12 Reasons Your Business Should Prioritise a Move into China
Photo by Tom Fisk.
China’s shoppers are buying from overseas businesses more than ever, and they’ve got billions of pounds to spend. Here’s why making sure your brand is in their online shopping cart should be your top priority.
1. China has the world’s largest digital buyer population, with more than 710 million people.
2. In 2020, e-commerce sales in the country were worth $826.6 billion. That number is expected to nearly double by 2024.
3. Chinese mobile users now spend over 6 hours every day online – that’s almost 2 full days a week, according to research conducted by Questmobile.
4. The third most-visited website in the world is a brand-driven B2C marketplace – Alibaba’s Tmall. Other Chinese shopping sites also feature in the Top 10.
5. 22,000 of the more than 200,000 brands participating in China’s infamous Double 11 (11.11) online shopping festival in 2020 were from overseas markets.
6. China’s cross-border e-commerce market has grown rapidly in recent years, reaching RMB415 billion by 2019, according to marketing and consulting agency Westwin. That number is forecast to grow in 2021.
7. In 2017, more than 44% of the online population in China had purchased products online. By 2022, this share is expected to increase to almost 60%.
Photo by Pexels.
8. More than 50% of consumers in China have increased their cross-border online spending on skincare and cosmetics in the past 12 months, according to the same research.
9. Almost half have also spent more on health and wellness products and electronics.
10. More than 20% of those making cross-border e-commerce purchases did so more than 20 times in the past year.
11. 15% of consumers making cross-border e-commerce purchases each spent more than £2,200 annually.
12. There are many reasons Chinese consumers choose to shop from overseas retailers – one being the quality of their own domestic personal health products, with one marketing consultancy reporting that “shoppers simply haven’t found the supply of foreign retailers to match their demand”.
It’s clear that China represents an opportunity for British retailers not to be missed. But how can you make sure your move into the market is a success?