China Will Become The Largest Retail Market In The World, And More Foreign Enterprises Or The Help Of E-Commerce Platform To "Please" Chinese Consumers.

Although China's economic growth is slowing down, China is still an economic power. China's economic growth in the second quarter of this year was 6.2%, down from 6.4% in the previous quarter. This is the slowest pace since 1992, compared with the growth rate of 14.2% 12 years ago. However, a January study from eMarketer expects China to overtake the US as the world's largest retail market this year. This is why brands and retailers are still in touch with China, especially in e-commerce platforms.

According to the data released at the 2019 annual Gartner marketing seminar held in Santiago, taking into account Chinese consumers' frequent online shopping and mobile shopping, plus China's population approaching 1 billion 400 million, according to Statista statistics, nearly 1 billion 600 million of China's registered cell phone users are registered, and the Chinese market is obviously full of opportunities. According to eMarketer, China's total retail sales this year will exceed US $5 trillion and 600 billion, which is more than US $100 billion.

Liu Dawei Liu, an analyst at CMR in Shanghai, said that when buying new clothes, "Chinese consumers are more and more interested in clothing brands and retailers. These brands and retailers not only provide fashion products, but also provide products experience different from other brands," said David. In the past three years, e-commerce in all parts of China has been growing, according to the CCI survey and Cotton Incorporated survey in China. The growth of mobile business is the most significant. Last year, 64% of consumers bought clothing through mobile Internet, up from 50% in 2017 and 55% in 2016. By comparison, the purchase of clothing through tablet computers (13%) and desktop computers (30%) increased by only about 2% over the same period.

According to the Chinese consumer survey, more than 1/3 (34%) of Chinese consumers buy clothes once every 2 to 3 months. 21% of the people bought them once a month, 18% of them bought it every 4 to 5 months, and 14% bought it every 2 to 3 weeks.

China will become the world's largest retail market, and more foreign enterprises or the help of e-commerce platform to "please" Chinese consumers.

According to the Chinese consumer survey, the inspiration for Chinese clothing consumers to buy clothes comes mainly from the people around them, such as friends and colleagues (67%) and family members (62%), shop displays and windows (53%), and shop sales staff (45%).

Unlike American consumers, Chinese rarely rely on e-mail sent by branded merchants. A study of sales tracking generation software Optinmonster shows that 60% of American consumers say they buy products because of e-mail marketing information. By contrast, only 1% of Chinese consumers say they get inspiration from marketing e-mail. Only 2% of people get e-mail from retailers and brands to start their online shopping experience.

The Chinese consumer survey also showed that the vast majority of Chinese consumers (96%) began shopping from websites like Tmall (e-business only). Followed by retailers or brand websites (39%), social media sites (23%), search engines (21%), fashion or fashion trend websites (18%) and blogs (5%).

Gartner's report describes Tmall as the "China Version of Amazon" because it is a huge e-commerce platform that does not keep stock but provides market platform for others. In addition, WeChat was originally a one to one information platform, but now it has become a comprehensive consumer service platform. For example, Gartner said that users can search for car sharing services, ask for a ride request and pay all fees in the application. In addition, WeChat also provides a small program of brand sponsorship, and consumers can view products and promotional activities through small programs.

But according to Gartner, brands must also realize that "everything in China is paid". For example, in social media, if the brand wants their information and marketing activities to go smoothly, they need to pay.

But Liu Dawei of CMR says social media is very good for the clothing industry.

"Social media makes big brands and small brands more flexible and efficient in marketing activities," he said. Social platforms and applications such as Red and Tik-Tok cooperate with influential people including celebrities, movie and TV stars, and fashion / gourmet / lifestyle blogs. In this way, the brand can choose to cooperate with the most popular influencers of the target consumers and transmit the brand information in the most effective way. In addition, because of various factors to choose from, the brand always finds the best solution within the budget to affect consumers. "

Chinese consumer surveys show that most Chinese consumers use social media sites to watch videos and read, rather than buy clothes. However, because social media is a tool for information sharing and interaction, more and more consumers want brands and retailers to use these platforms to provide ideas and suggestions on what to wear (48%), to share their latest fashion styles (44%), to share coupons information, to push and discount information (41%), to provide loyal fans with unique discounts and coupons (36%), and to release entertainment videos about their products. Slightly more than 1/4 of consumers (27%) want social media sites to buy clothes.

What is absolutely useless for consumers is false comments, advertisements, social accounts and counterfeit products. Gartner said that such information would have a negative impact on brands, only 53% of consumers said they trusted the brand, compared with 65% a year ago. The company said that block chains provide unique opportunities for brands to solve these trust problems, especially the topic of supply chain and transparency.

Liu Dawei said that China's major enterprises are already addressing the concerns of these consumers.

"The main online shopping platforms like Tmall and Jingdong, as well as the social marketing platform based on brand marketing such as Red, are trying to reduce the number of fake reviews and counterfeit products," Liu Dawei said. Consumers are increasingly aware of buying products from authorized channels such as Tmall and Jingdong's flagship flagship stores and shopping centers. A decline in brand confidence means that consumers are more aware of false reviews and fake and shoddy products.

Although it is not easy to restore trust, Liu Dawei agreed with Gartner's view that measures could be taken to improve the situation.

"Brands should better manage and maintain their online stores and avoid false comments," he said. They should also provide quality products and after-sales services to ensure consistency between consumers' actual experience and reviews, so as to build consumer trust. Block chain technology provides a solution for trust problems. Each transaction can be traced through a block chain. Therefore, if any link on the trading line is identified as containing false information or products, we will be able to dig out the whole line. "