The Double 11 Shopping Festival in China has just wrapped up. Although the eCommerce platforms didn’t reveal staggering sales figures as they used to, we observe quite lively social discussions before and after the event.

By analyzing the social discussions around Double 11, we can get a sense of who the winning brands are in driving engagement and traffic to eCommerce; we can also discover new shopping trends and consumer habits in China.

In this article, we’ll dive into the heart of Double 11 social discussion, by looking at these industry leaders:

• Social discussion overview
• Skincare & cosmetics
• Apparel & footwear
• Luxury
• 3C (consumer electronics)
• Home decoration & appliances
• Others

The analysis is empowered by Doris, WalktheChat In-house A.I. Social Listening Tool.

Get ready to uncover the story behind the numbers and the evolving world of retail.

WalktheChat is an AI-powered China Marketing Agency supercharged with an industry-leading AIGC and tech team.

Follow us on LinkedIn for more news and insight about China’s digital marketing and luxury landscape.

More reports available upon request.

The post China Double 11 Insight: Unpacking Social Discussion on Industry Leaders appeared first on WalkTheChat.

In this article, we will go through the highlight of Double 11 this year on Tmall and JD, and explain the new consumption trends in China.

Tmall Double 11 Performance

Tmall announced that the GMV performance was “in line with the previous year despite Covid,” which means around 540.3 billion CNY (~84.5 billion USD at that time) in 2021.

The highlights are:

• 290,000 brands took part in 11.11 over Alibaba’s platforms, the same number as last year. 
• 1,009 Tmall Global brands’ GMV more than doubled.
• Some 70,000 brands participated for the first time, including luxury houses Bulgari, Moncler, and Brunello Cucinelli. 
• Judging from the number, some brands decided to skip Double 11 this year, or retrieved from the Chinese market facing uncertainty.
• 102 brands achieved 100 million CNY in revenue within one hour, half of which were Chinese brands.
• Mid-tier live streamers’ sales revenue grew by 250%, which is good news for brands looking for cost-effective live-streaming campaigns. 

TOP live streamers like Austin Li, Luo Yonghao, and Yu Minhong joined Taobao Livestream, boosting the overall viewership by 600% in the first hour.

Compared to last year, categories like beauty&skincare, underwear&homewear, home electronic appliances, and sports shoes perform better than last year, as consumers adjust their needs and purchases to the “dynamic zero” covid policy, which has no clear end in sight.  

JD Double 11 Performance

JD declared that they achieved a higher-than-industry growth rate and set a new record, without further details. They also revealed that high-quality products and big brands have become consumers’ favored choices across product categories.

During the first day of the official sales, we saw some initial results in JD’s efforts penetrating into the premium market: luxury category’s transactions recorded a 113% in the first 10 minutes: LVMH Group’s BVLGARI, CELINE, FENDI, and LOEWE achieved eight times last year’s sales revenue; Apple saw transaction volume jump over RMB 1 billion yuan in the first minute.

Douyin Double 11 Performance

According to Douyin, the number of merchants participating in the Douyin eCommerce Double 11 event increased by 86% year-on-year.

On the first day of the official event, Douyin eCommerce’s one-day GMV (Gross Merchandising Value) increased by 630% compared to the same period last year; ATV (Average Transaction Value) grew 217% in the first hour. The increase in consumer average spending on Douyin eCommerce aligns with our conclusion analyzing Douyin’s TOP 500 best sellers.

According to eCommerce data platform ebrun, In the 38.21 million hours of live broadcast, 7,667 live streaming rooms paid GMV exceeding one million CNY (~140k USD), and the viewership of short videos with shopping cart reached 2,937 billion.

On Douyin eCommerce, 531 products have surpassed one million CNY sales renueve. Here are some categories that did better than Douyin eCommerce’s Double 11 last year:

• makeup: +132% in daily average sales revenue
• fashion apparel, shoes and bags: +21.4% in daily average GMV
• alcohol: +174% in sales revenue
• health & nutrition: +127% in sales revenue
• parenthood & daily necessities: +100% in sales revenue
• consumer electronics & home appliances: +133% in daily average GMV

Although, the industry-level growth could be a higher number of merchants taking part in Douyin eCommerce Double 11. Each brand could tell a different story. However, we can still see the changes in consumer preference from the increase in consumer electronics & home appliances and health & nutrition. We will explain better in the next section what these changes are.

New Consumer Trends in 2023

Value-driven consumption

Chinese consumers have cooled down on impulsive purchases. Instead, they are buying products that can bring physical or emotional value and long-term returns, such as products related to health, sports & outdoors, education, and pet care, as well as services that help save their own time.

JD Health’s SDGP data showed that more than 1,600 nutrition brands doubled their YoY transaction volume, and online consultations with JD Pet Health increased 3.3 times. Over the past five years, service consumption has been expanding from family needs, to sports, health, pet care and more scenarios. Sales of life-related services increased 30 times, that of car maintenance grew 20 times, and bookings for health services were up by 7 times.

source: JD Corporate Blog

Tmall has made a similar announcement:

“Categories such as pets, haircare and outdoor recreational activities are seeing high growth on our platforms,” said Evans, who is responsible for leading and executing Alibaba’s international strategy for globalizing the company and expanding its businesses outside China.

source: Alizila

Responsible consumption

There has been a rising consciousness of responsible consumption and sustainability.

Chinese people are willing to incorporate the concept of sustainability into fashion. For example, whether a fashion item can mix and match multiple items, whether the fabric is natural and reduceable, etc. As more consumers adopt the concept of responsible purchase, minimalistic and reusable fashion items could be the next growing trend.

