Chinese Apparel Market is the number one in the World and more than 70% of Chinese Already buy Cloths online. How International Apparel Brand should Develop their E-Commerce Business in China?
Good question because it is not that easy.
China’s economic growth is still high more than 8% in 2018. This was a big surprise for everyone. Despite this slowdown, the new Chinese middle class continues to grow and still consumes more buying especially online. The thirst of those Chinese consumers for brands and products from abroad remains a great opportunity for luxury brands and fashion in China.
A 3.9 Billion Market
- Chinese consumers bought 3.877 trillion yuan (589.61 billion US dollars) of products online in 2015.
- There was an increase of 33.3% from last year according to the National Statistics Office in China. In the US, online sales totaled $ 341.7 billion in 2015. Online sales in China surpassed online sales in the United States. China is by far the largest e-commerce market in the world.
- Brands and overseas traders contributed to the growth in China. Indeed, there is a strong demand in the Chinese middle class for foreign products such as Apple iPhone, Wal-Mart stores, imported food, brand ready-to-wear foreign.
Among one of the e-commerce market growth factors is the possibility for Chinese consumers living in villages far from the city to have access to all the same products abroad. These Chinese consumers are now very often connected to the Internet from their mobile.
- In June 2015, China had 668 million Internet users
- about 89% of them, approximately 594 million were connected from their smartphones according to the Information Center of China Internet.
- Just during the festival of Alibaba’s Singles’ Day in November, Chinese consumers bought $ 14 billion of goods and 70% of these sales were made from mobile.
Rural areas where there are still few physical stores available to consumers represent an enormous potential for brands of ready-to-wear available online. - In fact, 186 million Internet users live outside major Chinese cities in 2015. The marks must further encourage these consumers to shop.
- Alibaba built 100 000 service centers in small towns and villages to help people buy online or become traders as 8 million sellers on Taobao.
Since 2012, the Chinese government has revised several of these policies to facilitate the purchase of products abroad via the internet for Chinese consumers.
China does not collect the sales tax from the cross-border e-commerce market and the customs tax rights on objects in certain categories have been reduced by more than half for items purchased on websites outside China.
This is why it has become very attractive for foreign brands to expand into the eCommerce market in China. Many luxury brands are already taken the lead. Either foreign businesses have their own website or they can go through major Chinese platforms such as e-commerce Alibaba and Tmall.
Tmall is a B2C e-commerce platform its offer is vast and diverse, but still heavily focused on fashion. When you visit the site, you can see the different categories which allow consumers to switch from one category to another and see the many products offered on the site.
The example of Burberry on Tmall:
With its typical British luxury appeal, Burberry reported a great success in China. In addition to having already opened 78 stores in 36 cities in China and its official online website, the brand launched its official online store on Tmall. The choice may seem surprising, but this is a very good strategy to reach Chinese consumers and consolidate the Chinese market.
Given the disappointing results of the retail offline, Burberry decided to enjoy the thirst for high-end products and online luxury Chinese consumers, boosted by the outstanding performance of the entire e-commerce market. In addition, increasing its online presence through official channels, the brand takes the risk to greatly reduce the gray market power on fake Burberry products.
- Massively available in most Chinese e-commerce platforms, Tmall first.
The official online store on Tmall Burberry follows the same visual rules that the official website of the brand, dividing products into the different sections of the top menu tab and in the middle of the home page.
- see also tips to promote your Tmall and Tmall services
Rado on Tmall
- Rado’s Swiss watch brand was also launched on the Chinese e-commerce market. It has opened its official online store on Tmall. which is the only official online store in China.
The focus is on the female collection Jubilee followed by all other collections by scrolling down.
Tmall is the Chinese official online store of Rado, which is why it is quite complex, with multiple sections. Thus the entire collection of the brand is available, and also the pages of information related to the brand’s history as well as famous celebrities wearing the watch.
Meici.com
In recent years, many e-commerce sites and lines in stores focused on fashion and luxury have stimulated the Chinese market. These are independent sites official trademark sites. These sites offer users a new experience of shopping in high-end lines. Here the example of Meici.com
Meici
Meici.com aims to bring the latest fashion trends and innovative shopping experiences online to Chinese customers through digital platforms. It is among the first luxury e-commerce companies, and it creates a lot of experience and innovative services. At the same time, Meici.com publishes the e-magazine called Fashion Mzine that combines the fashion media and e-commerce, which helps to completely remodel the online shopping experience.
Meici.com exclusively sells luxury brands, high-end products and fashion. However, the most popular and functional page Meici.com is “Mzine” which combines trends, content and products together.
Regarding the guarantee on the authenticity of products, Meici.com ensures that all products on the site are authentic and international brands. It also provides return and exchange services within 7 days of purchase, and accept customer identification applications, as Vip.com. In addition, on request Meici.com provide a copy of the invoice and gives some suggestions on how to check whether the product is genuine or not.
Need an E-Commerce Agency ?
Please have a look to our Sevices
For More Information :
China’s Digital Platforms and Social Networks
With a lack of digital brands and social networks we’re accustomed to in the US, where exactly do Chinese users hang out?
You came to the right place with that question…
http://mysocialgameplan.com/digital-marketing/digital-marketing-china-what-you-need-to-know
Do you have an new article speaking about sell in China to put Suzy no?