Showing posts with label Group buying in Pinduoduo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Group buying in Pinduoduo. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2018

How Do Wechat Mini-programs Boast KOL Sales Campaigns?

Wechat offers wechat mini-programs in its exosystem which can help the users in generating more sales for their businesses. Wechat mini-programs can help in setting up a Wechat store or a Wechat shop. Through the use of Wechat mini-programs, KOLs can help improve the sales by promoting it on their platform.


Thursday, July 5, 2018

WeChat Mini-Programs: A Comprehensive Introduction

In a very short span of time, Wechat mini-programs have taken the world by storm due to the ease of various services provided by them. Coupled with their advantages, there are proving to be a great challenge for other tech gaints of today

Monday, July 2, 2018

WECHAT PAY REVIEW: CUSTOMER REACH AND USAGE

It started to be a simple chat application a few years back, now WeChat (or commonly known as Weixin in Chinese) has grown as a leading platform in the market that connects a significant number of businesses to customers and customers to services across the globe.
The Chinese mobile payment market has prospered very fast, and WeChat is now being considered as a one-stop social messaging platform. Tencent, the owner of the booming social messaging application, developed a mobile payment service called WeChat Pay. Since its commencement in the market last 2013, there are exceeding 300 million users who connected their credit card details to their respective WeChat accounts and have started to enjoy the perks.
Instant Electronic Wallet
As payment has been integrated into the social messaging platform, users can now easily pay their bills through their mobile phones ranging from QR Code Payments, In-App Web-Based Payments, Quick Pay, and even Native In-App Payments. Customers are given the options per payment situation.

This eventually led to the merging of QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay, which made the duo rank second on the list of payment systems in China.
All-in-one Payment Method
What is good about WeChat Pay is the application being user-friendly and easy to use that adds up to a great user experience for shoppers, especially when doing money transfers. It is simple that a user does not need to be directed to external websites just to complete the process.
More than the ease of process, the booming payment app has also a number of promotional discounts and incentives to its customers.
Acceptance of the Chinese Market
Though Alipay is the current number 1 payment system in China (owned by Ant Financial Services Group), WeChat pay is proud to express that with its almost five years of existence in the market, it has managed to achieve at least 33% of the Chinese market.
Indeed, WeChat is advancing the game and is catching up with its close rival, Alipay with at least 39% users.
WeChat Pay Core Functions
WeChat Pay’s core function is to aid users when doing bill payments, money transfers, eCommerce payments, ticket purchases, hotel bookings, product purchases, investment and funds management, and many others. Additionally, consumers can receive discount vouchers from sellers, which they can use and utilize to make the most out of their shopping experience.
The app is available in more than 20 countries like China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, UK, and the like.

WeChat Pay and Its Benefits
A growing number of Chinese people are traveling outside the country, more and more Chinese buyers purchase items overseas, as well as ease of conversion of foreign currencies to the Chinese yuan — through WeChat Pay, the user can do all of the aforementioned with just a few clicks away.
More than that, WeChat Pay supports major currencies worldwide such as the British Pound, Hong Kong Dollar, US dollar, Japan Yen, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, South Korean Won, and the Euro.
Now there is nothing to worry about unsupported currencies since the payment can be made through US dollar.
The App Closes the Gap
The one-stop app has made messaging, voice calls, and online shopping possible. It also opened the way for users of all ages. Moreover, WeChat Pay can also be used as a payment preference in physical stores.
Furthermore, the app closes the gap between sellers and buyers. It makes the process smooth and simple. This results in brands seeing the importance of adopting the payment app as a significant part of their business, especially in marketing and customer engagement.
Conclusion
WeChat is into making the life of social media users comfortable and uncomplicated. With the many advancements in the field of technology, businesses are being transformed in a way that they can make the most out of the present market opportunities presented before them. Developments need not be a big-time one, but rather small developments that aid people in their day-to-day lives are what really matters.
In the end, the user experience would greatly matter. Consumers and sellers should remain to be prioritized in order to come up with improvements that would really be meaningful and beneficial to everyone.

