West has a long history of disappointing Chinese communities with the representation of Hanzi on their products. Even the fonts are an issue. The choice of fonts represents an important element in building the image, identity and visual currency of brands. But there is hope, some brands really do have the hang of it. Read on to learn who!

Have you considered Kuaishou yet for livestreaming in China? Now might be the time! Kuaishou 快手 announced on Wednesday it will invest 3 billion yuan ($424 million) to build a livestreaming e-commerce base in the western Chinese city of Chengdu. The facility will serve as a hub for brands, influencers, and the agencies that act as go-betweens. The announcement comes a month after Kuaishou signed a deal with JD.com to let its users directly buy products from the e-commerce platform within the Kuaishou app. That agreement also enabled Kuaishou’s “key opinion leaders” (KOLs) to choose and promote JD.com products to their audiences through livestreams during this month’s “618” sales promotion.

More and more countries open “National stores” on Tmall. After the Dutch, Russian, Belgium and several other countries already openend stores on Tmall Global it is now Thailands turn. The Thai government hurriedly opened an online “national store” to participate in the June 18 festival. Like other country stores this flagship store promotes Thai food products. So far TMall has opened flagship stores for 9 foreign countries in total. And this number is growing fast.

Anta, the leading Chinese sportswear brand, is determined to make itself as well-known and trendy around the world as Adidas and Nike. With it being named an official sponsor of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and with Chinese President Xi Jinping having been seen wearing the brand, it might be a race it stands a chance of eventually winning. At AgencyChina, we personally prefer Li Ning, but we can see why Anta is attracting more interest.

Will Hainan replace Hong Kong as a travel destination for luxury goods? China has set out plans to hike, very substantially, the annual tax-free spending allowance for its citizens who visit the off-shore duty free island of Hainan. The move would ensure that the Chinese—the most important buyers of luxury goods globally—will increasingly shop for coveted prestige brands within China’s own borders. The government, yesterday, proposed a new annual limit of RMB100,000 ($14,000) per person for tax-free shopping in Hainan, China’s southernmost province. The popular tourist destination attracts more than 75 million, primarily domestic, tourists every year.

Competition to win at the 618 Shopping Festival has already been in full swing for almost 2 weeks now. The mid-year sales promotion was created by JD.com back in 2004 to mark its June 18 anniversary, but has since been picked up by rival retailers and expanded into several weeks of splashy campaigns. And livestreaming is at the centre of it all. #Tmall is promising at least ten celebrity broadcasts per day through June 20, in total more than 300 performers will promote brands on Tmall. In addition, Taobao Live will feature broadcasts with more than 600 top brand executives to promote 618 sales. To compete JD.com announced a partnership with short video platform Kuaishou to pool resources to create a “short video e-commerce livestreaming ecosystem.” Could your brand leverage this new ecosystem?