La consommation en ligne et le pouvoir d’achat des consommateurs chinois ne cessent d’augmenter chaque année. Avec une population de plus d’1,4 milliards d’habitants, la Chine reste l’un des pays les plus “connectés” au monde. Plus de 850 millions de Chinois utilisent Internet en 2021, 79% sont des utilisateurs actifs de réseaux sociaux, 71% regardent du streaming et 74% font des achats en ligne sur leur smartphone. Selon une enquête menée en 2020, les deux tiers des consommateurs chinois ont déclaré avoir acheté des produits via un live stream. Cette nouvelle technique d’e-commerce apparue en Chine il y a quelques années, est appelée live shopping.
Qu’est-ce que le live shopping ?
Comme mentionné dans l’article Le Live Shopping en 2021 d’Eloise Bussy, le live shopping correspond à « une version digitale, augmentée et interactive du télé-achat. Il permet aux marques de présenter des produits en direct sur des plateformes dédiées ou des réseaux sociaux.»
Le live shopping sur les réseaux sociaux permet de rassembler des marques, des influenceurs célèbres et des téléspectateurs dans une diffusion vidéo en direct et un chat accessible à tous. Il arrive que des téléspectateurs reviennent sur un live stream sans effectuer d’achats afin de créer un lien émotionnel plus fort avec les marques, les produits et les personnalités. Les événements de live shopping classiques durent environ trois heures, tandis que les événements spéciaux peuvent se dérouler en continu.
Aujourd’hui, la diffusion en direct fait partie intégrante du e-commerce, générant 300 milliards de dollars en Chine cette année et représentant 11,7 % des ventes totales de e-commerce, selon Insider Intelligence.
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Une forme d’e-commerce plus interactive
Sur le live shopping, les animateurs racontent leurs expériences, présentent les produits, répondent aux questions et interagissent avec le public. Les téléspectateurs sont particulièrement attirés par l’aspect humain du live shopping. Lorsqu’ils regardent la démonstration d’un produit pendant que l’influenceur raconte ses expériences, un nouveau type de lien se crée. Ce lien ne se crée pas seulement avec l’influenceur, mais également avec la marque commercialisée. L’informalité du format permet aux consommateurs d’avoir une vision plus authentique et plus accessible des marques.
Le live shopping permet aux experts de réaliser des démonstrations sur les produits de la manière la plus vivante possible. Dans le même temps, le public peut poser des questions et recevoir des explications instantanément conduisant à des achats immédiats. Par ailleurs, le live shopping est idéal pour vendre des collections d’éditions limitées. Prenons le cas d’une mise en vente d’une série limitée de 100 baskets sur un live stream. Le nombre de téléspectateurs présents sur le live stream pourrait susciter davantage l’achat immédiat du produit d’édition limitée.
Taobao Live : une plateforme de live shopping en Chine
Crée en 2003, Taobao est le principal site web de ventes en ligne en Chine et appartient au géant Alibaba. En 2016, Taobao lance un service de live stream : Taobao Live. Il comprend différentes catégories de produits : mode, cosmétiques, alimentaire, articles ménagers, bijoux et accessoires.
À la fin de 2019, les consommateurs ont consacré plus de 350 000 heures par jour à visionner du contenu sur la plateforme. Le nombre de live streamers continue de croître chaque année, augmentant de 661 % entre 2019 et 2020. En 2020, Taobao Live a réalisé plus de 60 milliards de dollars de chiffres d’affaires.
« L’avenir du shopping sera plus dynamique, interactif et axé sur la rétroaction en temps réel. Le live stream offre un aperçu de ce futur et de nouvelles possibilités » a déclaré Yuan, responsable des opérations de contenu chez Taobao Live.
Le rôle des influenceurs
La collaboration avec des influenceurs célèbres est maintenant l’une des stratégies de marketing privilégiées par de nombreuses entreprises. Cette tactique est particulièrement répandue en Chine, où les Key Opinion Leader sont des influenceurs .