Douyin eCommerce data shows that 29.9% of users on Douyin pay continuous attention to environmental protection. Among these environmentalists, 83.8% agree with rational consumption, only buying products they really need and good quality; 58.0% prefer items that are more environmentally friendly during the production phase; 43.3% will purchase clothes and bags with a good design using sustainable or reducible fabrics. Therefore, growing public awareness of environmental protection makes sustainable fashion a new trend in apparel consumption.

During this year’s Double 11, Alibaba and JD promised to reduce carbon emissions by 200,000 tons and 60,000 tons, respectively.

JD Logistics estimated that during this SDGP (Single Day Grand Promotion), its green supply chain operations reduced a total of 200,000 tons of carbon, which involves 9 million uses of recyclable packages – avoiding approximately 80,000 tons of one-off packaging waste. One hundred million product packages were delivered with their original packaging boxes from the factories in collaboration with more than 20,000 brand partners.

source: JD Corporate Blog

Cultural confidence: the rise of “proudly made in China”

Proudly made in China, or China-chic (in Chinese: “国潮,” Guochao), has been a booming trend in recent years, especially among Gen-Z. Chinese consumers have stopped the blind belief that western products should be of better quality than “made-in-China.”

According to JD’s data, over the past four years, merchants featuring “China-chic“ increased 240 percent, the amount of products increased 99 percent and new brands under this category grew by 68 percent. On the consumer’s side, shoppers of these products increased 90 percent, and sales were up by 284 percent. SDGP (Single’s Day Grand Promotion) data shows that sales of products with “China-chic” elements increased 124 percent YoY.  

source: JD Corporate Blog

The same happens on Douyin: domestic brands have occupied over 90% of the Top 100 best-selling products. Domestic products have clear dominance among categories such as home appliances, makeup, women’s apparel, and food & beverages. In beauty & skincare, international brands like the History of (后), Estee Lauder, and L’Oreal are still at the TOP3. As for the sports shoe category, Nike and Adidas still rank at the TOP2 despite Chinese consumers’ and celebrities’ boycotts due to the brand’s action against Xinjiang cotton.

Conclusion

Chinese consumers are really changing, and international brands need to lean into that change. As a result, people have switched to a more rational, qualitative, and self-fulfilling consumption.

For brands operating in China for a few years, it’s high time we focus more on quality and customer loyalty than pure quantity. As China’s population and economic growth slow down, the demographic dividend is desappearing.

In the new consumption era, brands need to stay solid in their niche positioning while strengthening the emotional connection with their clients or followers. When we talk about the target audience, we need to see the actual person behind the data or number.

Feel free to reach out to us for a tailored consultation for your brand in China.

The post Tmall and JD went silent on Double 11 Sales: consumption trends are changing appeared first on WalkTheChat.

In 2021, Douyin generated 800 billion CNY (~$112 billion) of GMV. Over the years, international luxury houses like Louis Vuitton, GUCCI, Dior, Chanel, Cartier, etc, have established their official presence on this No.1 short video platform. How to balance the entertaining vibe of the platform while maintaining an adequate positioning of your brand?

In today’s article, we will look at:

• Douyin eCommerce size
• Douyin TOP 500 best-seller analysis
• Distribution of products sold on Douyin by price range
• Best-selling product category by price range
• Summary

Note: All data comes from Newrank’s Xindou platform.

Douyin eCommerce Size

Douyin eCommerce has been growing at 430% per year and is projected to reach 1.2 trillion CNY in 2022. For comparison, Alibaba (Tmall and Taobao) GMV is 8.3 trillion CNY, and Pinduoduo is 2.4 trillion CNY. Douyin eCommerce will reach half the size of Pinduoduo with only 4 years of development. Considering the massive active users and eCommerce growth rate, Douyin is already a juggernaut in the Chinese eCommerce space.

Need help with your Douyin Strategy? Tell us your story, and we are ready to help.

Best-seller Analysis

During August, the top 500 best-selling products generated a combined Gross Merchandizing Value (GMV) of 4,372 million RMB (~614 million USD). All these sales are generated directly on the Douyin platform, through Douyin Store.

F&B and beauty are the top-selling categories

Food & beverages and Beauty & skincare are still the TOP 2 best-selling categories on Douyin, contributing 48% of the total GMV combined.

There’s considerable growth in the Fashion category: 8% of the GMV comes from general fashion, shoes, and hats, making it the No.4 best-performing category. Two years ago, clothing comprised only 0.4% of the total GMV.

More diverse product categories

According to a similar analysis we did 2 years ago about the TOP 100 best-selling Douyin campaign, back then, almost 70% of the TOP 100 GMV came from the TOP 2 categories combined (Food & beverages and Beauty & skincare).

Over the years, Douyin has become a more “democratic” platform where you can find all kinds of products, not just F&B and beauty.

Average selling price per category

The average price in Beauty & Skincare is 168 CNY (~23.6 USD). Fashion and Bags are a bit higher, around 200 CNY (~28 USD). People still buy more affordable items on Douyin.

The average price in the sportswear & outdoors category is 265 CNY (~37 USD), higher than bags and leather goods (196 CNY, ~27 USD). Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to spend on sportswear in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle and work-life balance.

Douyin is not only for cheap products

We studied the GMV from TOP 500 Douyin best sellers. In August 2022, 64% of the products sold cost more than 100 CNY (~14 USD), a significant increase from 19% in 2020.

27% of GMV of best-selling products come from products of above 1,000 CNY (~140 USD). Two years ago, this number was only 1%. Considering that young people who spend more than 1,000 CNY online are considered New Middle Class, that is a signficant amount to spend on one single social platform.

To give a comparison, Red users spend an average of 4,100 CNY per month. Although they don’t necessarily purchase on Red, they will more likely research on Red and purchase on Tmall or Taobao. Compared to Douyin, which has a rather even gender distribution, Red attracts more female users (70% active users) living in the higher tier (tier-1 and tier-2) cities with higher purchasing power.

