China E-commerce market: The tool to reach chinese during COVID-19

China E-commerce market: The tool to reach chinese during COVID-19

Many countries around the world have begun to better adapt and cope with the COVID-19 epidemic. Some countries have vaccinated, allowing people to live without masks, but some countries still have to deal with the ever-fluctuating numbers of cases and it is impossible to predict how long the global situation will return to normal. The important thing is that the business world cannot wait any longer. For anyone who wants to penetrate the Chinese market right now, we have a way to invade China through Chinese E-Commerce market. Suitable for brands or businesses, both old, new, small and large through Social Commerce, which is popular at the moment to apply with this situation.

China E-Commerce Market, the world’s largest and growing market

Even now, there are still obstacles for international travel as the COVID-19 incident has not been resolved in many countries. The only thing left to help your brand or business reach the Chinese audience is through the internet that continues to connect people all around the world every day. In order to sell products to China through online channels, it can be done through various e-commerce platforms in China i.e. Tmall, JD.com, Taobao, Pinduoduo, Sunning and VIP. This fierce rivalry in the Chinese e-commerce market has led to a steady increase in the number of users from 610 million in 2018 to 749 million in the first half of 2020, worth more than US $ 2 trillion, or approximately 62 trillion baht.

After the arrival of COVID-19 in the second half of 2020, everyone has to have social distance in living and traveling, especially going overseas is getting tougher. These obstacles make the E-Commerce market grow rapidly in many countries, especially in China with a population of more than 1.4 billion people, resulting in a huge purchasing power in the Chinese e-commerce market. Many Chinese people have shifted their consumption habits to live on online platforms. Whether it is buying products, communicating or paying for services. While these are things that many young Chinese are already familiar with in their daily lives, COVID-19 is a factor that shifted Chinese seniors aged 65 and over of 156 million people to the online world.

Cross-Border E-Commerce Selling products abroad faster than before

For large businesses, China also has support for foreign businesses that want to sell their products to China through Cross-Border E-Commerce or cross-border trade by trading through Chinese e-commerce platforms. Buyers or customers in China can receive the product faster at a cheaper tax rate by having warehouses in various areas or cities In order to shorten the shipping time for the products that need to be imported to be sold in China to stock or another way round. The normal shipping time will take up to 15-30 days, or by air with much higher costs, but Cross Border E-Commerce helps shorten duration to only 3-4 days.

In 2020, China added 46 Cross Border E-Commerce districts to 105 districts and 50 more pilot cities totaling 86 cities, resulting in the current Cross-Border E-Commerce area. All 105 districts cover almost all regions of China, except only Tibet. Most are located on the coast of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Fujian.

Although Cross-Border E-Commerce has the advantage of being able to stock in that country to prepare for delivery, however, there is a downside to having accurate predictions of what will be put in stock. It must be a product that is likely to be sold and will not become an out-of-stock product, which may cause unnecessary expenses. E-commerce platforms in China usually have warehouses for businesses that are ready to stock products to distribute to customers within China more quickly. However, some businesses that are not ready to stock can still penetrate the Chinese market through the Chinese e-commerce market via cross-border e-commerce platforms by sending products over only when there is an order.

Social Commerce: a channel to penetrate the hot Chinese market

For those looking for information on Chinese marketing, everyone must be well aware of the strength of WeChat that surpasses any other platforms because it is a popular application that is necessary in daily life activities of Chinese people, recognized as “Super APP”.

WeChat continues to grow, implicating significant influence on the lives of Chinese people. Followed by marketing influence to better understand the behavior of Chinese consumers. In 2020, WeChat has reached 440 million daily active users (DAU), which has rapidly grown to 500 million accounts since the beginning of the year. It has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users (MAU) since 2019.

In 2020, it has been a golden year for WeChat, as many Chinese people are confined to their homes and have more time for themselves. Thus, they are spending more time online, and WeChat is one of the preferred apps. Out of 1 billion WeChat accounts, there were 330 million VDO call users, 780 million users update status on WeChat Moments, just like newsfeed on Facebook and Instagram, 45 billion messages were sent out annually, and 360 ​​million users were on WeChat Official Account. This WeChat Official Account is like a Line Official Account that allows brands to create official accounts on WeChat to communicate with target groups and customers.

In addition, WeChat has one more feature that provides convenience for marketers to conduct China online marketing. WeChat allows a sub-app, known as WeChat Mini Program, allowing brands and businesses to build their own online e-commerce store to sell products.

“WeChat Mini Program was launched in 2017. According to the latest statistics, there are more than 1 billion transactions on WeChat Mini Program a day, and by 2020, more than 100 million people are shopping from top shops and department stores on WeChat Mini Program ”

WeChat meets the needs of almost every consumer’s lifestyle and it has become the most used app for Chinese people. It is ideal for marketing because it enables brands to reach a large target audience, and communicate and speak to the target audience directly. You can close the sales through chat immediately when the target group buys products until they become customers. Brands can also create a WeChat Group into a small community for promoting a variety of topics or doing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to maintain customer relationships.

The advantage for marketers of Social Commerce on WeChat is it is a one stop service app, convenient for SSocial Commerce in every work process. from promoting, chatting, closing sales, after-sales services, building relationships, and collecting data for analysis to market and develop brands and businesses in a way that E-Commerce cannot complete.

If you are interested in online marketing in China for E-Commerce or Social Commerce, V-Click Technology is a marketing technology company that can help to support all types of marketing services needed. We are the first and largest international marketing service provider for Tencent. For Thai brands and businesses that would like to penetrate into different markets in different countries, feel free to contact us for more information or consult us at Sales@v-click.co.th. We have a professional team ready to support and plan your marketing from start to finish.