The Chinese market is an unmissable opportunity for brands aiming to expand: the explosion of the upper-middle-class in China will be the driving force for luxury brands, leading to an almost doubling of luxury spending by 2025, when Chinese consumers are expected to account for 40% of the global luxury market…
#BeyondCNY is a comprehensive report aiming to give you a deeper overview of Chinese Festivals, digital & social trends, and be on the right path of the Chinese consumers digital journey.
Chinese shopping habits differ from the rest of the world due to the tremendous reach of e-commerce and penetration rates of social media.
From this scenario is born social-commerce!
Due to the re-shaping of Chinese digital behaviors and an increasing number of sophisticated consumers, in particular from the upper-tier cities, and meticulous purchasers, from the rural cities, e-commerce platforms are changing their mechanism to face new customers’ needs.
The pervasive influence of Word-of-Mouth (WOM), the new tendency of Fear of Missing Out, jointly with instant gratification has led the rise of “casual shopping”.
Due to the unique digital landscape, China’s largest e-commerce platforms had to find a way to support brands with “Direct to Consumers” (DTC) e-commerce presence and it did it with the integration of social media + e-commerce = social commerce.
According to this general overview, we can easily understand that the 2 players of this latest EGGsist digital match, are traditional e-commerce vs social-commerce.
Let’s see together what social-commerce means and how it has changed the journey buyer and user interactions into e-commerce platforms.
Since 2014, e-commerce sales have more than doubled! The initiators of this rising in selling are:
the dedicated campaign during seasonal events such as Singles Day, 5.20, 11.11 and so on;
the increased adoption of digital wallet usage as Alipay and WeChat Pay, which are able to convey the user dedicated promotions,
and the creation of marketplaces for buyers and sellers integrated into only one platform.
According to WPP report, nowadays there are almost 650 million e-commerce users in China, averaging annual spending of CNY 6,104.
In the past 5 years, e-commerce sales have grown by 255% with a total increase of CNY 7,427 billion, this is mainly thanks to the increasing purchasing power of consumers but also to the usage of mobile digital wallets which have made the purchase journey a seamless experience.
China social- distancing ecosystem
6ways to distinguish social-commerce from traditional e-commerce
If a platform has one of all of these features it can be considered as social commerce:
During these days of in-store stalls, a lot of Italian companies are dealing with digital transformation but are them all well prepared?
The traditional brick-and-mortar business models are still looking for their “way” to embrace digital technology to boost efficiency and improve the customer experience.
What can we do to accelerate this transformation?
We can learn from the “Giant of Digital transformation”: China!
The Digital Giant, after showing a drop rate of over 80% in traffic in-store, during the peak moment of COVID-19, is now on its way to recovery. According to data, the resumption of purchases could accelerate in the next few weeks, fueled by a psychological effect that analysts call “revenge spending”.
Chinese people will take revenge from the period spent at home and will start doing frenetic shopping, starting from the domestic brands to the international ones.
How does digital transformation support China’s economy and what we can learn from it?
On March 10th, Simon Hu, Ceo of Ant Financial, revealed the Alipay three years plan on the occasion of the Alipay partner Conference in Hangzhou, China.
Alipay the world’s leading mobile payment platform has a new goal: to support the digital transformation of 40 million service providers across China!
The plan marks the role of the platform which is shifting from “financial services to an open, vibrant digital ecosystem that offers users a gateway into a comprehensive digital lifestyle, right in the palms of their hands”.
Alibaba the digital hands during Covid-19 China’s outbreak
Alipay, the Super lifestyle APP of Alibaba’s world, has launched thecontactless mini-program, incentive program which helps grocery deliveries, legal, medical advice, logistic and public services to fulfill various lifestyle needs of those who are living and working from home while minimizing the need for physical contact with service providers.
Through the contactless mini-program the delivery services have reduced, and almost eliminated direct physical contacts. Instead of being handed over directly to the recipient, fresh food deliveries and mail packages are either left in front doors or handed over specific collection points to limit the through traffic in living complexes of the numerous delivery services
An example is a medical sector, the mini-program offered by Ali health: a providing free medical consultation, adopted by Chinese provincial governments to track people’s mobility and regulate their movements based on an assessment of their potential Covid-19 infection risks.
“COVID-19 a time of disruption and change” (White Caviar, 2020 Report)
Alipay contactless mini-program is an example of how digital technology can be used to help service providers become more agile and respond effectively to the fast-changing market environment.
Alibaba’s live-streaming: 3-dimensional mobile & social shopping experience
Live streaming is the future of retail and e-commerce, it is a combination of media selling, Facebook look-like live and e-commerce in only one App.
Through live streaming session you can:
Attract the attention of the user, creating a reminder of go-live
Engage the user online offering them a coupon to join the session
Affiliate the consumers calling them by name during the live-session
Convert them in your client with a dedicated promotion
Live-streaming is the future of retail, which is the social mobile platform where you can interact with consumers while selling online your products and reducing the overcrowding in a store.
Look at the video to know more about it
Huabei 花呗- Buy Now Pay later service
To support business recoveries and boost “revenge spending”, Chinese consumers are choosing Huabei!
Huabei is a virtual credit card launched by Ant Financial that lets users enjoy instalment payments experience.
Huabei’s strength is to allow Chinese consumers to purchase goods and services with periodic payment, even abroad!
Alipay has managed to create a mechanism that allows Chinese consumers to receive credits, based on the number of transactions made with the platform itself, and then to use these credits to be able to make payments in periodic installments even at “0” interest rates.
These are only a few examples of Chinese digital products, we can continue citing the use of Big data on society, or AI (Artificial Intelligence),AR (Augmented reality) or robots to sustain the job of a doctor in the hospitals.
Joining one of the Chinese digital lifestyle platforms means not only to create immense value for your users but also to play an essential role in accelerating the digital transformation and unlocking more growth opportunities for your business!
Don’t give up on your business, choose your China contact-less solutions!
EGGsist celebrated the Year of the Rat 鼠 with an O2O Cocktail event!
This was an occasion to meet clients and partners and an opportunity to network and promote O2O (online to offline), a key strategy for Chinese digital marketing.
The event was held in the well known Deodato Arte Gallery in Milan, who thanks to EGGsist implemented Chinese mobile payment systems and joined the Alipay CNY Global Campaign to offer discounts and coupons to Chinese users interested in modern and contemporary art.
During the event, the street artist Mr. Savethewall performed a live performance in celebration of the Year of the Rat and the Italian jewelry brand Gioielli DOP, in partnership with EGGsist, launched an exclusive limited edition bracelet with a silver little mouse charm.
Vuoi conoscere tutte le funzionalità drive to store della Super App?
Acquista ora il corso In-store China Digital Training, dedicato allo staff del retail per massimizzare il fatturato dell’audience cinese nei punti vendita in Italia ed Europa.
Location: face2face in store
Durata: 2 ore
A chi è rivolto: Retailer, store Manager, Sales Staff, Trainers e Digital Marketing Manager
Prezzo: 500 euro + IVA (30% OFF per booking entro il 15.10.2019)
Alipay - Digital Retail Training
Are you an European retailer? Does your point of sales accept Alipay already?
Are you aware of all this Super App’s drive to store marketing solutions?
“Alipay In-store China Digital Training course” dedicated to retail staff interested in maximizing the in-store revenues and attract the Chinese audience in Europe and Italy.
Location: face2face in store
Durata: 2 hours
Dedicated to: Retailer, Store Manager, Sales Staff, Trainers, and Digital Marketing Manager
Price: 500 euro + VAT (30% OFF for booking by 15.10.2019)
