Retail

Virtual meetings and a strong social media presence can help build relationships in a market that has traditionally relied heavily on face-to-face meetings When James Love was looking to expand his client roster to gain some Chinese clients, he bypassed the big cities of Beijing and Shanghai. Instead, the partner at law firm Womble Bond Dickinson took the initiative and reached out to 16 businesses in China’s smaller second-tier cities. …

Influencers are no longer an additional marketing tool, they are a must-have for brands in China. Three influencers share their insights with Adam Knight of Tong Digital  Once confined to amateur-level content, influencers are increasingly able to make a living creating paid promotional content, with over 20,000 influencers now having amassed more than 1 million followers on Weibo. The huge potential of influencer-led marketing is evident from success stories of …

What are the key characteristics of China’s huge and diverse female consumers base, asks Alexandra Kimmons When it comes to China’s female consumers there is no singular female demographic, explains CBBC‘s retail and e-commerce business advisor Pearl Zhu. “Women’s spending habits differ based on a wide variety of factors – marital status, location, degree of financial independence, social media engagement, working schedule…” she explains. These different factors result in very …

China has become a trailblazer in the field of social commerce in recent years, enabling brands to reach a huge network of customers and become overnight sensations, writes Alexandra Kimmons China has become a trailblazer in the field of social commerce in recent years, with 89% of urban consumers in China already using social commerce, a figure that is predicted to rise. This has enabled some companies to see sales …

Dr Laurie Underwood and Professor Juan Antonio Fernandez first collaborated back in 2006 to publish China CEO: Voices of Experience. Fernandez is the Associate MBA Dean at CEIBS in Shanghai and Underwood the Academic Communications Coordinator at International Business School Suzhou (XJTLU). Now they’ve reunited to conduct an extensive series of interviews nearly 15 years later, and the result is China CEO II: Voices of Experience from 25 Top Executives …

China often leads the world when it comes to establishing marketing trends. The annual Totem Marketing Report provides a hugely insightful and detailed overview of what trends we can expect to witness over the coming year. We’ve picked out five that we expect will impact the way brands market in China. 1. Key Opinion Leaders will give way to Key Opinion Consumers  KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) are individuals that brands …

Jack Porteous from cross-border e-commerce company Samarkand Global examines how the Covid-19 pandemic will affect China’s retail sector, from even faster e-commerce growth to a rising focus on healthy living Acceleration of new technology in e-commerce Some argue that SARS sowed the early seeds of much of the e-commerce innovation that came in its aftermath. JD nearly closed down after its stores, originally to be found in shopping malls, nearly …

You don’t need to use a Chinese e-commerce platform to reach a large audience in China, as long as you follow these steps, including setting up Chinese payment methods like Alipay and making sure you have the right customs clearances Over the last few decades, the ways and means for British companies to tap into the billion customers of China has evolved rapidly. Originally, local partners would be found to …

By Paul French In his book, China’s Millennials: The Want Generation, Kansas City native Eric Fish draws on his years spent working as a teacher and journalist in China to examine the country’s complicated younger generation. Through extensive interviews with young workers and recent graduates, Fish introduces us to the generation that was born during the 1980s and ‘90s. This is a generation born into a China that is very …

These are the five steps needed to build a successful e-commerce business in China The Chinese e-commerce sector has experienced unrivalled development in the last decade, turning China into the largest online marketplace in the world. Online retail, for fashion, groceries and even cars, is becoming part of local consumers’ daily habits thanks to an always-on smartphone-focused approach. It is, therefore, no coincidence that brands and retailers from all over …