As Douyin continues to attract bigger brands to sell directly In-App, Douyin eCommerce is getting more diversified, where you can buy either cheap or expensive products.

What kind of “expensive” products are people buying on Douyin?

We analyzed the TOP 500 best-selling products by category and price range, and came to the following conclusions:

Beauty & Skincare

For products ranging from 500 to 2000 CNY (~70 – 280 USD), the beauty & skincare industry contributed the highest percentage of GMV, contributing 27% of the total GMV of this price range.

Douyin has been a strong platform for cheap cosmetics brands. However, beauty products with higher price ranges are also picking up. Among these higher price ranges, you will find many international names such as La Mer, Estée Lauder, SK-II, etc. Regarding premium beauty, Chinese customers will still likely go for big international brands, trusting their R&D and functionality. So premium beauty brands don’t need to exclude Douyin from your China eCommerce options.

Food & beverages

Food & beverages, as a rigid demand, appear to be selling in all price ranges.

It’s common to buy cheap snacks, instant food, milk, bread, etc on Douyin. Surprisingly, among high price products of 2000 to 5000 CNY (~280 – 702 USD), 19% of the GMV comes from food & beverages. This is because premium Chinese liquors like Maotai (~3,000 CNY each bottle) are also counted in this category, contributing to the most revenue here.

Regarding prices above 5000 CNY (~702 USD), almost half of the sales come from watches and jewelry.

Fashion apparel & shoes

The general fashion category contributes 17% of the GMV among products ranging from 500 to 1,000 CNY (around 70 – 140 USD), ranking as the No.2 top category. Although most of the sales come from Chinese fashion brands. “Guochao” (国潮, proudly made in China) has become a trend on social media, and Chinese brands can produce more native content around it and thus easier to resonate with the customers.

However, Chinese consumers are less likely to buy more expensive apparel brands on Douyin: the fashion category only represents less than 5% of the GMV with a price range above 1,000 CNY (~140 USD). Most of the sales come from functional clothing such as down coats.

For fashion brands with premium positioning, it’s better to set up a Tmall Flagship Store than try to sell directly on Douyin eCommerce.

However, at a granular level, premium brands like COACH also sell well on Douyin.

Classical styles like COACH HADLEY sold 2000+ pieces on Douyin and accumulated 200+ real customer comments. On COACH’s Tmall Store, the same product has 1,000+ comments, five times more than Douyin Store. However, 200+ real comments can already give consumers enough information and confidence. It is striking that Douyin Store can already generate one-fifth of Tmall Store’s performance within only four years (Tmall launched in 2010, so 12 years till now).

Summary

Douyin is an interesting platform to look at, even for premium brands. Between Tmall and Douyin, Tmall can provide more established and experienced services, especially for the fashion or luxury category. If you already have a Tmall Store and are struggling to find new growth opportunities, it’s wise to consider Douyin because of the massive audience and rapid growth. It can be a perfect platform for exposure and sales if well-leveraged.

The post A Look Into 500 Top-Sellers on Douyin eCommerce appeared first on WalkTheChat.

In today’s article, we will look at:

• Marketing trends for sportswear in China
• The best marketing/advertising platform for sportswear brand
• Sportswear top sub-categories with potential
• Advice for foreign niche brands entering China

National-wide passion for fitness

In April 2022, 67 million Chinese people were actively using fitness APPs to work out at home. Indoor fitness became a heated topic on social media such as Douyin, Red, and Bilibili. For example, during the peak of the indoor workout trend, 4 million people were watching Will Liu’s (刘畊宏) online fitness live streaming on Douyin simultaneously, making it a sensational trend. At that time, Douyin’s daily active user size was around 5 million, meaning that approximately 80% of Douyin users were watching Liu’s fitness live stream.

As Chinese cities gradually open up after the lockdowns, Liu’s everyday viewers decreased. However, people’s passion for fitness continued and switched to outdoor scenarios such as sports and gyms. According to QuestMobile, the daily active users of Tera Wellness (一兆韦德) has boomed by 240.2% in June, compared to the last month.

More segmented opportunity: the Female Workout Market

Unlike the stereotype that males are more into workouts, female Chinese users account for 56.2% of the active users on sports and fitness APPs, higher than the percentage of male users (43.8%).

Considering females’ growing consuming capacity, brands like Nike, Fila, Anta, and Xtep have grabbed the opportunity and designed more female-oriented campaigns:

Sportswear brands bet on Douyin for social advertising

According to the QuestMobile report, sportswear brands spend more than half (58.1%) of their social advertising budget on Douyin Ads. It is followed by WeChat Ads (9.6%), Kuaishou (7.6%), Weibo (4.9%), and Tencent Video (4.2%).

Want to know if Douyin Ad is a good fit with your brand? Just fill in this one-minute form, and we will be in touch with you!

The online sales of sportswear brands on Douyin have been growing since this spring. As Double 11, the biggest sales festival approaches, we will keep an eye on the evolution of sales in Q4.

Top sub-categories in sportswear

Sports apparel and sports shoes are the two biggest sub-categories.

For sports apparel, t-shirts and sports pants are still the most crucial sub-categories in terms of revenue, which account for 25.2% and 21.4% respectively of the total sportswear sales. However, competition is already intense for these basic sub-categories.

Regarding growth rate, niche categories such as sports bras (+38.4%) and sports polo (51.5%) showed impressive results. Although the sales revenue of these niche categories is still small (less than 5% of the total sales), they are interesting categories to look at in the future.

Want to know more trends regarding the fitness market in China? You will find this article useful:

• RED (Xiaohongshu) Trends 2022: emerging trends in Fitness, Fashion & Beauty

Suggestions for foreign niche brands entering China

Brands need to identify the sub-category with the best selling potential, then focus the marketing efforts on the selected strategy. Sports t-shirts and trousers are highly competitive categories, so brands need to think about the key selling points: Is it because of the design, such as nice color and pattern? Is it because of the functionality, such as leg-slimming or butt-lifting? Or is it because of any emotional value, such as influencer/celebrity collaboration, your unique brand story, etc?