Saturday, June 30, 2018

TOP VIRTUAL REALITY INNOVATIONS IN CHINA’S SHOPPING MARKET

Virtual Reality used to be the stuff of science fiction. Today, we know it is no longer a pipe dream. Current generation VR Technology uses “VR Headsets” to render computer-generated environments, which are also used in conjunction with the physical environment the VR user is in and the objects around the user.
In the international scene, the top 4 Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and JD.com are making waves in the tech industry by bringing the power of Virtual Reality to the hands of the average consumer. With their affordable prices and superb quality, they are revolutionizing the VR Scene, thus bringing a better shopping experience to the consumers.
Here are the Top Virtual Reality Innovations in China’s Shopping Market:
Alibaba’s Buy+ VR
The tech conglomerate’s most notable innovation is the launch of their Alibaba buy+ VR platform, which utilizes virtual reality technology to enhance the average shopping experience. The VR Platform allows consumers to shop items in a virtual mall as if they were on the physical location itself.
The best thing about it is that the purchases they make happen in real time— thanks to Alibaba VR Pay, which makes it easy to purchase products instantly. You don’t even need a pricey VR Headset like the oculus rift to navigate the virtual mall. Alibaba’s Virtual Reality Glasses are very affordable and support fully all the features of the VR Platform. They have also integrated Catch the Cat, an augmented reality game wherein the users’ reward for catching the cat is getting great deals for their VR Products on the shopping platform. This brings fun and enjoyment into the equation.
They also have the Magic Mirror VR App where the user can apply makeup and Virtual Reality Fitting Rooms where you can try out different clothing brands. Both are seamlessly integrated into their VR Shopping Platform which further enhances the average shopper experience.
Tencent VR headset
With the release Tencent’s latest innovation in the tech industry, the Tencent VR headset is set to overtake the cyber market this year. The headset is expected to support a wide array of applications and focuses on several platforms like the PC, Video Game Consoles, and Android.
The headset also features support for Live Streaming, Movie, and TV show streaming and is expected to gain a strong foothold in the entertainment market. Tencent has also made several strategic investments in VR companies like AltSpaceVR and Skydance Media. This is the move they need to break through the gaming and entertainment market. Once they do this, they can take the lead in developing a virtual reality ecosystem to improve collaboration between developers and consumers alike.
JD.com AR/VR styling station
JD.com launched a virtual reality styling station that allows the user to try on any brand of makeup they please before they make an online purchase. The users can try on different products like lipsticks, eyebrow pencils, blush-on, and the like. This has been a cutting-edge addition to the beauty industry since the common qualm of the average shopper is their inability to test out the products physically when shopping online. All the features of the styling station come fully integrated with their online shopping platform.
According to Carol Fung, president and CEO of JD.com, the goal of the JD.com AR/VR styling station is to give customers a truly interactive and personalized experience while adding the benefit of having the consumers’ product just a few clicks away in the comfort of their own home.
Baidu VR products
The tech giant Baidu with their Iqiyi VR Headsets line launched Qiyu VR II, one of the most sophisticated gadgets in the market today. The device can play 4k and 8k panoramic videos and has cutting edge motion sensors, media playback functionality, and can run modern Interactive VR Games.
Their Vivi VR assistant similar to Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana has been the craze lately. This virtual reality assistant is included in their VR Headsets line of products, and it comes with a plethora of common features like answering queries, making suggestions to the user, and setting your schedule. It also boasts advanced features in their newer versions that can flirt with the user and interact sporadically. This update is expected to target male individuals from 18 to 35 years old.
Conclusion
In conclusion, With China’s Shopping Market taking the lead globally, the VR Industry is booming right now more than ever. The tech industry is an ever expanding market with technological advancements underway every single day. Thus, tech companies will need to adjust and take the bull by the horns or suffer the risk of getting left behind by the competition in this fast-paced industry.

