UK brands market in China

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UK brands of all sizes are increasing their investments in marketing to the fast-growing consumer market in China. From 2010 to today, UK exports to China have grown by a healthy 60%.

Why China? For one thing, Brexit uncertainty is an issue in the business environment and therefore, many marketers are looking to new markets for new opportunities. This is one of the reasons why British fruit grower Haygrove farm is expanding in China, providing berries grown in China for that market.

Other brands are choosing to enter the Chinese market through online shopping portals. For instance, JD Worldwide (jd.com) is a popular shopping portal in China that already features signature UK fashion brands like Burberry, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen.

Also, Chinese consumers are buying from UK marketers because they don't want to risk buying counterfeit goods--they want the real thing, purchased directly from the brand or an authorised retailer.

Alibaba, the largest ecommerce firm in China (or perhaps anywhere), is targeting British marketers that want to connect with Chinese consumers. On Alibaba's Singles Day (11 Nov), UK brands (including New Look and Marks & Spencer) received an enthusiastic response by Chinese buyers making purchases from Alibaba. Watch for more UK brands to target Chinese consumers as they expand their global marketing.

Trend: Online businesses opening physical locations

Trendy Products, which sells furniture online, has opened a 'digital concept showroom' in Cardiff. Trendy is, in fact, on trend, as more e-businesses add physical locations to allow customers to see and experience products, chat with salespeople, access digital catalogues and then make buying decisions.


Trendy has been in business for a decade, building a strong customer base. Now it plans to open more showrooms, expanding beyond digital to reach consumers who want to experience the product and consult with designers before they buy.

One reason for this trend is the availability of good retail locations. Many years of dismal economic growth and cautious consumer spending pushed a large number of stores into administration. Competition from online businesses has also caused retailers and other businesses to shutter some branches that weren't doing well. The result: vacancies in desirable shopping areas. And thanks to good space availability, some retail businesses are actually doing better.


Amazon, the pioneering e-tailer, arranged for space in sections of existing US retail stores for the 2017 holiday season. It owns the Whole Foods Market grocery chain, where it set up displays and sold products. But it also opened some mall stores and rented space in other department stores, enabling shoppers to see and trial Kindles and other products.

Alibaba, China's online retail giant, is adding a physical presence in key cities through partnerships and through, well, giant vending machines.

Each consumer-friendly Alibaba automated location (like the concept shown here) will sell Ford automobiles, starting with a test drive offered to consumers who qualify with sufficient credit to complete the purchase.

Alibaba's 9th Annual Singles Day sets records again

Did you shop online during 11 November? In China, Alibaba Group has designated 11/11 ('Double Eleven') as Singles Day since 2009. The world's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba wanted to encourage singles to 'buy for yourself or a friend' with special discounts and star-studded promotions for the 24 hours of 11 November.

This annual promotion has paid off, making Singles Day a much, much bigger sales day than Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day. Year after year, Alibaba's Singles Day has pushed sales higher and higher. In 2017, consumers clicked on Alibaba e-commerce sites or visited in-person sites to purchase merchandise worth £19bn.

Yes, that's billion.

And Singles Day was truly a global event in 2017, with marketers from many nations participating by offering goods via Alibaba retail platforms. The company splashed out on its Global Shopping Festival Gala (above) featuring celebrities from around the world.

The result was a day of buying that broke the 2016 record by nearly 40%. In all, 812 million transactions were processed, a record-setting number -- and Alibaba says 90% of transactions were conducted on mobile devices, a key element of consumer buying behaviour these days.

Who's marketing in China?

The Chinese market is large and its economic growth is outpacing that of many major markets worldwide. No wonder so many companies see China as a key market for goods and services. Four examples:

• Reckitt Benckiser recently acquired the baby formula firm Mead Johnson with an eye towards selling more in China, now that the one-child policy has been changed and the birth rate is increasing. RB has marketed other brands in China, recognising the power of global brands that are already established.
  
  
• Mattel, which owns Barbie and other toy brands, is working with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to research the local market and develop appropriate products. 'By combining Mattel's unmatched expertise in childhood learning and development with Alibaba's immense reach and unique consumer insights, our goal is to help parents in China raise children to be their personal best', says Mattel's CEO.
• Shanghai Disney, opened in June 2016, expects to welcome 10 million visitors by the time it celebrates its first anniversary. Just as important, the strong attendance is helping the theme park race towards its break-even point and become profitable soon, banking on the high brand awareness of Disney characters and the entertainment experience of family fun.
• The luxury watch brand Cartier markets in China by leveraging its connection with singer/actor Lu Han and through social media marketing. Celebrity spokespeople are credible and influential here, and world-class status-symbol brands are also coveted.