Les sessions de live shopping sont généralement animées par des influenceurs célèbres et peuvent atteindre des sommes exubérantes. Par exemple, l’influenceur Xinba a généré plus de 250 millions d’euros de vente en seulement 12 heures. L’influenceuse Viya a été suivie par plus de 80 millions de Chinois le jour du Singles’ Days.
Le live shopping peut aussi permettre de vendre des articles de grande valeur tels que des voitures. 4,5 millions de téléspectateurs ont suivi un live stream mettant en scène Geng Shuai, un créateur de kitsch. Durant ce live stream, 1 623 voitures ont été vendues en deux heures et demie par les influenceurs.
L’exemple de Victoria Secret à Shanghai
Victoria’s Secret a su tirer profit de la culture du live stream en Chine pour atteindre ses consommateurs. L’entreprise a lancé une diffusion en direct sur Youku, le Youtube chinois, lors de son show annuel à Shanghai. Ainsi, les téléspectateurs pouvaient effectuer des achats en regardant le show grâce aux liens incorporés au live stream, qui les envoyaient directement sur le site e-commerce.
If you are interested in China or even digital and business, you may have heard of the most popular and important online shopping festival in the whole country. Here is what made the success of these 2 dates which can be compared to the Black Friday.
Single day: 11.11
First, it is important to understand what this day represents.
This date originates from an university tradition in Nanjing during the 90’s. At that time, this day was reserved for newly graduated male students to celebrate their success and their freedom with friends. It reached not long after popularity amount female graduates. This date of November 11 was not chosen randomly but because of the four “1” that compose it: it is a synonym of individuality.
Over time, 11.11 has become the single day and then the day to celebrate single life throughout China.
In 2009, giant Alibaba seized this date to make it an annual festival for singles with lots of deals, mostly on Tmall. Very quickly, this event conquered the Chinese population and Alibaba took the opportunity to extend its influence on the market by selling, on this occasion, a large quantity of products at attractive prices. Today, with the help of the internet, this festival has crossed borders and many brands have started to promote it abroad.
In 2019, the Chinese e-commerce giant achieved 34.7 billion euros in sales, a new record. Due to the high demand, this year’s festival took place not only on November 11, the official date, but also from November 1 to 3. While we could expect a new record this year, no one would have imagined that Alibaba would beat its own record by doubling its sales: 62 billion euros.
Obviously, this can be explained, in this very special year, by the COVID 19 epidemic which has led the population to buy online more than usual, but also by the number of foreign brands which have developed their participation and Alibaba’s communication marketing. As numbers, this represents more than 250,000 brands including 475 with a turnover over 13 million euros at the end.
The e-commerce giant can also be proud of its cloud infrastructure which made it possible to process 583,000 orders per second.
Cosmetics were one of the best-selling product categories on the platform. The biggest brands were Chinese and Korean, but right behind were international brands which very quickly understood that it was in their interest to take part due to the power this event can offer. Additionally, Alibaba recently reiterated that collaborations with KOL and KOC are as important as doing livestreamings, super popular at the moment.
Double 12
12.12 was initially aimed to popularize Alipay and offer the possibility for offline stores to participate in the event. Nowadays, December 12th is considered as a sequel to 11.11 to sell extra stock leftovers and to help small offline business through its Taobao platform. Small and medium business can offer deals. Everything is digitized with easy transactions through Alipay, livestreamings, and online advertising campaigns.
This year, JD.com became the first Chinese’s online platform to allow consumers to pay with digital yuan. Even if a lot of online shopping sites don’t publish their sales, this one announced on their Wechat account almost 20 000 orders were made with this digital currency. The test was made in collaboration with the Suzhou municipality which gave away 20 million yuan through red packets.
Even if numbers were lower than the previous online shopping event in November, brands made great profit out of it. For example, consumers bought coupons for 9,000 cups of milk tea within 30 minutes and 24,000 movie tickets within an hour, according to Global Times.
Alibaba's Singles Day employees celebrating the 2018 Singles Day successful edition.
Alibaba’s Singles Day is the world’s largest shopping event of the year. Organized every year by Alibaba on the November 11th in China, the singles day generates more than US Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined in only 24 hours.
But how did it start and how does Alibaba make so much money on this very specific day?