If you need a free consultation with us, feel free to reach out to us in the form below.

The post Sportswear market in China: growth rate and booming trends appeared first on WalkTheChat.

Douyin (the Chinese Tiktok) eCommerce analyzed platform data and published the Top 10 lifestyle trends related to fashion, environmental protection, health, technology, and culture. The keywords are:

• Outdoor fashion
• Streetstyle fashion
• Comfortable homewear
• Sustainable fashion
• Workplace fashion
• Vintage style
• Hip-pop fashion
• Fitness fashion
• Niche fashion: ACG, Lolita & Hanfu

In this article, we will further explain:

• A few trends relevant for foreign brands in the Chinese market
• The high potential for sub-categories in fashion industry

Outdoor fashion: the spiritual haven with high potential

Tired of fast-paced city life and strict lockdowns, going outdoors becomes Chinese people’s spiritual haven to disconnect and seek inner peace. For example, 42.2% of Douyin users yearn for outdoor activities, including fishing, camping, hiking, surfing, etc.

However, unlike the traditional western concept of camping, in China, camping is an exquisite and artistic way of living. Most young people picture camping as reading a book over a cup of coffee or tea, living in “an “Instagram style” tent, barbecuing for dinner, and chatting with a few friends over the night. Besides enjoying nature, they also want to take “photogenic” pictures so here comes camping fashion.

Trend pursuing young people love sharing their outdoor looks, equipment, and experience on social media. The typical looks are urban outdoor, utility, or casual wear. Besides, people also look for functional clothes such as waterproof, sunproof, elastic, and breathable clothing to make outdoor staying more comfortable.

Currently, 130 million Chinese people participate in outdoor activities such as hiking and traveling every year, according to China Outdoor Association (COA). In 2020, the revenue of outdoor products reached 169.33 billion CNY (~24.35 billion USD), with a year-on-year increase of 6.4%. It is estimated that the revenue will reach 240.96 billion CNY (~34.65 billion USD) in 2025.

According to Douyin, outdoor fashion is an active market where consumers have shown high interest. Besides, there is sufficient supply with existing category leaders. Therefore, brands entering the Chinese market need to deep dive into consumers’ needs and establish a solid positioning in their strong category.

Comfortable homewear: quality time spent alone

In China, there are 240 million single people of marriageable age; 1/4 of the households consist of only one person. The data means that entering a relationship or getting married is no longer a “must-do” for young Chinese people. Instead, they care more for a quality lifestyle while staying at home and enjoying time with themselves. 27.4% of Douyin users choose to spend their free time at home on weekends.

Deloitte’s 2021 Unconnected Economic Outlook Report estimates that the “stay at home” market in Asia-Pacific will grow from $1.2 trillion in 2019 to $3 trillion in 2025. In addition, as the work-from-home culture becomes popular, the demand for leisure homewear, fashion homewear, or even homewear with “business leisure” style has become a new fashion.

Sustainable fashion trends: rational and responsible purchase

Chinese people are willing to incorporate the concept of sustainability into fashion. For example, whether a fashion item can mix and match multiple items; whether the fabric is natural and reduceable, etc. As consumers become more rational and responsible, minimalistic and reusable fashion items could be the next growing trend.

Research data shows that 29.9% of users on Douyin pay continuous attention to environmental protection. Among these environmentalists, 83.8% agree with rational consumption, only buying products they really need and good quality; 58.0% prefer items that are more environmentally friendly during the production phase; 43.3% will purchase clothes and bags with a good design using sustainable or reducible fabrics. Therefore, growing public awareness of environmental protection makes sustainable fashion a new trend in apparel consumption.

Since 2021, embracing sustainability has become the consensus for women’s and men’s apparel industries. Brands incorporated low carbon production, using natural, harmless and recyclable fabrics.

Are Chinese consumers willing to pay an extra markup for sustainability? It will still take some time to see the market reaction. Sustainable fashion is still a niche market compared to the rest sub-categories. Brands in this category need to work with KOLs to generate content, and create topics and discussions.

Vintage fashion trends: 80s style, Y2K has come back

Chinese Gen-Zs love vintage style with a modern twist. For example, “Sweet Hot” Style, 80s Style, and Y2K are among the hottest trends. In recent years, Sweet Cool Girl styles have grown popularity thanks to various pop girl groups and KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders).

Sportswear fashion trends: health is the new luxury

The pandemic convinced everyone of the importance of health and regular workout. For example, the same research shows that 45.2% of Douyin users exercise to stay fit and healthy.

The choice of sportswear is also important. Among fitness lovers, 80.5% believe the most crucial feature of fitness clothing is comfortable, followed by quality/price ratio and functionality.

Euromonitor data shows that the compound growth rate of sales in China’s sportswear industry from 2015 to 2020 is 14%, higher than that of other consumer goods sub-sectors. The overall sales of China’s fitness apparel market have reached 315 billion CNY (~45.28 billion USD) by 2020.

According to Douyin, Chinese consumers have shown great interest in short video content, but the eCommerce supply hasn’t fulfilled the demands. Now it’s a great opportunity for foreign fitness brands to explore this giant market.

Check out the fashion trends on Red (Xiaohongshu), the Chinese “equivalent” of Instagram:

• RED (Xiaohongshu) Trends 2022: emerging trends in Fitness, Fashion & Beauty

Looking for more practical information? You will find these articles helpful:

• How Fashion Brands Leverage Red/Xiaohongshu: Content, KOLs, and case study

Wondering what the best market entry strategy for your brand is? Just fill in the 1-minute form below, and we will be in touch with you!

