Author: Torsten

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How to grow your China „Cross Border E-Commerce“ with Amazon Gobal Store

Chinese consumers embrace E-Commerce. Habbits, intensity and service unimaginable in the west lead to a historic first: The retail E-Commerce sales in China will in the year 2021 account for more than 50% of retail sales.

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/global-historic-first-ecommerce-china-will-account-more-than-50-of-retail-sales

In this craze the cross border E-Commerce stands for reliable, high quality foreign goods. From a western perspective it is a good way to enter the Chinese market. Best known player is TMALL Global from the Alibaba universe. Typically brands test the waters with cross border before setting up a local store. But don’t think with Cross Border you can only target a very little audience. In fact, in 2020 1 out of 4 Chinese online shoppers buys cross-border.

Now, global retail giant Amazon found its way to participate. Their offer to Chinese consumers is the Amazon Global Store program.

Let us first have a quick look to better understand the Chinese consumer.

First lection: there is no “one” Chinese consumer.

Private photographs from my travels

China has many advantages growing your business, from a huge population to a giant market with common language, currency and laws. But the country and its people are very colorful and diverse. Think cold winters in the north (i.e. famous ice festival in Harbin) and hot tropical summers in the south (i.e. Hainan).

The growth comes from the rising middle class.

What unites the Chinese consumers is that they are all online savy. Nearly everybody is on WeChat.

This super App invented the “mini programs” some time ago. It is like an app inside an app. Quick at hand and with full functionality. Even Amazon has a mini program inside WeChat.

So, how can you sell to China using Amazon?

The Global Store provides Chinese customers access to shops from Amazon USA, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Vendors are enabled to establish a presence without the hassle of setting foot a land. Operations are fully handled by the local Amazon team. Of course you could advertise your German Shop URL to Chinese consumers. One way would be to generate awareness in WeChat groups. Note that despite other rumors Amazon is not blocked in China. But users would need to buy with an international credit card and in a foreign language. Plus the annoyance of taking care of the international shipping. All this is taken care of by the Amazon Global Store setup. Fore example your Chinese customers pay for their purchases on Amazon with WeChat pay or Alipay. Plus they get free international shipping for China Prime members.

To join the ride you need to sign a contract with Amazon China. Once done, they will help you advertise your products on the Global Store. As always, there is no such thing as a free lunch. In order to be found and to get users to buy some effort and budget is required.

Amazon offers advertising options but they are somewhat limited compared to what is possible in Germany or in the USA.

So, how to grow your sales on the China Amazon Global Store?

Key to success is to understand the customer journey in China. People do like to research products.

  1. Increase your reviews and ratings instore.
  2. Don’t just auto translate your texts. Keywords must be adopted to locally common search keywords.
  3. Localize your media and understand customer needs. Show “use case” pictures and videos with Chinese consumers, not westerns. Focus product benefits on local needs.
  4. Be visible on relevant other platforms. The trick to understand here is the user behavior. Users copy the title of the product detail page and look it up on other platforms like TMALL Global, WeChat and RED (Xiaohongshu). You need to work with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs), China’s version of influencers to boost your visibility.
  5. Pricing and Promotions are very relevant. Make a competitive analysis and understand what types of discounts are common, match your pricing to local market prices.

How to start?

At Chinawechatting we have made good experience boosting the Amazon shop. It is especially rewarding if set up properly before the big shopping festivals in China like the Singles Day on November 11 oder the summer sale on June 18th.

Our offer:

  • Introduction Workshop for better understanding the topic and how your company can benefit
  • Competitor analysis “on the ground” with teams in Shanghai and Chengdu -from Amazon Product Detail Pages to Baidu Search Results to RED (Xiaohongshu) Postings
  • Local experts in Online Marketing
  • Native speakers help you with the right translation

Please feel free to drop me an email at torsten@chinawechatting.de to start the conversation.

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#CHINA – DIGITAL INNOVATION BEHIND THE GREAT FIREWALL

Guest Lecture at Brand University of Applied Sciences Hamburg

In Online Marketing and E-Commerce China has achieved the transition from a “copycat” to a true leader in innovation. Let us peek behind the great firewall and let us take a closer look at the technology giants. China is by now the biggest and most competitive online market in the world.

