2.2 The Online Shopping Behaviour of Chinese Consumers

From the self-disclosure of Xiau Ning and Ning Nan, we know that online browsing and

shopping has become an integral part of almost everyone's shopping experiences.

In 2015, there were over 615 million internet users in China,

and 95% of them are mobile internet users.

This trend will only continue.

Here are the data provided by The World Bank.

In 2014, half of the population in China was Internet users.

Since then, the number has continued to grow.

The extent of Internet usage in China far exceeds that in India and

is catching up with the developed economies.

Like Japan and the United States.

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In China, television is still a major medium for transmitting information.

Particularly messages from the government on social, cultural and political issues.

Increasingly the Chinese are getting the consumer information from the internet and

other new media.

The new media for e-commerce sites in China and the west have many similarities.

For example, the experience of shopping on YHD.com in China

may not differ drastically from that of Amazon.com.

The user interfaces of Chinese and

American social media software are also similar.

For example, the interface of Wechat is similar to that of Whatsapp.

And interface of Weibo is similar to that of Facebook.

However the apparent similarities

should not master subtle differences between Chinese and Western new media.

More importantly there are deep differences in how Chinese and

Western consumers use the Internet.

We will come back to this later on.

You may think that buying on the Internet is popular in big cities only.

This is definitely not the case in China.

The prevalence of buying online in second tier and

third tier cities is comparable to that in tier one cities.

In fact, looking at a recent survey conducted by McKinsey,

the data showed that the gross merchandise found in low tier cities is

higher than that of higher tier cities, indicating that low tier cities

actually spend more on e-commerce than high tier cities.

Low tier cities also have huge growth potential for e-commerce.

When more and more will become e-commerce shoppers.

Goods that were once unreachable for

the rural towns are now readily available online.

Consumers everywhere in China buy from online stores,

actively share their online shopping experiences and comment on the service and

the products that they purchase.

The increased efficiency in advertisement and

promotion, product distribution and product delivery has turned the digital

market into an vital part of the modern marketing mix in modern China.

Companies that want to do business with Chinese consumers can capitalize

on the internet connectivity in China and make use of the new media

to increase product exposure, promote their brands and reduce distribution cost.

But how can companies trying to do business in China,

succeed in e-commerce or digital marketing?

To answer this question,

you need to know something about the psychology of Chinese online consumers.

In lesson one,

you have learned about some motivational characteristics of Chinese consumers.

We will define the lesson into three parts.

In the first part of this week's lesson, you will gain some insights

on what is guanxi and how guanxi differs with traditional relationship marketing.

You will then hear from an expert scholar to discuss why guanxi

can help marketing in China.

In the second part of this weeks lesson, you'll learn how you can develop and

manage guanxi.

Specifically how could you do so through the internet.

You will then hear from an expert scholar on discussing how reasearch on social

media help to understand Chinese consumers.

We will have dialogue with the practitioner.

In this segment, you will understand how companies use social media

to manage relationship in China in real case scenario.

By the end of this lesson,

you should have a better understanding of the psychological processes a Chinese

online consumer goes through before they check out the products in online stores.

Before we turn to the psychology of online shopping in China,

let us review how the internet has reshaped the consumer behaviors in China.

Selling to Chinese Consumers

Reviews

Taught By

Prof. Letty Kwan

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