The post 10 Fashion Trends in China: Where is the opportunity? appeared first on WalkTheChat.

In this article, we will look at:

• Overview of Livestream eCommerce in 2021
• Taobao Livestream overview, top performing categories, audience insights, etc
• Douyin Livestream overview, audience insight, and Douyin eCommerce

Overview of China Livestream eCommerce in 2021

• 930 million Chinese people watch short videos, expanding with an annual growth rate of 7.0%
• 840 million Chinese consumers purchase online, growing by 7.6% compared to last year
• 700 million Chinese users watch live streams (68.2% of total Chinese Netizens), with a 14.0% annual growth rate
• Among the 700 million live stream viewers, 460 million have purchased through live streams (44.9% of Chinese Netizens).
• Livestream eCommerce audiences have grown by 75.70 million, with a 19.5% growth compared to 2020 December.

Watching Livestreams has become a habit for many Chinese people: some follow fitness trainer’s livestreams to work out daily; some listen to live streams to release stress and aid sleep…

Live stream contents are not always about sales. Actually, non-sales-oriented sessions can also drive solid sales conversion, as long as the influencers have helped cater to their audience’s needs and problems or provided emotional value to their followers. After building trust and authentic relationships, sales will follow.

Insights about Taobao Livestream eCommerce

Taobao Livestream Overview

As the biggest eCommerce marketplace, Taobao and Tmall have existing advantages over their competitors.

Taobao Livestream has accumulated over 50 billion views, making it the TOP1 platform for live stream eCommerce aiming at sales conversions.

In 2021, the average viewing time of Taobao Livestream increased by 25.8%. Watching Livestream e-commerce is becoming a part of everyday life for Chinese consumers.

Taobao Livestream TOP10 Verticals in terms of Revenue

In terms of Livestream revenue, the TOP10 verticals have significant similarities with Taobao and Tmall’s existing strong verticals:

1. Women Fashion
2. Beauty
3. Jewelry
4. Consumer Electronics
5. Food
6. Mom & Kids
7. Household Appliances
8. Home Renovation & Decor
9. Bags & Accessories
10. Footwear

Taobao Livestream Audience Preferences

• Gender: females and males have clearly different preferences in the types of Livestreams they watch. Females enjoy watching live streams regarding fashion, bags and accessories, shoes, beauty, and life. Males are more fond of livestream about cars, home renovation, consumer electronics, outdoor sports, and education.
• Age: Gen-Z (people born in the decades of the 1990s and 2000s) love watching Livestreams of beauty and fashion products. Chinese young people pursue individuality, so trendy items in fashion&beauty capture their attention. People born in the 1980s are more practical: live streams about education, mom&kids, cars, and lives look more interesting to them.

Insights about Douyin Livestream eCommerce

Douyin Livestream Overview

As the creator of the global short video trend, Douyin is naturally strong in video content and KOLs.

Douyin Livestream seems to have more diverse categories than Taobao Livestream, ranging from food, traveling, and workouts to traditional culture, music festivals, online courses, fashion shows, etc.

Douyin Livestream Audience Insights

People come to Douyin looking for entertainment. It’s also reflected in the popular Livestream categories. According to the 2021 Douyin Live Stream Ecological Report (CN), here are the most popular Livestream categories that people love to watch on Douyin:

• Gen-Z and Millenials love watching content about anime, gaming, reality shows, sports, dancing, travel, technology, etc.
• Elder generations have different types of interests and entertainment. Content about parenthood, education, politics, popular science, culture, etc captures their attention better.

Douyin eCommerce

Although Douyin content seems to have a stronger entertainment label, the platform has also shown a strong capacity to drive sales conversion. Thanks to Douyin Livestream and Douyin Store, the short video leader has created a closed loop for In-App conversion, from discovery, interest, to purchase.

According to the 2022 H1 Douyin eCommerce Industry Report (CN), Douyin eCommerce revenue has grown by 150% compared to last year. In addition, more than 300k brands have created Douyin Stores and are selling through Douyin eCommerce. Douyin eCommerce can be an efficient way to move sales, especially for cheaper products, typically less than 200 CNY (~30 USD).

Are you wondering how to leverage Chinese Livestream eCommerce and which platform to choose?

Just leave us a message below, and we will be in touch with you!

The post China Livestream eCommerce: Taobao and Douyin Insights appeared first on WalkTheChat.

During today’s article, we will discuss:

• What is the typical pet owner persona in China? 
• What are the new trends in Pet Economy in China?
• Our insight on international pet food & appliances brands

Typical Pet Owner Persona in China

Typical Chinese pet owners are well-educated with high incomes while young and have few years of experience owning pets.  

• Well-educated: more than 90% of the pet owners have a college degree; 9.5% have a master’s degree. According to the results of the seventh census, only 23.61% of China’s working-age population has a college degree or above. 
• High income: more than one-third (34.9%) of the pet owners have a monthly income of more than 10k CNY. This means a higher consumption capacity.  
• Young: 46.3% of pet owners were born after 1990, of which post-90s accounted for 23.4% and post-95s were 22.9%. In other words, among five pet owners, one is Gen Z.
• Few years of experience: 2% of pet owners have kept pets for less than 3 years, and 19% of them have had their first pets in the last year.

Our Insight

The Pet Economy in China is still in its infancy compared to matured markets such as Europe or the US. 

Chinese pet owners lack experience and professional knowledge about pet care. Like a Chinese parent looking to buy milk formula from foreign brands, Chinese pet owners tend to trust foreign pet food brands, believing they provide better quality. 

It’s a good moment for foreign brands specializing in pet food, pet appliances, and other related industries to consider China your next expansion destination. 

