Despite disruption to grey-market importers (“Daigou”), other sources of social proof, such as key opinion customers, influencers and celebrities are still critical for new brands to gain traction. Identifying, activating and collaborating sources of social proof is critical for new brands as they enter. AgencyChina typically recommend an activation runway of at least between three and five months before online launch, depending on how well-known the brand is in-market, and how well known it is outside the Chinese market. Yes, you read that well, brand awareness outside China is just as important as that inside China. When entering the market ti might even be more important. Want to know why? Contact us to talk to one of our experts!

You may have heard of China’s city tiers before, but are there different ways to think about opportunities across China’s vast geography? The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes”! Try per capita consumption, the ratio between personal expenditure and gross domestic product per head. China’s top 10 cities for per capita consumption are Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Zhuhai, Foshan, Xiamen, Changsha and Dongguan. The majority of these are in China’s south.

While sustainability awareness in China is patchy, a new generation of creatives are using upcycling to make breakthroughs in consumer acceptance. Meet Tong Jianlong, whose label Lowe Tong is made entirely from upcycled and discarded materials. Did you know our team of researchers, marketers and e-commerce professionals can help with sustainable brands in China? Get in touch to find out more.

JD Super, the online supermarket of JD.com, kicked off its Pet Life Promotion Week starting on Oct 10th with a series of pet products and services on sale, including the popular JD Brand Super Days. According to a Nielsen report on pet food trends in 2020, sales of pet food on JD Super increased sharply from January to July this year, far exceeding the average growth rate of other B2C platforms. Within this period, sales of the popular Chinese pet brand Wanpy rose 15 times. Other popular brands such as Natural Balance, GO! Care, Ramical, Orijen, Solid Gold, and MyFoodie all achieved 200% to 500% growth. Is your company or brand a Pet Market brand? Make sure to investigate your opportunities in the Chinese market!

Last month, Alibaba Group’s third annual Malaysia Week saw first-time brands performing especially strongly among the 200-plus merchants hailing from the Southeast Asian country. This latest edition, which was expanded to 10 days for the first time, took place across Alibaba’s Tmall, Taobao Live, Juhuasuan, Fliggy and Freshippo platforms, and opened with a livestreamed ceremony that drew 1.7 million views. The rising demand for Malaysian products comes at a time when an increasing number of brands and retailers from the country are tapping Alibaba’s ecosystem to enter or grow their presence in China, both for its sheer market size and its importance as a sales channel, especially during the ongoing global pandemic. Malaysia isn’t the only country that Chinese consumers are looking to buy from. If you have a unique product or brand from your home market contact us to find out what your opportunities are in the Chinese market!

The Chinese market makes up a large share of the global luxury goods market. According to McKinsey’s China Luxury Report 2019, Chinese consumers at home and abroad spent 770 billion yuan ($115 billion) on luxury items in 2018 – almost a third of the global spend. One of the major reasons why Chinese choose to buy luxury goods abroad is that China’s import tax system and brand pricing strategy means luxury goods are priced higher domestically than abroad. Currently, China taxes imported consumer goods such as garments and beauty products an average of 6.9 percent and high-end cosmetics by 15 percent. But tariffs for many luxury products such as perfumes and watches exceed 30 percent. But things are changing all the time, and so are the policies around duty-free. For example, starting from July 1, the quota for individuals making duty-free purchases in Hainan was tripled to 100,000 yuan a

In the post-COVID era, consumers are increasingly concerned about daily health management and the mutual influence of various sub-health issues and their own immunity. A recent survey has found China’s total healthcare product expenditure increased by 9.0% in 2019, surpassing the growth of overall consumer expenditure (7.2%) in the same period, while usage penetration of vitamins and supplements increased from 48% to 57% from late February to early May. Are you in the healthcare or food supplement business? Now is the time to enter China!

China’s movie theaters are still coping with limited capacity, but that hasn’t affected the turnover for IMAX. The company announced that they scored a record-breaking $13 million opening weekend of the National Day Golden Week holiday in China, a historically strong box office period that runs from October 1 to 8 this year. The figure marks IMAX’s best-ever opening weekend for the National Holiday, up 25% over last year despite a 75% capacity limitation across the country. IMAX’s strong rebound in China is led by “The Eight Hundred,” the first Asian film shot entirely with IMAX cameras, which earned $17 million dollars for the company and currently stands as the highest grossing film of the year overall.