THE IMPACT OF WECHAT MINI PROGRAM IN SOCIAL ECOMMERCE

On the 10th of January, Alibaba published an annual report on Intellectual Property Rights. One of the highlights is since Alibaba was a preeminent fight against counterfeit goods, a gaining adhesion of counterfeit sellers are moving their market towards mini-programs and Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform. They even build an overseas webpage through Facebook to introduce a traffic flow into their local platform to sell fake goods. Despite the fact that Pinduoduo and Wechat never made an official statement regarding Alibaba’s published report, however since then, a competition between Taobao (Chinese online shopping website similar to eBay) and Pinduoduo was brought into the public.
With the help of WeChat’s traffic flow, Pinduoduo has totally immobilized Taobao in just two years. However, with WeChat’s enormous 980 million traffic, Pinduoduo may just be an unimportant might within the bulk of mini-programs.
WeChatCurrently, Wechat can’t share its content to Taobao directly and vice versa, so users can only share their information through “Tao password”. When this was introduced, a lot of people thought that this was almost identical to Baidu’s strategy, but, its not.
Taobao didn’t want it’s users to develop the routine of purchasing straight in WeChat. Undismayed by their policy, they prefer utilizing only its traffic flow. Hence, they adopt hundredths of TaoBao promoters, who are responsible in creating traffic within the circle of Wechat sellers. According to an insider, the daily numbers of transactions from Wechat to Taobao is at least 1 billion.
Wechat is not in favour of this situation, defensively finds a way to block Taobao’s strategy. Even in the year 2017 itself, Wechat had made a few planned measures. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get to the core of the issue. Consequently, WeChat found a way to solve it. Instead of allowing Taobao to gain an upper hand, Wechat hit back by attracting the same group of people to do business on its own platform so that sellers, buyers and prompters can form a closed loop system, and that happened when they announced their mini-programs on the 9th of January.
This development from WeChat was not to be underrated. They enhance their product delivery speed from 3 days to 1 day, which reduce the user’s purchasing cost, a good strategy, thus causing a larger amount of purchasers to migrate to their own platform. Most importantly, this traffic is established by the business seller themself and allows an accumulation of traffic within the WeChat ecosystem. As for this, during WeChat’s public courses this year, Zhang XiaoLong (also known as the “father of wechat”) believes that Wechat’s search system will be the next entry gateway, and it proves by their high traffic.
As of now, Taobao is worried on Pinduoduo’s performance because it is currently the only e-commerce platform that does not share the same traffic system as Alibaba and is a premier platform for local online retailers.
WeChat
In the e-commerce field, there are a lot of e-commerce platforms like Fanli, ChuchuJie, Mizhe, Juanpi and Mogujie etc. You can treat these platforms as a form of Taobao Coupon or a huge Taobao Promoter. Their platforms does not pose a threat to Taobao and has quite an influence on them. If it will produce a conflict with Taobao, it can easily take over and deliver a striking blow to them. In a way, Mogujie’s achievement today partly comes from one of Taobao’s defensive strategies. Because of the defensive measures taken, Mogujie has since found another way out to be independent.
However, Pinduoduo is different, it was linked to WeChat. Most of its original users enter this mobile e-commerce era directly without the needs of a personal computer. However, with the advantage of Wechat’s 9.8 million users pool, Pinduoduo becomes an envious target of Taobao, yet it has no power over the market.
Our parents can use Wechat to gain red packets, share, connect and pay using Wechat. In this case, mini-programs and Wechat provides a solution that suits our today’s users generation.
WeChat
As of now, Taobao still hasn’t pit face to face in a battle against Pinduoduo. Of course, when that day comes, Taobao has no power against WeChat’s traffic at all. WeChat can easily overtake Taobao’s promoters with a move like the year before, preventing Taobao from overusing WeChat’s platform for their own usage.
Last January 15 2018, Zhang XiaoLong’s WeChat public lecture PRO became popular in the internet community. One of the important thing to take note of, is that WeChat’s DAU (daily active users) maintains at 800 to 850 million, while WeChat’s at 980 million, closely tipping to a billion.
According to WeChat’s current traffic, being on the top against its peers is not a problem. However, in the e-commerce field, WeChat has some imperfections. Certain people believes that Tencent company doesn’t have the skills yet to perfect the e-commerce spot. Hence, WeChat uses their flaw to their end. They only create a basic structure and provide a complete ecosystem, how the retailers come up with their business models.
WeChat
When WeChat’s ecosystem improves further, Taobao’s retailers will slowly be attracted over and over. But in the beginning, most of them have no idea how to take this step of transition or transformation. Just like You An Mi mentioned, they should get a portion of that traffic with good retailers, and then they can start attracting more small business.
Taobao has its own brand, and in the near future, WeChat, I believe will have its own brand as well. Different from Taobao, these brands are born within WeChat has its own loyal consumers and fans, and have a direct pool that provides them their users. WeChat is optimistic in this, Taobao will slowly be grind down. And when that time comes, small and medium businesses alike will slowly transform into mini-programs in WeChat.

PEOPLE ARE MAKING MILLIONS FROM TENCENT’S WECHAT: HOW CAN YOU FIND YOUR PLACE?