Singles Day: the world largest e-commerce event
As previously said, Alibaba’s Singles Day is the world largest e-commerce event. Last year it generated 213,5 billion RMB, the equivalent of 30,7 billion US dollar in one single day. With a constant increase through time, Alibaba’s singles day generate more than any other e-commerce anymore over the globe. For instance, even by gathering the worldwide known Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which respectively generated 6,22 Billion USD and 7,9 Billion USD in 2018, it does not even reach half of the Alibaba’s Singles Day Gross Merchandised Value (GMV).
Like every year, in 2018, the 9th edition of the Singles Day event broke again many international records for an e-commerce platform. The most astonishing one being the milestone of 1 billion USD sales reached in only 1 minutes and 25 seconds. Even with a slight decrease in the growth (+27% in 2018, compared to the +39% of 2017) the event doubles its total GMV every couple of years.
Alibaba’s Singles Day growth over time
How was created the Singles Day?
Even if this very particular day is known as Alibaba’s Singles Day, this e-commerce holiday was not created by the Alibaba Group. It is based on a famous Chinese expression, Guānggùn Jié or 光棍节 in mandarin which means “bare sticks holiday” or “single day”. November 11th, written has 11/11 represent 4 single persons gathered, related to bachelor, single and unattached. First celebrated in 1993 by Nanjing University student, the Singles Day was a day when bachelor people were buying gifts for themselves, celebrating being single.
This tradition is one of the blow backs of the Chinese One Child Policy and its influence on the proportion of men in the Chinese society. With almost 30 million more men than women in the population, this cultural holiday was born.
However, China had to wait until 2009 when Daniel Zhang, the actual CEO of Alibaba since 2015, had the idea to turn this cultural holiday into an e-commerce celebration. Lost between 2 important events, between China National Day on October the 1st, and the Spring Festival from January to February, the Singles Day comes in a perfect spot for a shopping event. This 4-month period has no event, and Alibaba exploited this opportunity, turning this cultural holiday into the most important e-commerce event.
Alibaba’s Singles Day going global strategy
This year, for the 10th anniversary of the Singles Day, Alibaba’s strategy is to promote this event worldwide and evolve it to a more international celebration. After using celebrities to promote the event of the past few years, like Nicole Kidman and Pharell Williams, Alibaba has teamed up with Taylor Swift. Particularly popular in China, Taylor Swift’s last 2 albums recorded better sales in China than in the US, her home country, making her the most suitable personality to spread this event over the Chinese borders.
Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s CEO since 2015, after the 11th November 2018 sales record.
For the 10th edition this year, more than 200 000 worldwide brands are expected on the event. With already 666 million mobile monthly active users in China, Alibaba is willing to expend its business abroad trying to reach 500 million consumers outside China. Even if the western population does not use e-commerce has Chinese people do, Alibaba has worked hard with different supports and subsidiaries all around the globe to achieve this objective. Now, all we can do is wait a few days and see how it goes after the 11/11.
Cet été, nous avons pu lire de nombreux articles annonçant la fin de l’argent liquide à partir de janvier 2022. Le développement des modes de paiements alternatifs annoncent-il l’obsolescence des espèces ? A quoi ressemblera le quotidien sans pièces ni billet et, nous iront plus loin, sans carte bancaire ?
C’est à peu de choses près le quotidien de près d’un milliard de chinois qui payent avec leur téléphone portable.
En sortant de chez soit le matin, vous achetez un jian bing au petit marchand en bas, et le payez en scannant son QR code. Vous l’emportez dans le bus, et plus besoin de sortir votre carte de métro, vous scannez votre QR code à la borne. A midi, vous commandez sur une application de livraison de nourriture, et au moment de payer, vous n’avez qu’à valider le paiement, votre compte de paiement est directement lié à votre application.
Le soir au supermarché, le caissier scanne votre QR code, vous passez chez le primeur, achetez vos fruits, et scannez le QR code du primeur, tout ça sans jamais sortir une pièce de monnaie.
En rentrant vous commandez quelque chose sur un site de e-commerce, et payez de nouveau avec votre smartphone.