What are the biggest current trends and how are brands leveraging them? From a technology point it is all about mini programs which can be used for nearly endless use cases. Successful brands use them to offer more advanced customer services and generate sales via live streaming. These marketing tactics will soon be coming to the west, i.e. Apple recently announced to introduce a mini program like feature to their devices.

Public presentation at Brand University of Applied Sciences Hamburg
When? 15 July 2020, 7 p.m.
Where? Zoom

External guests are very welcome. You will receive the access link after a registration under guestlecture@brand-university.de.

The guest lecture is free of charge and will be held in English.
https://www.brand-university.de/event/oeffentlicher-gastvortrag-15-07-20-chinawechatting/

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From Content to Commerce: shoppable ads for influencers

Shoppable ads for influencers could boost e-commerce by removing the clicks and steps it takes to go from content to commerce, says Kamiu Lee.

“Introducing shoppable ads for influencers could provide a huge boost in e-commerce by removing the clicks and steps it takes to go from content to commerce. With each click needed to find the product, a brand loses a huge percentage of potential buyers, so the faster the path to purchase, the better.”

“Influencer-curated content with a direct-to-shoppable link is also likely to drive better engagement than shoppable ads directly from the brand. This is particularly true on social, where the consumer expects and enjoys having a personal connection with the content, not feeling as though it’s purely a brand selling its product.”

Source:

http://www.adweek.com/digital/kamiu-lee-activate-by-bloglovin-guest-post-shoppable-ads-influencer-marketing

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Tencent Dominates in China. Next Challenge Is Rest of the World

“The WeChat app has almost a billion users, and many of them use it all day. So why isn’t the company everywhere by now?” Asks Bloomberg.

“Tencent has also tried to expand globally the natural way, by introducing its products in different countries. But some of the very things that make it a juggernaut at home have handicapped it elsewhere. Design, for example: Chinese users have developed an affinity for complex bundles of features jammed into dense, supersized apps. In the U.S., where there are different streamlined apps for booking movie tickets, ordering meals, reading news, and so forth, it’s a much tougher sell.”

“Perhaps Tencent’s greatest hope for overseas expansion rests with the increasing number of its Chinese users moving or traveling abroad and carrying the gospel of WeChat with them.”

Read more.

iOS apps by country and developer

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Cross Border E-Commerce in China

With the rise of E-Commerce in any industry and segment the next big thing is cross border E-Commerce.

China Digital and WeChat insights at macromedia Hochschule Hamburg

What is cross border E-Commerce about? Basically it is about selling into another country.
What are the opportunities and challenges when selling to China?
The team of Chinawechatting.de discussed this together with the international law firm TaylorWessing at the macromedia Hochschule in Hamburg.

China Digital and WeChat insights at macromedia Hochschule Hamburg

To enter a new market and to sell with success you need to

  • Know your target group and adjust product, price and marketing campaigns
  • Know the relevant players for E-Commerce and
  • Understand where the search traffic goes to
  • Understand the investment costs and setup time of different platforms
  • Understand the legal implications

Based on those there are different ways to enter the market.

If you decide to go full scale with TMALL etc or are on a tighter budget – if you want to play in China you need WeChat.

  • It is where consumers are, they listen and they buy
  • Ideal to build your brand
  • Take the next step and generate e-commerce revenues via wechat

Over 80% of Wechat users do shop online. But more interstingly. 30% of all WeChat users do shop on Wechat. That are over 250 million consumers. For example,60% shop for apparel – and spend 32% of their total online spending for apparel on WeChat.

To best leverage and grow followers…

  1. You need an official account
  2. You need Content & Emotion
  3. You need Advertising & Key Opinion Leaders
  4. You need promotional campaigns
  5. You need a WeChat E-Commerce

Conclusion – What WeChat offers

WeChat is #1 social media in China with 800m+ Users

  • Use WeChat to target your Chinese audience
  • create your brand in China
  • generate E-Commerce revenues

Get in contact with us to discuss more deeply how you can enter the chinese market.

