According to hurun research institute’s report “China’s top 10 e-commerce companies in 2020” released on July 10, four of the world’s top five listed e-commerce companies are from China, including alibaba, Meituan dianping, jingdong and pinduoduo. They rank 2-4 respectively, while amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company.China’s online retail sales reached a record high of 7.18 trillion yuan, up 32.2 percent from 2016 and 6.0 percentage points faster than in 2016.Online retail sales of physical goods reached 5,480.6 billion yuan, up 28.0 percent and accounting for 15.0 percent of total retail sales of consumer goods, 2.4 percentage points higher than in 2016.

Although the market is generally dominated by local brands, there are still wide opportunities for some foreign brands, especially in China, a market of nearly 1.4 billion people.Of course, both local and foreign brands should be promoted so that Chinese consumers can identify brands and entice them to buy.

So what should your brands do?

It is important to demonstrate reliability by communicating brand knowledge and awareness and educating consumers about the benefits of the product through active marketing campaigns.You should know that in China, consumers spend a lot of time online every day, spending more than 6 hours online every day to find potential brands and products that meet their needs, especially on social media.In China, brands should be marketed on chinese-specific channels, as western digital platforms are banned, including Google, Facebook, etc.

In addition, there is a phenomenon in China that Chinese consumers mostly rely on the advice of previous consumers or people they trust.Therefore, for brands, social e-commerce and word-of-mouth marketing in China is very effective.After all, no matter how good you say it is, it is not as good as a good evaluation by consumers.In this way, it is important to show people’s discussion of product benefits on some Chinese forums and question and answer platforms, as well as mainstream social media platforms.

Baidu SEO strategy makes you ranked first in Chinese search engines

What’s the first thing you usually want to find out about a company or product?Western countries are on Google or yahoo, but where is it if it is in China?

Google is banned in China, but there is a solution,that is Baidu.Baidu, China’s largest search engine, ranks fifth in the latest Alexa list and fourth in similar rankings for similar sites.Baidu is the leading search engine for information in China.So if you want to make your brand widely known among Chinese consumers, you should start with a PPC account on Baidu.

n addition, Baidu SEO is an essential step if you want to enter the Chinese market.However, Baidu is very different from Google. If you want more information, please contact Domatters.

If you want to see brands in this industry on Baidu, you should know that Baidu only knows Chinese, namely Mandarin, and of course we recommend you to use English for SEO keywords.If you wish to know more about it, you may contact Domatter at any time and send it to you for free.You first need to consider whether to buy a site hosted in China, such as Aliyun, Tencent Cloud, so that the site will run faster.Of course, our recommendation is that you had better create a Chinese website after having a Baidu account.

Domatters Digital Marketing China will provide you with one-stop service and quotation on how to set up a Baidu PPC account and Baidu SEO, as well as your Website translation and construction in Both Chinese and English.

Chinese people use social media to find brands and products that suit their needs

Chinese people spend a lot of time on  these social media,such as wechat,tiktok,weibo and so on,doing many things that such as chatting with friends, creating videos, buying products and so on.Importantly for the brand, Chinese people can get the following information through Chinese social media such as WeChat, weibo and xiaohongshu:

• Get information about products and brands
• Getting advice from others,
• Learn how to use products
• Discuss their views and experiences
• others

When they spend time on these platforms, it means that they are the best place to do marketing work, so brands should open an account and then publish ads, articles, news, images, etc., to interact with Chinese consumers.Of course, before launching a marketing campaign on these platforms, you should publish localized content and learn about the behavior and culture of Chinese consumers.

What can your brands do with these channels?

• Interacting with users
• Teach product usage
• Show the benefits of the product
• Show brand value and products
• Increase brand awareness
• Improve brand loyalty
• What do Chinese people like and dislike
• Understand consumers’ needs and how to solve them
• Sell products through payment systems and links to e-commerce platforms
• others

In China’s digital world, the most used social media for products and brands is WeChat and.These platforms are increasingly important to the Chinese people, as well as to companies looking to increase brand awareness among Chinese consumers.

In China, forums and q&A sites are the best places to find advice on brand and products

Baidu Tieba, Wukong Q&A, Zhihu and so on are great channels for Chinese people who want to find product recommendations from others.They are also important for brands to explain the benefits of their products.

Zhihu answers the most professional questions,which is also the best forum and q&A website promotion platform in China.It is equivalent to foreign Quora, Yahoo Q&A and so on.It has over 34 million monthly active users.On Zhihu, users can create, answer, edit and organize questions.In ancient Chinese, Zihu means “do you know”.

What can the company do on Zhihu platform?

• Create q&A activities       (By answering questions, a brand can build a relationship with users and thereby build a reputation.This allows them to promote themselves and introduce the product)
• KOL publicity and promotion.         Professional recognition can enhance the brand’s image and reputation.Brands can invite experts or key opinion leaders to answer questions for them.Answering questions at Zhihu allows them to demonstrate their expertise and establish contacts with industry experts and general users.
• Zhihu Live         (brand owners are allowed to make online presentations on specific topics.Brand owners have the opportunity to provide deeper knowledge and communicate with users in a more direct way.)
• Post in-depth articles.         Brands can publish long content to gain credibility in their industry, which is highly valued by those in the industry.   For example, you can see the benefits of using your brand on Zhihu.com from other merchants or yourself.If you have questions about how to register Zhihu account and how to promote advertorials on Zhihu, please contact us.

How do brands attract Chinese consumers and sell their products?

E-commerce platforms in China,such as alibab,JD,have become the major purchasing media for Chinese consumers.This is true of products in many industries today.Of course, as we mentioned earlier on social media, when we talk about e-commerce platforms selling your products in China, we are talking about Chinese e-commerce platforms, because they are mostly bought on these platforms.

Where do Chinese consumers mostly buy their products ?

Tmall, taobao, jingdong, pinduoduo, Vipshop, netease and so on are suitable e-commerce platforms in China.However, it is not easy to create online stores on these platforms, so brands can find distributors in China or contact us, as we can help you with all management tasks.

Cross-border e-commerce platforms are also a good way to sell products in the Chinese market without physical stores.In China, Tmall global, jd global and netease koala are the most suitable cross-border e-commerce platforms for product sales in China.Please contact Domatters for information on how to sign in.