Le propriétaire de votre appartement vous réclame le loyer du mois, et vous lui transférez l’argent instantanément sur l’application de messagerie.
Comment ce système fonctionne ?
Vous devez avoir un compte bancaire, que vous liez à vos applications de paiement mobile. En Chine, les deux principales sont Wechat Pay (du géant Tencent), et Alipay (du géant Alibaba). A noter que les deux ne sont pas utilisables en toutes situations, par exemple, il est impossible de commander sur Taobao (Alibaba) avec Wechat Pay.
Ensuite, il suffit de scanner le QR code du commerçant, ou qu’il scanne le vôtre, pour effectuer la transaction. Vous aurez besoin d’un mot de passe (ou de touch ID/face ID) pour accorder le paiement. Sur l’application de messagerie Wechat, il suffit d’ajouter une personne pour lui transférer de l’argent.
Ce système existe-t’il en France ?
Oui et non, il existe, mais il n’est pas autant au point qu’en Chine.
Vous connaissez sûrement Apple Pay, qui vous permet de payer jusqu’à 30€ grâce à votre téléphone portable.
Vous connaissez peut-être Lydia, qui permet de transférer de l’argent par sms à d’autres personnes détentrices de l’application, ou même parfois de payer un commerçant détenteur du système.
Ces modes ne sont pas encore très répandus en France, mais ce n’est que le début.
Si les banques ne se penchent pas sur cette question, des entrepreneurs prendront le devant et créeront une application de paiement mobile qui permettra de lier son compte bancaire à l’application, envoyer de l’argent à un ami, payer un commerçant, payer sur internet…
Y-a-t’il un risque ?
Pas plus qu’avec une carte bancaire classique. Pour payer avec son téléphone, il faut le déverrouiller, puis autoriser le paiement grâce à un autre mot de passe. En cas de vol, on peut toujours appeler la banque et bloquer la carte liée.
Les chiffres en France :
En France, le retrait moyen au distributeur automatique de billet est de 30€, soit nettement moins que dans le reste des pays Européens.
Le moyen de paiement le plus largement utilisé est la carte bleue à 50%.
Le paiement en liquide tend à réduire, et le paiement sans contact tend, lui, à se développer.
Une nouvelle loi d’ecommerce en Chine a pris effet dès le 1er Janvier 2019 renforçant les contrôles sur le marché du luxe en ligne en Chine. Si ces nouvelles régulations sont plutôt favorables, elles vont certainement changer le fonctionnement des marques en Chine.
La loi augmente la limite pour l’exonération d’impôts sur les achats en cross-border. En effet, la limite d’achat unique pour une personne augmente de $288 (RMB 2000) à $720 (RMB 5000) et le montant annuel augmente de $2900 (RMB 20 000) à $3780 (RMB 26 000). Les achats cross-border sous les nouvelles limites d’achats seront exclus de la taxe d’importation et recevront 30% de réduction sur les impôts liés à la consommation et la TVA.
Comment ces changements vont-ils se traduire pour le e-commerce shopping in China ? Comment les marques peuvent-elles s’adapter ?
Les plateformes d’ecommerce sont des gardiens
L’un des principaux objectifs de cette nouvelle loi du ecommerce est de rendre le commerce cross-border plus homogène. Le gouvernement Chinois a demandé aux plateformes d’ecommerce Chinois de renforcer les mesures d’entrées, avec plus de vérifications et de conditions afin de limiter le plus possible les activités frauduleuses (ex. Daigou).
Les Daigou sont des individuels, voyageant à l’étranger, qui achètent de nombreux produits de luxe, pour ensuite les revendre en ligne à un prix plus intéressant que le prix local Chinois de la marque.
Dans le passé, les faussaires sur les sites d’ecommerce étaient les seuls tenus responsables pour imiter les biens, à présent, les plateformes vont partager cette responsabilité. Si une plateforme ne parvient pas à identifier et arrêter le faussaire par elle-même, elle paraît être confrontée à une pénalité allant jusqu’à 2 millions de RMB, d’après Xinhua News.
Les sites d’ecommerce plus larges sont déjà préparés pour ces changements avec des protocoles demandant aux consommateurs de donner leur accord que les produits achetés sont uniquement pour leur propre usage et non la revente.