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Doing Business in China – is your social media strategy up to date?

Social Media plays a vital role in a successful business – worldwide. Who is engaged in China already is aware that in China the social media channels of relevance are different to the ones known in the western world. Partly because some channels are blocked (i.e. facebook, twitter, google) but also partly because the Chinese incumbent channels are superior. Namely WeChat. With 806 million monthly active users (Q2 2016)-

Recently there is a lot of buzz around WeChat – not only for playing in China but also because Tencent, the company of WeChat, is a true innovation leader.  A good example can be found here:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21703428-chinas-wechat-shows-way-social-medias-future-wechats-world

 

WeChat is truly different to the channels westerners are accustomed to and hence requires a very dedicated marketing and sales strategy.

Or do you

  • Use QR Codes on your products?
  • Employ Bot-like keyword replies?
  • Integrated your online shop into social media?
  • Already have an in-app social media website?
  • Profit from the build-in loyalty programs?
  • Have a social commerce strategy?
  • Sustainable O2O (online to offline) approach?

If so, congratulation! 

If you are not too sure about 

  • what exactly the China team is working on and 
  • want to understand more and in detail what is possible and relevant with WeChat and 
  • how this can support your China digital strategy 

we should talk!
 

Foto-mit-Kragen-150florian@chinawechatting.de

torsten-sollitzer 150torsten@chinawechatting.de

 

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Presenting the China Digital Ecosystem to the Taipeh representative office in Hamburg

The ChinaWeChatting.de Team at the Teipeh Representative Office in Hamburg
The ChinaWeChatting.de Team at the Teipeh Representative Office in Hamburg

We were honored to be invited by the Taipeh representative office in Hamburg to speak about the digital ecosystem in China. A big group of Taiwanese Business men and women were attending to not only learn more about how to generate more business in mainland China but also to explore opportunities to export to Europe.

IMG_2350[1]In our presentation we laid our focus on E-Commerce and Social Media.

To start off Florian gave some updates on hot topics on Marketing Strategy and why social media must be a vital part of everyone’s marketing strategy. He reminded the audience that they always need to understand their target group and based on that find out what channels best address the target group. He shared two best practices of his work with Facebook and Linkedin.

Then we dived into the latest trends and mayor players in the China digital ecosystem.

We talked about Baidu, TMALL, Tencent, Weibo and WeChat.

How to best engage with Chinese consumers was one of the questions the audience was very interested in.

IMG_0012

What really left an impression were the insight on how vast the options with WeChat are. From setting up your official account growing your followers with campaings like surveys, lucky draws, votings etc to the final step of setting up an own E-Commerce store in WeChat. It is a very good option if you want to test your products in China or want to enter market with a tighter budget.

We concluded the session with a very interactive Q&A session – again WeChat strategy was the main interest – and would like to thank all participants for making this a very successful event.

If you want us to present at your event, please do not hesitate to contact us: grow@chinawechatting.de

IMG_9981

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About

| Digital Marketing Agency | About Us

Tolmao Group is a digital marketing agency, operating in Shanghai, China. We combine an innovative approach, creative thinking and a full understanding of today’s fast-moving tech world to market a range of services to the online world.We specialise, not only in creating a unique strategy for your business in China, but also in converting that strategy into targeted leads.We use all available digital marketing tools including WeChat, Weibo, LinkedIn, Baidu, KOL (Key opinion leader), Blog, Email marketing, SMS, Responsive web design services, as well as Event Marketing to grow your brand and build your business.

Source: Tolmao Group | Digital Marketing Agency | About Us

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WeChat is the most innovative social media app… and your gateway to China

We have helped many international companies with successful WeChat marketing campaigns. Our one-stop WeChat management solution will take care of all WeChat marketing activities for you, from content strategy to content implementation, and customized function development.

We will help you with:

  • Content strategy, creation and distribution on WeChat
  • WeChat follower interaction
  • WeChat campaign creation and management
  • Analysis and reports