E-tailers, are you ready for China’s Singles Day?

In less than one month, it is China’s Singles Day. What is so significant about this huge day of shopping extravaganza in China on 11th November? Below are a few stats from Tmall, China’s largest e-commerce platform, on the singles day last year.

  • 1 min 12 secs – £100m in sales achieved
  • 12 mins 28 secs – £1bn in sales achieved

Whilst China’s Singles Day completely dwarfed Black Friday in the US, many e-tailers in the UK are not prepared for it. Speaking to some independent e-tailers at a recent conference, many started their approach with that telling phrase ‘we would love to target China, but…’

It has never been easier for British e-tailers to sell to China. For companies big enough to establish their e-commerce business as an entity in China, organisations like DIT or CBBC have specialist advisers who can help. There are also many third party cross border Chinese e-commerce platforms that British brands can sell on such as Tmall Global, vip.com, loft etc., which our agency and a small number of other companies can provide assistance with. Even if you are just trying out the market and would prefer to sell to China via your own website, there are plenty of channels to market your websites to Chinese consumers.

E-tailers, are you ready for China’s Singles Day?

Whichever way you are going to target Chinese consumers, a few quick tips below:

  • Protect your IP and register your dot cn domain
  • Decide how you want to sell to China
  • Review your UI and UX and have a China friendly website
  • Find the right Chinese payment system
  • Have your Chinese social media ready
  • Adopt an agile digital marketing strategy for China

To a certain extent, all the quick pointers above are something any successful e-tailer would do for their home market anyway. Targeting Chinese consumers is no different. Choosing the right sales channel for your Chinese marketing is more important than one might think. Unlike selling on platforms in the West, which only require a relatively simple registration process, different Chinese platforms have different requirements on logistic arrangements, and localised customer service. The different payment systems have different implications to your cashflow, as payment thresholds for repatriating money back to your company differ as do the percentage fees charged.

Getting traffic to your website is one of the more fun things to do. However, if you are trying to target all 1.3 billion Chinese people at once, you will end up targeting none in particular. Who will buy your products from China? What are their demographics? Would they be from a first or second tier Chinese city? Can their credit cards purchase from websites outside of China? Have you thought of targeting the Chinese international students in the UK with high disposable income?

The answers to the questions above will influence how and where you spend your marketing budget, and determine how successful your e-commerce business is in China. With Singles Day just round the corner, the market leader Tmall is predicted to smashed last year’s £9bn sales, e-tailers who want to target Chinese consumers’ interest in British products and take advantage of the week pound should act soon.

You can follow me on Twitter @Benny_Hui

 

About Ben Hui

Ben is the Managing Director of UKC Company, a full service marketing agency with extensive experience working with brands and businesses targeting the Chinese market. As a speaker, Ben has been invited to speak at Liverpool in China, China Business Awards, KPMG, JCI Manchester, Lloyd Piggott and Lancaster University InfoLab21 on subjects about the Chinese market. He is the author of 2014 UK Chinese International Student Accommodation Survey and has contributed insight articles for the CBBC monthly magazine and Air France / KLM Club China magazine.

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14/10/2016

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In less than one month, it is China’s Singles Day. What is so significant about this huge day of shopping extravaganza in China on 11th November? Below are a few stats from Tmall, China’s largest e-commerce platform, on the singles day last year.

  • 1 min 12 secs – £100m in sales achieved
  • 12 mins 28 secs – £1bn in sales achieved

Whilst China’s Singles Day completely dwarfed Black Friday in the US, many e-tailers in the UK are not prepared for it. Speaking to some independent e-tailers at a recent conference, many started their approach with that telling phrase ‘we would love to target China, but…’

It has never been easier for British e-tailers to sell to China. For companies big enough to establish their e-commerce business as an entity in China, organisations like DIT or CBBC have specialist advisers who can help. There are also many third party cross border Chinese e-commerce platforms that British brands can sell on such as Tmall Global, vip.com, loft etc., which our agency and a small number of other companies can provide assistance with. Even if you are just trying out the market and would prefer to sell to China via your own website, there are plenty of channels to market your websites to Chinese consumers.

E-tailers, are you ready for China’s Singles Day?

Whichever way you are going to target Chinese consumers, a few quick tips below:

  • Protect your IP and register your dot cn domain
  • Decide how you want to sell to China
  • Review your UI and UX and have a China friendly website
  • Find the right Chinese payment system
  • Have your Chinese social media ready
  • Adopt an agile digital marketing strategy for China

To a certain extent, all the quick pointers above are something any successful e-tailer would do for their home market anyway. Targeting Chinese consumers is no different. Choosing the right sales channel for your Chinese marketing is more important than one might think. Unlike selling on platforms in the West, which only require a relatively simple registration process, different Chinese platforms have different requirements on logistic arrangements, and localised customer service. The different payment systems have different implications to your cashflow, as payment thresholds for repatriating money back to your company differ as do the percentage fees charged.

Getting traffic to your website is one of the more fun things to do. However, if you are trying to target all 1.3 billion Chinese people at once, you will end up targeting none in particular. Who will buy your products from China? What are their demographics? Would they be from a first or second tier Chinese city? Can their credit cards purchase from websites outside of China? Have you thought of targeting the Chinese international students in the UK with high disposable income?

The answers to the questions above will influence how and where you spend your marketing budget, and determine how successful your e-commerce business is in China. With Singles Day just round the corner, the market leader Tmall is predicted to smashed last year’s £9bn sales, e-tailers who want to target Chinese consumers’ interest in British products and take advantage of the week pound should act soon.

You can follow me on Twitter @Benny_Hui

 

About Ben Hui

Ben is the Managing Director of UKC Company, a full service marketing agency with extensive experience working with brands and businesses targeting the Chinese market. As a speaker, Ben has been invited to speak at Liverpool in China, China Business Awards, KPMG, JCI Manchester, Lloyd Piggott and Lancaster University InfoLab21 on subjects about the Chinese market. He is the author of 2014 UK Chinese International Student Accommodation Survey and has contributed insight articles for the CBBC monthly magazine and Air France / KLM Club China magazine.