Le but est de simplifier la tâche au gouvernement Chinois pour identifier et collecter des preuves contre les daigou et les fraudeurs fiscaux.
Dans les faits, cela va permettre de réduire le nombre d’online stores sur les différentes plateformes donc moins de compétition.
Le Social E-commerce va se populariser
Les mesures répressives contre les Daigou seront bénéfiques pour les marques en Chine sur le long terme car elles seront en mesure d’avoir une meilleure image, plus d’authenticité mais aussi de couper les moyens d’acheter des marques en-dehors des canaux autorisés.
De plus en plus de plateformes ecommerce vont avoir recours à des KOLs (Key Opinion Leader) et à leur fanbase pour la commercialisation de produits. L’avis de ces personnes d’influences sera un véritable facteur de vente.
Taobao, la plateforme d’Alibaba, est déjà un pionnier vers le social e-commerce grâce à son rachat de Little Red Book (Xiao Hong Shu). En effet, les vendeurs sur Taobao ont la possibilité d’accepter les avis sur leurs pages produits. Cet ajout a grandement encouragé les achats sur la plateforme.
Little Red Book est un acteur indispensable pour les avis lorsque les consommateurs chinois veulent acheter des produits étrangers de luxe car ils peuvent bénéficier d’un avis expert.
WeChat avec sa fonction « Recherche » et l’accès à JD est également un pas en avant pour les utilisateurs. Le contenu mis en avant sur WeChat, Little Red Book devient plus orienté vers la vente de produits plutôt que de créer du trafic vers des marques.
En conclusion, cette nouvelle loi est jugée bonne pour tous les partis : le consommateur, les impôts, les marques avec des règles communes pour chacun.
Cependant, cela va accentuer la compétition entre les marques en même temps. Les consommateurs chinois sont habitués à avoir de nombreuses informations sur leurs produits mais aussi des garanties d’authenticité. Ils vont se concentrer de plus en plus à acheter des produits de luxe en Chine pour bénéficier des avantages fiscaux mentionnés plus haut tout en attendant plus de la part des marques.
Il est, actuellement, difficile de rentrer sur le marché Chinois mais il deviendra de plus en plus difficile d’y entrer et d’y rester surtout en cross-border.
How is Chinese e-commerce different from Western countries?
In China there are 800 million internet users, which is more than the total population of Europe, and more than the total internet users of the US and Europe COMBINED!
98% of them use a smartphone. That is more than double of the total USA population.
Mobile payments are very widespread. According to e-marketer, in China 81% of smartphones use mobile payments compared to 27% in the United States, and even less in many European countries.
When it comes to digital transformation in China, e-commerce is simply remarkable. Ten years ago, China’s e-commerce accounted for 1% of the world’s e-commerce, and in just one decade it went up to 42%. It has experienced annual growth rates of 296% in 2010 for instance.
In just a few years, Chinese e-commerce became the world’s biggest e-commerce market.
Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, said: “In the US, e-commerce is the dessert but in China it is the main course”.
But what makes e-commerce in China different from the west? Here are 7 key facts I have discovered while living in China for one year and a half:
1. Shopping experience
There’s no better example than the Singles Day vs. Black Friday shopping festivals.
Singles day 11-11 is a shopping festival that started in 2009 by Alibaba. The idea supposedly emerged from 4 college students who were single, and wanted to celebrate a day for single people, so it was 11/11 the chosen day to treat yourself.
Nowadays, singles day is the biggest shopping festival in the world . It’s just a few weeks before Black Friday in the USA, which is famous for the chaotic sales at stores. We have seen for years pictures of how people camp outside of stores to be the first to enter and get the best offers. After store doors open, people run in and they fight against each other to get discounted TV screens and all sorts of items:
Meanwhile, in China’s singles day, prices can be “reserved” weeks before singles day by paying a security deposit. People can buy the items they reserved sitting on their couches while watching the singles day gala, which is a show broadcasted nationwide.