News Trends in China’s Pet Economy

Pet Economy Grows Faster than “Human Economy”

In Chinese cities, the entire urban dog and cat market size reached 249 billion CNY (~36.9 billion USD), a year-on-year increase of 20.6%, 8% higher than the total retail sales of consumer goods in 2021. This trend also shows that the pet economy has had a huge driving effect on the consumption of Chinese society.

Pets Become a Family Member

For Chinese people, pets used to be a playmate for the kid or house guards. However, in recent years, especially during the pandemic, more and more people realize the importance of a pet’s companion, consider pets as part of their family, and will treat their pets as their children. 
As a result, Chinese consumers pay more attention to the health and well-being of their pets and are willing to leverage technology and smart devices. For examples, healthy and customized pet food brand The Farmer’s Dog; intelligent cat litter basin from CATLINK.

Cats Become the “TOP1” Pet in Chinese cities

In terms of numbers, cats have surpassed dogs to become the “TOP 1” pets for Chinese people living in cities. According to “2021 China Pet Industry White Paper”, there are 58.06 million cats and 54.29 million dogs in urban Chinese families. Families in lower-tier cities and rural areas tend to have more dogs as pets or guards. 

Since 2018, the number of cats has been growing steadily. Cats are easier to keep as a pet for young Chinese people living a fast-paced life in the cities and require less space, time, and attention than dogs.

Dogs Spend More Money than Cats

Regarding the “consuming capacity” of a single pet, a dog spends an average of 2,634 CNY (~390 USD) per year, with a 16.5% growth compared to last year. On average, a cat’s annual spend is 1,826 CNY (~270 USD), the same as last year.

With the fast-paced life and low birth rate, more and more Chinese people consider pets part of their family. Therefore, they are more willing to spend on pet medical care, better quality food, pet beauty, and physical and mental health. We predict that the Pet Industry in China will keep growing in the following years.

The post Pet Economy grows faster than “Human Economy”: a new opportunity in the post-covid China appeared first on WalkTheChat.

In this article, we will look at:

• What is the 618 Mid-Year Shopping Festival?
• When to start preparing for the 618 Mid-Year Shopping Festival?
• What are the promising categories for China judging from the pre-sale performance?
• How are the foreign and domestic brands performing this year during pre-sale?

What is the 618 Mid-Year Shopping Festival?

618 is one of the major shopping festivals in China. Chinese eCommerce platform JD.com first initiated it as Aniversary Day, offering a series of promotions and discounts. Then other eCommerce players such as Alibaba-run Taobao/Tmall, Pinduoduo, Suning also joined the battle.

Nowadays, Chinese social media like Douyin (the Chinese Tiktok), Red, WeChat, and Weibo are actively participating in 618 with social eCommerce, helping brands and merchants to drive awareness and sales. Offline retailers also see 618 as an important sales opportunity.

When to start preparing for the 618 Mid-Year Shopping Festival?

Same as the Double 11 Singles Day Shopping Festival, 618 Mid-Year Sales also consist of Pre-warm, Pre-sale, and Peak (the big days when the official events happen).

For significant shopping festivals like 618 or Double 11, the seeding preparation can date back to two months ago. Besides preparing enough stock in advance, brands also need to plan their marketing strategy ahead of the event.

Take Red/Xiaohongshu as an example: April is an important month when brands start to invest in much more KOLs to test the content quality and broaden the seeding audience. In May, as the pre-sale period is approaching, brands need to focus more on KOLs with higher follower stickiness and conversion capacity. In the end, brands will see the seeding results in June – the big day.

Here is a timeline and strategy overview of leveraging Red starting from the pre-618 seeding period to drive awareness, traffic, and sales for the Big Day.

How are the brands performing this year?

This year, JD.com started pre-sale on May 23rd. Meanwhile, Taobao/Tmall began on May 26th.

During Pre-sale, consumers can already compare prices across different platforms, add to carts, and pre-order their desired products. The pre-sale period can help brands and merchants estimate the actual sales on the bid day. So we can have a rough estimation of the brand’s 618 performance according to their pre-sale performance.

Best performing categories for 618 Mid-Year Sale 2022 (Pre-sale)

In terms of GMV (Gross Merchading Value), categories with high AOV (Average Order Value), such as Consumer Electronics, Beauty, and skincare, continued to shine. Other verticals also showed strong potential, reaching an estimated GMV of 10 million RMB (~1.5 million USD) to 100 million RMB (~15 million USD). These promising categories are maternity & baby, food & health care, home decor & household items, and sports & outdoors items.

According to data from Digital Retail Data Provider Nint 任拓, during the first 4 hours of the pre-sale (May 26th, 20:00-24:00), some leading brands were already estimated to reach a GMV (Gross Merchandising Value) of over 100 million RMB (~15 million USD). These top-performing brands are beauty and skincare, home appliances, skincare and body care equipment, sports shoes, etc.

This trend shows that Chinese consumers are increasingly looking for self-satisfaction. Instead of buying to show off or for other social value, Chinese people value how their purchases can bring a positive and healthy impact and better quality of their personal life.

Poor performing categories for the 618 Mid-Year Sale 2022 (Pre-sale)

However, brands from the general fashion apparel category have been less lucky. According to the same source, menswear and underwear categories showed a decreasing trend compared to last year. The poor performance is also due to minor outbreaks of covid in a few Chinese cities everyone now and then, which reduced people’s needs for outings and thus for fashion items.

Best performing brands for 618 Mid-Year Sale 2022 (estimated)

According to Nint 任拓 and eBrun, here is a list of the top-performing brands by category during the first 4 hours of the pre-sale (May 26th, 20:00-24:00) on Tmall.

