WeChat Store

With an astonishing 1.26 billion active monthly users and the highest number of daily visitors in China, WeChat has become much more than just a messaging app – it’s now one of the biggest social platforms around! This provides countless opportunities for businesses to reach their target markets through WeChat, building relationships with customers and offering products right within the platform itself. It’s no wonder why thousands have already jumped on this modern digital bandwagon!

One of the best solutions for businesses in the Chinese market is the opportunity to build their own WeChat mini-programs, where companies can present their brands, publish announcements, and mini-games, and, most importantly, create their own WeChat Stores. Building a WeChat shop requires some skills and know-how, therefore, there are some platforms, that offer to create WeChat Stores for you.

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A short introduction to WeChat

WeChat has revolutionized the way Chinese people use mobile devices, becoming a powerhouse of features and functions. It’s more than just another messaging app like Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger – it offers so much more!

As one of the world’s biggest super apps in the Chinese market, in China known as Weixin, there is no surprise that its dominant position often draws comparisons to Facebook. With an array of capabilities unmatched by any other platform today – such as easy payments and access to government services – WeChat continues pushing boundaries far beyond our expectations.

Wechat statistics 2022

WeChat features

WeChat is the best example of a super-app, that is very popular in China. WeChat users can:

  • Send messages (voice and video) and make voice and video calls
  • Share photos, text, and videos using WeChat Moments, which is like a feed on Facebook
  • Check the WeChat Official Accounts of brands and companies they like
  • Shop using WeChat Stores, which are linked to a specific WeChat Official Account of each brand, so they can be sure about the origin of the products
  • Use WeChat Channels, which is a built-in short-video platform like Tik Tok
  • Play games and do many other things using WeChat mini-programs
  • Pay for services and products using WeChat Pay without leaving the app
  • Order a taxi, pay the bills, order food, rent a bike, buy plane tickets, and many more
  • Businesses can also invest in WeChat ads, such as WeChat Moment ads and WeChat mini program ads

WeChat is an all-in-one app, that serves as a whole ecosystem and micro internet, where users can spend hours without leaving the app at all.

WeChat App features

How do WeChat Stores work?

Wechat stores are digital storefronts that allow companies to sell and promote their products directly to consumers through the Wechat messaging app. They are developed in so-called WeChat mini-programs and are available to business entities having a WeChat Official Account.

Wechat stores are a convenient way for Chinese consumers to buy products from their favorite brands and retailers. They can browse and purchase products directly within the Wechat app, and receive instant notifications about order status, shipping tracking information, and other updates.

Gucci wechat store
Gucci WeChat Store

Why is it worth having a WeChat Store?

Retailers generally have three options to sell in China:

  • E-commerce platforms: Taobao, Tmall, and Jingdong (the most popular ones)
  • Own stores on social media platforms; WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Douyin
  • Selling through the company’s website

Online sales account for nearly 85% of overall sales. However, companies are starting to move away from e-commerce platforms. In favor of social media platforms, which start offering e-commerce services.

The reasons due to this change are:

  • First, the client belongs to them, and not to the company.
  • Second, it isn’t easy to create a unique identity, because you must comply with the provisions of their site.
  • Third, you pay a third-party provider (TP) a lot of money to maintain, market, and realize your products.

WeChat Stores provide businesses with the perfect platform to reach their ideal customers, increase traffic to their site and make a lasting impression in Mainland China. With customizable features that speak directly to your brand identity, WeChat gives you unparalleled access to one of the largest growing audiences in the world – making it an invaluable tool for any business looking to expand its presence across borders.

WeChat allows businesses to have an official account and launch their e-commerce site as an HTML application integrated into their site. One of the biggest advantages of having a WeChat store is the fact that it’s way cheaper than listing your products on Tmall or JD.

Today there are more than 70 million mini-programs and they have an audience of more than 450 million monthly viewers. More than 95% of e-commerce brands own WeChat Stores and provide e-commerce services to WeChat customers within the platform.

What are the main advantages for businesses and WeChat users

A WeChat store allows you to provide your users with easy and mobile access to your products and a convenient way to manage payments. There is another significant advantage of WeChat blinds: the customer.

WeChat is indeed the first Chinese social network, and it is more natural for users to search public accounts on WeChat for information. By asking customers to purchase through your store WeChat, connected to your public account WeChat, give them a built-in, intuitive way to talk to your customer service: simply speaking or writing on the public account WeChat.

