Every week China is abound with interesting going-ons, but what caught my eye this week was the activity around the new pair of ‘Pants’ towering over the city of Sozhou in Jiangsu Province. Weibo users have been making thousands of comments about Sozhou’s newest skyscraper, Gate of the Orient, a tower resembling a pair of trousers almost as tall as New York’s Chrysler Building.
Pants aside, the week has also seen the usual spread of helpful and insightful news & views to help you sell more in China. Enjoy!
Understanding Chinese Consumers
What Chinese Shoppers Really Do But Will Never Tell You: A comprehensive report from July following research into 40,000 Chinese household’s shopping habits and brand loyalty. A lot to digest, but well worth the read.
China’s Consumers – Because They’re Worth It: Food & Beverage up 17%, tops consumer spending growth in China. WSJ report on what’s up & down for Chinese consumers.
China’s Consumer Market Development Over The Past Decade: The official stats from Xinhua on Chinese consumer spending changes over the past 10 years.
The Chinese Consumer In 2020: A brief, high level view based on McKinsey reports.
New Program Aims To Ease Flow Of Foreign Brands To Chinese Consumers: Apparently the Chinese Government has set up a program which will buy foreign products in advance to help increase China’s balance of trade. Sounds a little dubious, but China is full of surprises.
The Internet in China
Taobao SEO: A Guide To One Of The World’s Largest Consumer Marketplaces: Great article with tips on getting your share of the 50,000 sales every minute on China’s massive ecommerce market, Taobao.
5 Things Communispace Learned About Engaging Chinese Consumers Online: 5 pieces of advice from a US-based consulting firm selling western products to Chinese consumers.
Criminals Fleece Chinese Consumers Via eCommerce: Once bitten, twice shy Chinese consumers prefer trusted methods such as Alipay and proven sites such as Taobao/Tmall given almost a third of China’s 198 million online shoppers have been duped by scam sites.
Social Media
5 Reasons Why Anyone Selling To China Should Be On Weibo: Our view on why it’s essential to have Weibo in your marketing strategy in China.
Mobile Phones
China joins smartphone revolution: Smartphones outsold normal mobiles in China April-June. 44m Smartphone shipments v 43m normal, although Apple’s market share halved.
Payments & Commerce
Deloitte’s Prediction on Mobile Payments in China by 2015: 2012: Few Chinese consumers use credit cards. 2015: Mobile payments will be the main way Chinese consumers transact says Deloitte Beijing.
Food & Beverage
China’s Worsening Food Safety Crisis : Exporting Food & Beverage to China? China’s unfortunate reality is likely to be good news for you. 82% of urban Chinese say food is the most worrisome safety concern while an estimated 300m suffer foodborne disease annually.
How Chinese Consumers View Western And Domestic Fast Food Chains: Chinese consumers think foreign fast food chains offer better service, sanitary, hygiene & ambiance, but local chains have more variety, tastier & nutritional food.
That’s the skinny for the week!
If you’ve missed earlier news or need to learn more, there’s a trove of information about Chinese consumers in prior China Skinny Weeklys right here. You can have this delivered to your inbox each week by subscribing for email updates, or if social media is more your thing, please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or Google+, or subscribe to our RSS feed. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future articles, please let us know.
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