Beauty and skincare Top 10

Foreign brands still dominate the best performing ranking in the beauty and skincare categories. Only two Chinese brands managed to be on the list:

1. Estée Lauder
2. L’Oréal
3. Lancôme
4. Olay
5. Proya (珀莱雅)
6. La Mer
7. Shiseido
8. SkinCeuticals
9. Helena Rubinstein
10. WilNONA (薇诺娜)

Makeup and Perfume Top 10

The best-selling ranking for the makeup and perfume category has changed a lot this year. The estimated sales of make up forever and MAC in the first 4 hours are above 50 million RMB (~7.5 million USD), surpassing Saint Laurent to rank in Top 1 and Top 2.

COLOR KEY, Givenchy, and Maybelline were on the Top 10 last year, but this year they are replaced by NARS, make up for ever, and Lancome. Chinese beauty brand Florasis still holds the Top 10 position.

1. Make up for ever
2. MAC
3. Saint Laurent
4. 3CE
5. Estée Lauder
6. Armani
7. Lancôme
8. Blank Me
9. Florasis (花西子)

Tmall 618 Women Fashion Top 5

Brands that used to be on the list, such as Uniqlo, have disappeared. This year, Chinese brands dominate the top-performing list for women’s apparel. Mo&Co. could be the only women’s fashion brand listed among Top 10 this year:

1. Mo&Co.
2. Ochirly (欧时力)
3. Eifini (伊芙利)
4. Jorya (卓雅)
5. 独束

Tmall 618 Sportswear and Casualwear brand Top 10

Foreign brands still dominate the top-performing list for sportswear and casual wear. DESCENTE, a sports brand focusing on ski items, got popular leveraging the hot topics during the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing.

1. DESCENTE
2. FILA
3. Nike
4. Adidas
5. Under Armour
6. Li Ning (李宁)
7. Anta (安踏)
8. Jordan
9. Lululemon
10. LORNA JANE

Tmall 618 Bags, luggages and leather goods Top 10

1. Coach
2. MK
3. songmont
4. TORY BURCH
5. MCM
6. Warmstudio (木良吉吉)
7. bromen bags (不莱玫)
8. Grotto (个乐)
9. FURLA
10. Peco

Tmall 618 Healthy food, diatery supplements Top 10

The ranking for health products and dietary supplements is dominated by foreign brands, except BY-Health, a well-established Chinese supplement brand.

1. Swisse
2. BY-Health 汤臣倍健
3. Blackmores
4. Movefree
5. WHC
6. life space
7. Noromega
8. Nestle
9. Youthit
10. Keylid 健力多 (by BY-Health Group)

Please note that these rankings are based on the estimated sales of Tmall brands during the statistical period (the total amount of “deposit + final payment” in the pre-sale period). Please understand that there may be some discrepancies with the actual sales. (Data source: Nint 任拓)

We will keep on eye on how the situation evolves during the 618 Mid Year Shopping Festival.

Read on here to learn more about our observations on the past 618 Mid Year Shipping Festivals:

• JD.com 618 Revenues Grow 33% Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
• 618 Sales Data 2019: Tmall growth slows down; Pinduoduo traffic up 48%

The post China’s 618 Mid-Year Shopping Festival 2022 first results: Skincare and Beauty continue to thrive, Fashion slows down appeared first on WalkTheChat.

Early this year, JD and Shopify formed a strategic partnership to help international merchants to sell cross-border to China more easily.

JD achieved an 18% increase in income, higher than the market average

In 2022 Q1, top-tier Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing have suffered from covid. The strict lockdown and logistics interruptions left visible impacts on both offline stores and eCommerce sales. As a result, National Online Retail Sales in Q1 have grown by 6.6%, lower than 14.1%, the YoY growth rate in 2021. (source: National Bureau of Statistics; 2022.04; 2022.01).

Meanwhile, JD Group achieved an income from operations of ~400 million USD, an increase of 17.95% from 2021 Q1 and much higher than the 6.6% market average (source: JD First Quater Results in 2022).

JD Marketplace: Partner with Shopify to support cross-border eCommerce merchants

JD.com and Shopify formed a strategic partnership, helping merchants to sell cross-border with a limited cost. The partnership consist in two parts:

• JD.com helps Chinese merchants sell to overseas markets with the help of Shopify via a DTC approach.
• Shopify allows western sellers easily list their products on JD’s cross-border eCommerce platform JD Worldwide, giving access to JD’s 550 million active users in China. (source: Shopify)

Chinese consumers are avid international shoppers. Especially for categories where people value the quality, such as formula milk, supplements, and luxury goods, 68% of Chinese customers considered foreign goods as having higher quality than the domestic ones (source: RetailX).

Up to 2022 May, JD Marketplace has been available for the US merchants, and will gradually expand this solution to European markets.

What are the benefits of selling on JD Worldwide with Shopify?

JD Marketplace will allow Shopify merchants in the US to get started as quickly as three to four weeks. To support merchants in their effort to begin selling into China, the channel will provide: 

• Expedited onboarding to help merchants sell quickly
• Logistics: end-to-end fulfillment from JD’s US warehouses directly to consumers in China
• Pricing and taxes: smart price conversion to local currency based on foreign exchange rates, typical category pricing, as well as VAT and Consumption Tax
• Intelligent translation of product names and descriptions

（source: Shopify）

Apart from getting listed on JD.com, merchants can also actively drive traffic from social media to their products listed. The marketplace also provides in-site advertising platforms to help merchants capture their valuable audience searching for related products or categories.

Want to know more about this new sales channel on JD Worldwide? Please fill in this 1-minute form, and we will be in touch with you soon:

Solid logistics chain: JD’s competitive advantage

JD showed vitality despite the covid situation in China, mainly thanks to its self-built logistics network and fulfillment infrastructures. This eCommerce platform was one of few online channels that could still operate during the strict lockdown.

JD Group has built around 1,400 warehouses within China and overseas (Source: Sohu). It also operates its own logistics chains to guarantee quality service and speedy delivery to the end consumers.