Most people watch the gala because it is all about entertainment, viewers can have fun shopping while watching foreign artists like Katy Perry, Mariah Carey or Nicole Kidman, Cirque du Soleil performances, or watching Jack Ma perform as Michael Jackson:
Viewers can interact with the show through their phones, where they can play augmented reality games, get coupons, vote in polls, and watch in real time the sales across Alibaba’s platforms:
As all numbers in China are huge, Singles Day sales in the first 20 minutes were more than the total sales of Black Friday.
The graph below provided by Business Insider shows the total amount of sales in the Chinese and American shopping festivals.
Alibaba surely understands the importance of shopping experience. This is how high Chinese people’s expectations are.
2. Data collection makes shopping experience highly customizable
In China, privacy concerns are way lower than in Western countries. This allows to collect more data about consumer behavior.
For instance, Alibaba uses machine learning to recognize patterns in shopping behavior. The more you shop, and the more you search, the more accurate the suggestions become, and the overall experience becomes highly tailor-made. As Alizzila puts it: “product search results that have become uncannily accurate“.
You suddenly find suggestions of things you didn’t know you needed. It feels as if they are reading your mind. Not even the mind, but the subconscious mind because they know better than yourself what are the things you need, our will need.
Amazon suggestions are normally of similar items or things that other customers have bought, but the options are quite limited compared to the endless scroll down list of suggestions in Alibaba’s Taobao.
The comparison of product suggestions is shown below:
Amazon:
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Taobao:
This is what I see when I open Taobao after a few searches I made for room decorations. And I can scroll down for a long time and still discover items that match my taste and my needs, but I was not necessarily browsing them.
3. People love buying through messaging apps and groups
Setting up stores can be really expensive for brands, so a lot of them choose to open online stores within Wechat, the most popular Chinese messaging up.
I bet this sounds a bit strange, buying things through the Chinese equivalent of whatsapp? But as a matter of fact, Wechat is a one-stop app for many functions such as paying bills, playing games, sharing life with friends, ordering food, transferring money to friends, booking flights and trains, among many other functions, like e-commerce.
Wechat has 1 billion monthly active users! The majority of which use the app to pay virtually anything, everywhere, all day long.
Additionally, there are new e-commerce platforms emerging. For example, Xiaohongshu , which started a social media platform similar to Instagram and Pinterest, has recently integrated an e-commerce marketplace and is rapidly getting an important piece of cake in Chinese e-commerce. Pinduoduo , which is a group purchase platform, is another example of a rapidly growing e-commerce platform.
4. Customer service
Although overall customer service it is not great in China, it is a different story in ecommerce platforms. Chinese consumers are looking for personalized shopping experiences, which is why customer service is so important.
In China customer service is almost a shopping assistant service. People ask many questions before making an online purchase. So customer service is required in China as it is part of the sales process, whereas in the west we only call customer service if we have a problem.
Another advantage of the pre-sales customer service is that people can ask for discounts and I have seen that they are easily granted in platforms like Taobao for example. I had seen Chinese people like to bargain when shopping in markets, but I was surprised to find that in China you can even e-bargain!
Customer service in online Chinese platforms is sometimes even funny. I once got an “I love you” message from a store’s customer service in Taobao:
In fact, customer service tailored to Chinese people is one of the reasons that made Taobao, what was the time of a small platform created by Alibaba, defeat its big and international counterpart Ebay in the Chinese market.
Alibaba understood better the needs of Chinese sellers, so it removed the multiple fees for vendors that Ebay was charging and had vendor support chat to encourage and help sellers to perform better. Taobao also made it easy for buyers and sellers interact with each other.
It was such a success for Alibaba that just after a few years, Ebay closed its offices in China.This proves how essential personalized customer service is in the Chinese market.
Alibaba knows this well and it is now using Artificial Intelligence to create chatbots that help sellers deal with the heavy load of messages. According to Alizila, it is able to handle up to 95% of customer service inquiries service inquiries, and with machine learning, it tries to mimic human interaction.
In contrast, what I have experienced in other countries is that sometimes it’s nearly impossible to find customer service numbers and all you are left with is the endless FAQ list. And when you do find the number, you have to “wait in line for the next available representative”, hoping that this time your problem will actually be solved.
