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How to sell products on WeChat | Digital marketing in china

How to find distributor on WeChat

The interview of Olivier VEROT, founder of GMA, digital agency in China.

“With WeChat, all you need to know to reach Chinese consumers!”. 

Let's discover together 4 ways to sell on the Wechat messaging platform and attract Chinese distributors 



With more than a billion active users per month, Wechat represents a veritable Swiss army knife and offers an "All in One" offer in which Chinese people can communicate, play, search for products, buy or pay from their mobile. By creating your official Wechat account, users will be able to subscribe to your account to follow your news, receive "push" notifications, but also be redirected to your e-commerce site.

All Chinese distributors are using wechat EVERY day

Develop your visibility on Wechat, to be found by Chinese distributors

In China, Wechat is part of the daily life of Chinese Internet users. A real personal space, the social platform does not adopt an aggressive advertising strategy since it chooses to expose its users to only one sponsored content per day. This means that advertising must be as relevant as possible.



To make you aware of its users, Wechat provides advertisers with two advertising formats:

banner ads (or "Banners Ads") that appear at the bottom of articles written by an official Wechat account. They consist of a logo, an account name, a title and a "Call to Action". 

When the user clicks on the banner, he is redirected to a page with additional information on a brand or product. As for the “Call to Action” button, this sends the user to a landing page. Charged at CPC, this format is preferred for long-term campaigns and in order to acquire new subscribers.

Moment Ads is not good for B2B, better to reach consumers

“Moments” (or “Moments Ads”) ads that appear in the “Moment” news feed of Wechat users. Commonly used by advertisers, this CPM-billed format promotes your brand. This advertisement consists of the brand name and a profile photo, a description of 40 characters in Chinese, a link to an html5 page and photos (6 maximum) or videos.

Total retail distribution on WeChat : 

Retail sites totaled 7,180 billion Yuan (955 billion Euros) in 2017, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

WeChat : how to sell on crossborder to China ? 

Cross-border consumers are expected to constitute more than 50% of Chinese digital consumers by 2020.

Cross-border sales of E-Commerce in China are not subject to any taxes.

Customs taxes in certain categories have been divided by more than two for products purchased on foreign websites.

There are fabulous opportunities for foreign companies to sell their products to Chinese consumers through a Wechat store. Take advantage of the growing Chinese E-Commerce sector and increase your sales!

Promotional on WeChat works well !

Okay, now that we have a Wechat account, it's time to showcase our brand.



The hard part here will be to make sure that enough potential consumers receive this item.



To be informed, Wechat users must follow your company page.



A very appreciated and very effective technique consists in organizing a promotional event in a specific place during a given period (1 hour for example).



In order to increase your number of subscribers, you will advise your customers to follow you on social networks to stay informed of all promotional sales.

Advertising on Wechat

• Advertising on the newsfeed
• News feed is Wechat's most popular feature.

Users can update their status, share photos, short videos and articles with relatives and friends.



Businesses can pay to appear on the feeds of targeted users. These ads are usually in the form of text, images or videos. If the reader is interested, he can click on the "Learn more" button which redirects the reader either to the product highlighted, or to the brand's official account or to the brand's official website.

Direct Advertising on WeChat

Another possibility for brands is to use direct advertising, which appears in the form of a banner at the bottom of Wechat articles. When the user finishes reading the article, he sees an advertisement.



Open an official store and link it to your Wechat account

One of the popular ways to sell on Wechat is to open an online store where the user can directly view and purchase the products.

in China branding first, then distributors will find you

Finding a quality distributor in China is a notoriously difficult task, especially for a new brand with little reputation and low levels of brand awareness. Distributors will be incredibly selective & want to see products and brands that have already made some kind of an impact.

Develop landings pages in HTML5 to attract distributors

With Wechat, it is possible to sell your products through the creation of landing pages in HTML5 within your official account, so as to offer a personalized experience to users of the platform. Quick and easy to develop, this format is suitable for actions limited in time or to highlight a subset of products. It is suitable for example for specific actions or the launch of capsule collections as the luxury brand Dior was able to do in 2016.  Chinese distributors love beautiful H5 page

https://www.wechat.com/en/

Connect your JingDong store to Wechat

On Wechat, it is also possible to integrate an existing JingDong store (京东) into your official account. In this way, the management of your sales and transactions is carried out directly through the JD.com platform. As for the JD store, it automatically adapts to mobile navigation, without the need for further development.



If this store allows you to get started quickly and take advantage of the JD.com platform, the user experience is more reduced since it is standardized and therefore less customizable.

 Develop e-commerce tool to allow distributors to resell and get a commission 

The Wechat social platform also gives you the possibility of integrating your e-commerce site via APIs. If you wish to choose this option, however, be sure to respect the following: language, currency, payment method (Wechat Pay), or even adapt your site for mobile…



If you do not want to go through an intermediary store like JD, you can also create your own store. Completely developed for browsing on Wechat, this alternative offers the best experience for users of the platform since it perfectly matches the uses of Wechat. Regarding investments in development and integration, the amount will vary depending on demand.

after it is the problem to get commission on wechat store and how to manage and engage your distributors 

How to distribute my clothing line in China

Carrefour in China

5 Rules for a good distribution in China

The potential problems of this traditional distribution model in China

First of all, it's true that distributors in China can help you sell, but they can not help you grow. In fact, the distributor has little loyalty to the brand, especially if its sales in China are modest or if it is a brand still relatively new in the market.