Alibaba Makes Singles Day into a Global Phenomenon

From Alibaba Group, a screen shot of its video about Singles Day shopping

Singles Day is, like Black Friday, a retailer-promoted shopping day of discounts in which consumers in China (mainly single people but in reality, anyone looking for a bargain) are encouraged to buy for themselves.

Also known as 11-11 or Double 11 in China, Singles Day has become a shopping phenomenon because of the incredible marketing muscle of Alibaba Group, China's powerhouse e-commerce retailing group.

Alibaba began promoting Singles Day in 2009, when millions of Chinese consumers were becoming accustomed to shopping online. The first year, 27 merchants participated.

Today, nearly 700 million consumers in China shop online--a gigantic audience that warrants the serious attention of retailers in China and beyond.

In 2015, Alibaba targeted shoppers worldwide with 11-11 super-bargains, and it saw purchases surge 60% beyond last year's total. During the 24 hours of Singles Day, the company's retail sites processed purchases worth an estimated £9.4 billion, with well more than half of the purchases being made via mobile devices.

Black Friday originated in the US but is increasingly spreading to other countries. UK shoppers are already changing their buying patterns, analysts say, in anticipation of big discounts being offered on 27 November, the day after the US Thanksgiving Day.

Singles Day = #1 Online Shopping Day

Not Christmas, not Black Friday, not even Valentine's Day can compare to the online shopping frenzy of China's Singles Day.

On November 11 (all ones, 11/11, get it?), singles browse for bargains and shop (usually online, increasingly via mobile). And shop. And shop.

Alibaba--by far the world's largest e-commerce business, with wholesale and retail sites for shoppers in China and beyond--has helped fuel this shopping extravaganza. In 2009, it introduced an array of Singles Day shoppers' specials on its various sites. The promotions were so successful that Alibaba eventually trademarked 'double eleven' and continued to expand the scope of its marketing.

In 2014, Alibaba's marketing for Singles Day began during October, with preorders at special prices. Once again, the company's extensive reach and promotional clout paid off: It recorded one-day sales of £5.9 billion on Singles Day, a hefty increase over the 2013 results. Alibaba is already looking ahead to even better results in 2015 as Chinese consumers exercise their buying power via mobile devices.

Alibaba's complex network of marketplaces is designed, the company explains, as a business ecosystem with a specific purpose:

We operate an ecosystem where all participants – consumers, merchants, third-party service providers and others – have an opportunity to prosper.

The world's largest e-commerce firm

In terms of revenue, the largest c-commerce firm on Earth is . . .

. . . not Amazon.com or eBay or even Google.

Think East. Far East.

Alibaba Group, owner of fast-growing e-commerce sites such as Tmall, taobao.com and 1688.com, rings up more revenue than Amazon and eBay combined.

Its 1688.com is the world's largest B2B marketplace, with 100 million users.

Taobao (see screen shot), now a decade old, is China's largest online shopping market, with 500 million users and 24 million transactions every day. Taobao is already expanding beyond China into Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere in Asia.

According to one estimate, e-commerce currently represents only 6% of China's total retail revenue. With so much opportunity for growth and profit, Alibaba has announced the construction of a new logistics system it plans to use for overnight delivery of purchases to any urban area in China. In other words, Alibaba is spending today to be ready for the shoppers of tomorrow.

Singles Day boosts online shopping in China

More than a decade ago, college students in China decided to start a new tradition of celebrating Singles Day on 11 November (you know, 1111--four singles). The idea was to give gifts to good friends in the hopes of helping romance blossom.

Now Singles Day has become perhaps the busiest cyber-shopping day in China. Alibaba (one of the country's most popular e-commerce sites) received orders for more than £ 1 billion worth of goods in just the first 13 hours of this year's Singles Day. By the end of the day, total purchasing was reportedly even higher than on Cyber Monday in the US.

Smaller online merchants such as Seventh Princess (photo above) saw significant sales increases, as well. Online travel companies promoted special savings, and retailers with store locations also offered special deals to attract buyers. And of course, delivery services had to be ready to put all those packages into the hands of recipients, another major plus for the day's economic activity.