5. Product information
The incredible amount of information and content you find about each product on Chinese platforms, really leaves you without questions. Typically, most products have at least one video, several pictures, 3 – 5 key selling points, number of items sold, very detailed information about origin, materials, authenticity certificates, suggested uses, history of the brand, among others.
Taobao:
Amazon:
6. Delivery costs are VERY cheap:
The Chinese government has heavily invested in all sorts of infrastructure projects across the country and this, combined with cheap labor cost, have made the distribution costs of parcels very cheap. On average, the delivery cost in China is less than $2 USD per parcel, compared to $5 to $10 USD in the USA.
Moreover, the last mile delivery is less challenging in China than in other developed countries thanks to thousands of delivery guys across the country who the move the daily 76,000 parcels in their far from fancy electric motorbikes.
Just in 2018 the number of parcels delivered in China was more than 50 billion.
The last mile delivery in images:
Chinese “Kuaidi” The American “UPS guy”
7. Digital payment system:
Differently from many Western countries, most Chinese people went straight from cash to mobile payment (skipping the widespread use of credit card payments).
The two main payments systems are Alipay and Wechat pay, and they are used for all sorts of transactions. Paying with your phone is as simple as scanning a QR code and authorizing with your fingerprint. This of course makes e-commerce transactions very efficient, and the paying process is seaming-less.
In China cashiers don’t ask “cash or card?”, they ask “Wechat or Alipay?”. They would probably give you a weird look if you take out your wallet, but if you take out your card they would completely freak out.
There has even been some evidence of beggars accepting mobile payments with a QR code hanging from the neck.
In the near future, it will be possible to pay basically just with your face. Facial recognition payments are happening now in China, although they are not as widespread as QR codes yet.
To conclude:
I wanted to illustrate how China is now a trend-setter in e-commerce, and it is a huge market full of opportunities for foreign brands. However, it is imperative for brands to localize their strategies, to understand the local culture, and to be prepared to educate Chinese consumers about Western products, since they are not familiar with many brands or products that for us are simply normal.
When coming to China we have to stop doing things as we do in other countries, we have to think out of the box and most importantly, stop assuming that China will adopt a Western culture or follow Western rules. Although they like to follow Western trends, as a matter of fact it is us as foreigners who need to understand how Chinese people perceive and interpret our product, our concept or our ideas, and how it meets their tastes, lifestyle, beliefs, etc. in order to adapt in a respectful and creative way.
Many of us have the wrong idea about China before coming. But when you start discovering China you realize that nowadays it is much more than a manufacturing country. It is a very dynamic place where innovation happens at a very high pace. And e-commerce is just one example of what we live every day in Digital China.
After a visionary Class in February 2018 with ESSCA #MBADMB team, I am pleased to give you more information about Csjbot Strategy in China & abroad.
Through Artificial intelligence (AI), robots can is a huge market in China. In our coming future, robots will be more and more present in our companies, not only to replaces employees but also to support them in their work.
That is why to visit the Team of Csjbot was amazing to have because our MBA team learned a lot about robots and what they do.
What Csjbot Robots are powerful in China and abroad?
In China
Robot can help companies to increase their turn over becoming more and more by industrialisation of products.
Robots can be used in Services sectors and there is a ROI (Return On Investment in China).
Robots are online selling & promotions on WeChat ALIBABA, TAOBAO(Chinese e-commerce plateforms) related to their website : www.csjbot.com. WeChat Mini Programs in China
New jobs to support the robots too develop more technically.
China is huge market for robots and robots efficiency will become one day very helpful for world wide firms. Even today robots are assets for servicing and industrialisation business sectors.
Out of China
Csjbot have partners in the US markets and in Europe (Spain, Italy and Romania) to sell their robots and it is starting to be a success overseas.
New skills for experts in Digital Marketing & Business can be created in the future to increase the development of industrial and servicing companies.
To develop a robot you have different partnerships with Europe and US. So when a robot is manufactured, you have world wide competences in one robot.
Even you have less than 5 % of companies who use robots assets, it will be become more and more inside of international firms in the coming 20 years
Robots will support the company team to be more and more efficient.