Just Sales Channel 

 Remember that having a distributor is just a sales channel, but does not provide a long-term strategy. Many international brands are satisfied with their distributors, but this is because they generally have much more control over marketing activities and can communicate with local conditions.

They will often enjoy a stronger position in the market, long-term relationships with distributors and the benefits of advertising and word of mouth in the domestic market. It's easier for the relationship to be win-win.

Working with wholesale agents or Chinese distribution companies is the first step to exporting to China. The creation of your own subsidiary is often troublesome because of the many regulations. Due to the size of the country, your Chinese sales agent or distributor may be much larger than your own business and require a different approach than you are used to.

Distribution Channel management includes wholesalers, e-commerce websites, catalog sales, consultants, direct sales and retailers.




Advertising and other marketing methods would then attract the attention of the buyer. However, the best promotion or marketing will not be sold if the product is sold or distributed in the wrong place. Send feedback History Saved Community
I am going to link all the above to the distribution relationships in China, or at least you should be, since the title of this message is "Sell in China: Is your distributor your friend?" Well, there it is.


That's because on my return flight from China , I read a very good article from Forbes magazine, written by Frank Lavin, CEO of Export Now, a US-based company that helps "brands succeed in the Chinese digital space. The article is titled Sell to China: Is Your Distributor agood partner?

West VS CHINA

And it discusses the "disconnect" between Western Brands and their Chinese distribution partner. This article stimulated this post. it begins the article with the following example of this disconnect: A global sports equipment company has recently been frustrated by its sales in China. explained this website

The company was growing strongly thanks to the tennis racquets it manufactures, but its badminton sales were a disappointment.

Logistic and Support 

Why contrasting fortunes? Because the brand's distribution partner in China refused to stock the company's badminton equipment.

potential problems of this traditional model in China First of all, it's true that distributors can help you sell, but they can not help you grow. In fact, the distributor has little loyalty to the brand, especially if its sales in China are modest or if it is a brand still relatively new in the market. Remember that having a distributor is just a sales channel, but does not provide a long-term strategy.
source https://www.chinalawblog.com/2018/12/selling-to-china-is-your-distributor-your-friend.html



Many international brands are satisfied with their distributors, but this is because they generally have much more control over marketing activities and can communicate with local conditions. They will often enjoy a stronger position in the market, long-term relationships with distributors and the benefits of advertising and word of mouth in the domestic market. It's easier for the relationship to be win-win. Working with wholesale agents or Chinese distribution companies is the first step to exporting to China. The creation of your own subsidiary is often troublesome because of the many regulations. Due to the size of the country, your Chinese sales agent or distributor may be much larger than your own business and require a different approach than you are used to. Channel management includes wholesalers, e-commerce websites, catalog sales, consultants, direct sales and retailers. Advertising and other marketing methods would then attract the attention of the buyer. However, the best promotion or marketing will not be sold if the product is sold or distributed in the wrong place. Send feedback History Saved Community
"Do not blame me," protested the distributor. "Badminton is not popular in China." The distributor thought that if he stocked his stocks, he would not be sold to the country's pros shops.

Responsability 

This is not how relations between manufacturers and distributors are supposed to work. In the traditional model, the distributor assumes responsibility for marketing the products and developing the business. It is the distributor who establishes partnerships with wholesalers and retailers, supplying them with the latest lines, stocking their stocks, and can in return benefit from a 50% higher margin.

Lavin then notes that in the West, the relationship between the distributor and the brand owner is more advantageous for all parties, the two companies collaborating to create the brand. This is not generally the case in China, however, as Chinese firms tend to focus more on short-term profits:

In China, however, these conditions rarely apply. The brand is often new on the market, does not generate (yet) high turnover, and the distributor can process between 40 and 200 different brands. Why should they care about yours, especially if other brands are growing faster?*

Marketing and frustrating situation 

You could end up in a frustrating chicken-egg relationship. The distributor does not want to promote your product if it is not a winner, but the only way to make it a winner is to expand its distribution.

My favorite answer is the following and I put it in almost every speech I made, as was the case in my two speeches in China:
or distribution contracts, that is to say clearly what your distributor is required to do and the penalties if it does not do so. In particular, it means being able to sell through additional channels if your Chinese distributor is not working diligently enough for you. Or as Lavin says from the business point of view:

Is your distributor your friend? NO.

Kind of. However, the best approach in China could be to cultivate the distributor relationship for your high volume items and rely on ecommerce for the full product line, new product launches and customer engagement activities. . Distributors are more likely to help you when they see you have an e-commerce strategy. The best way to cultivate a friendship with this distributor is also to cultivate a friendship with e-commerce.