Your WeChat store also allows you to easily send discounts to your customers via Wechat official accounts on WeChat. Keep your users up-to-date on the latest promotion and keep them engaged with your brand! You can also post WeChat ads in your WeChat mini-program, accept WeChat payments that support foreign currencies, allowing for cross-border e-commerce, and much more!

How to open a store on WeChat? Biggest third-party providers: Weidian and Youzan

For businesses looking to establish a presence on the WeChat platform, there are plenty of 3rd party providers in China offering their services. Similar to Shopify or Magento for online stores in the West, these companies can help create your own Wechat store in a WeChat mini program, linked to your service account that gives customers access to products and purchases through WeChat Pay–all without needing any special development tools.

Are you looking to develop the ultimate WeChat store? With various companies vying for your attention, there are two frontrunners in China: Weidian and Youzan. Let’s take a look at the features both of these platforms offer so that you can make an informed decision!

Weidian – a free-of-charge solution for having a WeChat shop

Weidian is a powerfully efficient solution for creating stores directly on the WeChat platform. Hundreds of businesses have already taken advantage of this free, reliable CMS to offer their products and services to an ever-growing Chinese customer base that can trace deliveries from any purchase they make. It’s ridiculously simple; just list your inventory with offerings like promotions and watch what happens!

Weidian is free and offers a paid version with more features for 4200 yuan per year. It’s a very user-friendly platform with no expertise required, that offers many templates and features to build a simple WeChat Store. Although, the majority of stores are operated by small business owners and retailers rather than well-known brands, causing a trust deficit in users (about authenticity and quality of product) and limited pre-defined product categories.

Youzan – the most popular Wechat store provider on the market

With over 400 million stores on WeChat, Youzan is the largest third-party WeChat e-commerce platform in China, with a revenue of 1.8 billion CNY. Although it’s a paid solution (6500 yuan per year), Youzan offers more features and customized navigation menus and templates, so you can adapt your WeChat store to your needs better than with Weidian.

It offers features like receiving promotion pop-ups, event alerts, coupons, group purchases, letter draws, and many more.

Youzan takes the challenge out of WeChat marketing for your brand with its remarkably fast-loading mini-programs and support for leading platforms like Alipay, Baidu, and Weibo. Its comprehensive features make it simple to redirect traffic from different channels into one streamlined storefront – a key factor in any successful digital strategy.

And, what is most important, it offers a great user experience to the customers. They can enter Wechat shops within WeChat, and the interface is intuitive and very user-friendly, which ends up in a high conversion rate for brands’ WeChat Store.

Prepare your site for e-commerce for WeChat

To prepare your Web site for WeChat, you must follow several steps.

  1. First, the language and currency. Your e-commerce store must be multilingual and Multicurrency and support simplified Chinese and the RMB.
  2. Secondly, the payments. Your e-commerce store must support WeChat compensation. This is the only method of payment allowed on the WeChat platform.
  3. Thirdly, the accounts. Users should be forced to create an account via WeChat. Before you can map your customers to their WeChat identifiers so that you can send push messages and promotions.
  4. Fourth, mobile-first. Most of the sites of e-commerce in China don’t even have a desktop version. No one checks WeChat on the desktop. This means that the user experience in China is a first mobile experience as opposed to a mobile response. This means that your Web site should appear and feel on a mobile phone more like a native app than a website.

Conclusion: which solution is better for your WeChat account?

If you’re a small company with limited resources looking to test if WeChat is the right marketplace for your brand, consider setting up shop on Weidian first. It’s an excellent platform that offers a simple design and hassle-free functionality – perfect for even the tightest of budgets!

When it comes to a big brand looking for an advanced WeChat Store, Youzan is the top choice. With features like gamification and detailed tracking systems, this platform offers brands everything they need to effectively reach their customers in China. It’s no surprise that many renowned names have chosen this option or developed a mini-program of their own!

Do you need a Wechat ECommerce Agency? 

If you need help with your WeChat Account, own Wechat store set-up, WeChat payments, QR codes, electronic wallet, and more, feel free to contact us.

We are a China digital agency with more than 10 years of experience in the field. We helped over 600 brands, and a big part of our work happens on WeChat, where we develop marketing strategies, shops, mini-programs, moment ads, customer service, and many more. We have the know-how you need!

Here are our WeChat services:

Don’t hesitate to contact us or leave us a comment, to schedule a free consultation with one of our experts.

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2 Comments

  1. Hello,
    We have several wechat stores, and we resell foreign Brands. We are searching for good products, and good brand to resell in China.
    Contact me and suggest me something if you are interested

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