What Csjbot Robots can be funny to use?
Robots can dance : The 540 robots dance performances even applied for the Guinness Book of Records! In recent years, artificial intelligence has gradually come into people’s daily life from distant highs, by giving the audience an eye-opener on the rapid development of artificial intelligence today.
The example of Csjbot is really important because with their 2 robots :
“Amy Robot” who is dealing services like in a restaurant area to serve your customers who orders to the robot what he/she wants for meals.
“Samy Robot” who is programming to give you a human exchange
CsjBots interviews by Florence Rouchy, following the Discovery class of our MBA in Digital Marketing near Shanghai on February 2nd, 2018
The 6th of December 2017, Starbucks opened his bigger shop around the world in Shanghai. It’s called the ‘Reserve Roastery’ and it’s located on West Nanjing Road (Nanjing Xi Lu) a really famous and touristic street in Shanghai.
STARBUCKS IN CHINA
Starbucks came in China in 1999 but their success wasn’t sure, due to the huge consumption of tea in China. But since 2012 and thanks to the strong strategy build by Belinda Wong (who’s now the Starbucks Chinese’ CEO), the brand success to establish itself in the landscape of major Chinese cities.
Starbucks China in numbers :
Today, there’s 3000 Starbucks in China
A new Starbucks open every 15 hours in the country
There are 600 Starbucks only in Shanghai
Their goal for 2020 is to reach 5000 shops in China
SHANGHAI RESERVE ROASTERY
The brand define it as « a coffee theater with a Chinese Spirit ». This is the second Reserve Roastery that Starbucks opens in the world. The first one opened in 2014 in Seattle, but the chinese one is two times bigger ! We are here on a 2 700 square meter’s shop, which is 15 times bigger than a classic Starbucks’s shop (around 200 m2).
This only shop counts 400 employees, and can serves around 500 persons at the same time !
The store concept :
Here, the specific thing is the store concept : we are on a unique retail experience. This is a up market store with a premium quality of products and services. We’ll find an in-house artisanal bakery, a long coffee bar, a Teavana bar, a shop with clothes, goodies, food, italien catering (in collaboration with Prince Bakery), cooking utensils and professional tools for coffee or tea making. The coffee Aficionado will also find rare products, such as « grands crus » unfindable elsewhere, such as Yunnan, a region best known for its teas.
TaoBao & Alibaba :
But this shop is also a showcase for Alibaba’s technology. With the TaoBao app, Starbucks offers us an interactive experience to discover virtually the process of coffee roasting.
Just open your app, and you’ll have access to the drinks & food menu. But you’ll have also access to several augmented reality experiences with your smartphone : just scan the shop to discover the different steps of coffee transformation, the utility of each machine and how coffee tastes evolve during these steps.
When you interact with a machine, you’ll collect a badge. More interactions you’ll have with the shop, and more badges you’ll collect. Each badge represent a special photo filter that you can use to take a selfie, and then share on social medias. It thought to create buzz and it works !
Future plans
If this shop is a success, Starbucks will open 3 other Reserve Roastery in the world : one in New York, one in Tokyo and one in Milan (Italy of course, the country of coffee and espresso).
MY OPINION ABOUT THIS SHOP
The thing that really surprise me when I came inside the Reserve Roastery is the smell. Usually, when I go into a Starbucks, I expect to smell the sweet smell of coffee. Here, barely you open the doors, the smell of pizza invades you. The white and green shop lets place to a vast area of wood and gold. No power socket here, no worktables : we are more on a Muji shop style than a traditional Starbucks. Here, we sell coffee, pizzas, coats, cups and backpacks gloriously branded ‘Reserve Roastery Shanghai’. We are swept away in a whirlwind of products, bars, choices, people and yet we are amazed by this abundance and immensity. An experience that I would describe as truly unique. I felt like Denise coming to ‘Au bonheur des Dames’ in the Zola’s novel.
« You guys have transformed China, a country drinking tea, and you make so many people love coffee. I don’t like coffee, but I like Starbucks. »
Jack Ma
Jack Ma at the inauguration of the Reserve Roastery on December 5, 2017