At the height of the covid lockdown in Shanghai, JD sent 80,000 tons of daily necessities including medicines and mom&kids products. Around 4,000 JD delivery personnel also came to Shanghai to support day-to-day operations. This action has gained goodwill from Chinese consumers.

JD.com collaborate with premium brands to attract more female users

JD.com has been the strongest marketplace for consumer electronics. Therefore, it attracted more male than female users (62.91% male vs. 37.10% female, source: iimedia).

In recent years, JD tried to expand its categories to fashion and luxury to affiliate with more female consumers. In 2022 Q1, many premium brands joined forces with JD.com, including fine jewelry brand Qeelin (part of Kering Group), French high fashion brand Lanvin, and US premium lifestyle brand Tory Burch. Below are some examples of these flagship stores:

JD’s above-average performance during 2022 Q1 had given consumers more confidence in the platform. In collaboration with Shopify, the JD Marketplace aims to help solve cross-border commerce challenges. JD’s simplified procedure in the product listing, in-site marketing, and logistics solutions have helped US brands sell to China more quickly and will benefit more foreign brands in the future.

Want to know more about JD? Check out this article:

• JD, Alibaba and Pinduoduo’s Strong E-commerce performance Post-COVID
• JD.com 618 Revenues Grow 33% Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

The post JD Group Income Grew by 18% in Q1; Partner with Shopify to capture cross-border sellers appeared first on WalkTheChat.

However, Red is no longer satisfied being only the UGC platform where people look for information. In August 2021, Red announced the “Account-Store Integration” to push for a closed-loop in-app conversion. More than half a year passed, so has Xiaohongshu made any progress on this?

Context about Xiaohongshu / Red Account and Store

Before 2021, Red had been operating its own store called “Welfare Community” (in Chinese: Fu li she, 福利社), mostly selling foreign brands and products via cross-border eCommerce. At that time, foreign brands didn’t need to operate a Red account. So you can collaborate with the platform to sell to China through a B2B approach. Red would buy the stock from foreign brands, keep it in bonded warehouses and ship it to end consumers when people place the order. (source: Sohu)

However, this approach didn’t work as well as expected. Chinese customers didn’t find this sales channel as attractive as the established ones like Taobao and Tmall. There are mainly two reasons: 

1. Tmall had more events, shopping festivals, discounts, and promotions that kept consumers’ attention; 
2. Since the brands didn’t invest in brand building, marketing and operation on Red, Chinese consumers didn’t feel connected with the brands selling through “Welfare Community.” 

Over the years, most Chinese people still consider Red a content platform while doubting its eCommerce capacity.

What’s new about Xiaohongshu / Red Account-Store Integartion?

The Account-Store Integration means that:

1. Any Red account can apply for Red Store. Any brand or individual/KOL can create an account on Red and start selling with a store, which is integrated with the Red account and accesible through the account page.

2. There is no Red store if you don’t have Red account. For brands that look for a long-term strategy in China, you have to invest in content creation to build awareness and tell a brand story, and community management to engage with your followers and potential customers.

3. Red also offers a discounted platform commission for merchants. For store with less than 10,000 CNY (~1,470 USD) monthly revenue, there is no platform commission; for monthly revenue above 10,000 CNY, the commission will be 5% (Source: Mr. Milu Sky)

Need any help managing your Red account, or wondering if you should open a store on Red? Simply fill in this one-minute form and we will be in touch with you:

Why is Xiaohongshu / Red pursuing for Account-Store Integartion?

Nowadays, Chinese consumers heavily rely on social content to make their purchasing decision.

Over the years, Chinese consumers have been overwhelmed with choices from both domestic and international brands. When you are free to select products of similar appearance or functionality among 100 brands, the human connection becomes more important. That’s also why Chinese people rely more on recommendations from KOLs and KOCs, especially when they purchase a new brand for the first time.

New brands entering the Chinese market have to find a niche or a differentiating strategy to succeed. Social media content can help to amplify your differentiating strategy.

On social media such as Red and Douyin, the platform algorithm can efficiently deliver the right content to the right audience group, depending on their interactions and interests shown on the platform. The social content can come from KOL and the brand itself, but both channels are necessary and need to align with each other.

What can do you on Xiaohongshu / Red to drive sales?

Xiaohongshu / Red provides multiple marketing tools to help brands and influencers. For example, you can host live streaming, and use “Shutiao” (similar to boosted content on Instagram) to boost your potential viral posts. For merchants, you can also run paid KOL campaigns through Red’s official influencer collaboration platform Dandelion (in Chinese: 蒲公英/Pugongying), and run performance ads.

On the other side, KOLs can also activate the “Little List” (in Chinese: 小清单) function to help merchants drive sales. “Little List” is similar to KOL’s recommendation list or shopping list. KOLs can select products from different merchants available on Red Store and add them to “Little List.” Followers can subscribe to KOL’s “Little List” to receive updates; this KOL will also get a commission if users purchase through “Little List.”

Looking for more details about Red / Xiaohongshu marketing? You will find this guide very useful:

• Red/Xiaohongshu Marketing – A Complete Guide

What do I need to invest in for a Red / Xiaohongshu Store?

The model of Red Store nowadays is similar to a marketplace, so brands also need to invest in operation. Some typical tasks will be product upload, store refresh, sign up for platform events, customer service, communication with KOLs, live streamings, and others. The workload will depend on the frequency of new-in, how popular is the brand, and the volume of daily sales.

Red plays an important role in consumers’ purchasing decisions, especially in the consideration and research phase. If Red manages to keep the users in the research phase and encourage them to purchase in-app, Red Store will be a promising social commerce channel.

The post Xiaohongshu/Red Pushes “Account-Store Integration” to drive In-app Conversion appeared first on WalkTheChat.