Without a doubt, China offers one of the largest Chinese and Hong Kong B2B Marketplaces for online and store-based brands, surpassing both Europe and the USA. In addition to the marketplace itself, the Asian giants are also known to have the fastest-growing consumer-buying rates in the world, with over 380 million online shoppers. The Chinese customers, due to this reason, have become a significant audience to most foreign brands, who are trying out various strategies to target them and cash on in this emerging consumer market.
According to a report, the Chinese customers not only have the highest online spending but also drive most of China’s tourism, development and retail industries. The ratio of their spending is expected to grow by 7% in the next ten years, which is the most of any country in the world.
While looking at these numbers, many foreign brands who wish to try their luck in China have to adopt several tactics to meet the needs of Chinese consumers. Working with the Chinese audience is an entirely new experience when compared to other Asian and Hong Kong B2B platforms. Find out five things that you will need to master before marketing your brand to Chinese Customers:
5 Tips to Win More Chinese Customers
1. DESIGN CHINESE-FRIENDLY MOBILE PLATFORMS
Currently, China has 700 million users with access to the internet, out of which 88% use smartphones. These figures go beyond the consumer rate in India, Japan and the USA combined. As a brand, the first thing you will need to do is build a Chinese friendly platform. Whether it is a mobile app or a website, make sure it is locally hosted with a ‘.cn’ domain and offers support for the local language. You can choose the language according to your target area – Simplified Chinese if you are targeting consumers in China and Singapore, and Traditional Chinese if you’re looking to attract consumers in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
2. OPTIMIZE BASED ON CHINESE SEARCH ENGINES
Your Chinese-friendly website will be of no good if it isn’t optimized for search engines based in China. Since the Chinese market promotes local software and products, they have designed their own search engines like Baidu, Sogou and 360 Search, which foreign businesses need to get familiar with in order to attract their consumer base.
Try to use keywords related to local Chinese searches, optimize your content and SEO according to the above search engines so you can drive more traffic to your business.
3. YOU SHOULD HAVE MOBILE COMPATIBILITY FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES
If a growing market like the Chinese consumer market relies heavily on tablets and smartphones, you must work on delivering them an outstanding mobile experience to boost your profit and sales in China. You should optimize your business sites, so they are responsive, quick and compatible with mobile phones. Most China B2B Marketplaces also offer mobile compatibility so they can target their potential consumers in China.
4. CHINESE SOCIAL PLATFORMS
It is always easier to get to customers and B2B brands through popular social media platforms. However, in China’s case, most of your potential customers will be found on local social apps that are designed locally since Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are banned in the country.
The majority of the Chinese market uses digital platforms like WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo to engage and connect with each other. When you post your content here, it is noticed by a massive 800 million wide community, giving you a gateway for traffic and increased sales.
5. CHINESE CONSUMER HABITS DIFFER GREATLY FROM WESTERN CONSUMERS
When people say Chinese consumer markets are difficult to work in, they are right. Before marketing your brand, do complete research regarding the preferences of Chinese consumers, what they like to buy, and what they don’t. In addition, find out about Chinese traditions and holidays when people are likely to shop the most. These habits depend mostly on the local culture and living standards, which differ greatly from the consumers in the West. Therefore, if you have your strategies planned according to western consumers, you will have to go about with the opposite in China.