According to some studies and statistics, WeChat has become one of the largest standalone apps for mobile phones around the world. With the growing popularity of this multi-purpose platform, there is no doubt that there is an underlying opportunity for it.
Initially launched in 2011, it has gathered a lot of attention not just to the Chinese community, but as well as to the international users, and their population is continuing to grow. The door of opportunities was opened to businesses, media outlets, organizations, and other individuals through this platform. To other professionals, they considered this platform as a place to earn millions of dollars for just a year. The total scale of the media business in WeChat is enormous.
Indeed, the emergence of WeChat app is an eminent and essential platform in this digital age.
With all this bustle, it is the perfect time for you to create a WeChat account and learn How to earn money on WeChat.
WeChat Platform and Its Opportunities
Apparently, what was then originally intended as a counterpart or an approximate to the WhatsApp software application has become a multi-purpose app. WeChat, a platform owned by a Chinese multinational conglomerate, allows the user to pay bills, hail cars, order food, and other payment transaction options. Other than that, additional features are also available which would range from entertainment to information purposes. This includes the messaging system, photo sharing, article reading via public accounts, mobile game rank updates, etc.
In the most recent reported data, WeChat is comprised of 963 million active users, almost closing into a one-billion digits. This significant increase from its previous year shows that the app presents an impact to the International community.
With its wide possibilities and opportunities, many want to learn to monetize WeChat marketing.
How to earn money on Wechat?
The presence of KOL has emerged as a new method of marketing in the modern age. The term, KOL, stands for Key Opinion Leaders. This refers to WeChat accounts that are influential and distinguished in their particular niche. These people promote a certain brand that corresponds to their field of interest in the exchange of monetary compensation. This, of course, is just one way to Earn Money on WeChat among many. Promoting a business through WeChat KOL is agreeable since they already have existing followers and have been considered as a trusted source of advice and knowledge.
Monetization in WeChat Marketing
Another form of marketing available is through the WeChat content or In-app public blogs. Content marketing has always been vital. Since it involves a strategic approach concentrating on the creation and distribution of relevant contents, it usually is effective in attracting and retaining a defined audience, which in turns, drive profits. WeChat in-app public blogs is a form of content marketing.
Basically, WeChat has three types of platform accounts. Content creation belongs to the subscription account, otherwise known as the official account. This allows a blogging function wherein one can write and share their blog content to a broad spectrum of WeChat subscribers. WeChat initially has tip functions wherein one can avail the subscription for free. However, it was later disabled due to compliance with App Store Rules. Thus, to subscribe and avail the platform’s latest and extra features, you will need to make an in-app purchase. Since tips were put out of action, WeChat allows an in-app purchase in a 30% cut.
If you can learn how to earn money with KOL marketing, you can certainly monetize from it. Basic essentials that a Key Opinion Leader should establish include rules, personality, target audience, influence, and relationships.
Apart from KOL marketing, blog content as a means of advertising can also deliver monetization. WeChat started working with the local search engine recently with the aim to allow search services to all public account content. This move suggests that WeChat consider this content as an advertising revenue.
About WeChat Mini-Programs
Since using the WeChat subscription accounts in sending notifications and articles have limitations like its inadequacy to allow the placement of hyperlinks, KOL and other WeChat promoters can use mini-programs instead. WeChat mini-programs have solved the problem of fully converting the content on subscription accounts to a complete eCommerce platform. To simply put it, WeChat KOL considered these mini-programs as more dynamic in navigation when it comes to eCommerce and another form of content.
In relation to that, we are offering WeChat mini-program design services for your In-app public blogs and content. Get in touch now!
Ending note
With the right utilization and knowledge of the platform, it would not be hard to Earn Money on WeChat through marketing and advertising. WeChat already provides tools that you can use as a means of exchange in earning a good sum. In the end, it would be up to you to best utilize this monetization option.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

THE FUTURE OF MOBILE APPS – 2018 INSIGHT

“There’s an app for that.” Who hasn’t heard this phrase? It was made popular by Apple, one of the top two mobile operating systems used by millions of people around the world. Thanks to Apple and Google, we have apps for everything. Paying for things, calling taxis, watching movies, shopping, reading, and anything else you can imagine… there is probably an app for that.
Once companies started realizing that mobile apps were the next great thing, everyone wanted an app for their company. For nearly a decade, the popularity of apps has continued to grow at a very rapid pace. But some people are beginning to ask whether or not there is a future for apps.
Are apps really all that great?
There is no doubt that apps make our lives easy and more convenient. We don’t have to do everything in the tiny little web browser on our phones. They also make our lives more convenient in many ways. But are they really all that great?
Think about it this way, if I want to call a taxi, I have an app for that. If I want to buy movie tickets, there is an app for that. If I want to edit photos, there is an app for that. But most apps serve one primary purpose. Every time I want to do something different on my phone, I have to go out to the app store, download the app, sometimes even having to choose from a dozen or more apps that all do the same thing, then install it before I can even use it.
With so many different apps, storage space on phones is limited because you need 30 different apps just to do everything that you need or want to do.
What’s wrong with apps?

Believe it or not, the likelihood of apps existing and remaining popular for an extended period of time is highly unlikely. Even though it seems like they make things more convenient, they really aren’t as good as we would like to believe.
Not to mention the problem that app developers face with the existence of multiple operating systems. With iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and even a few others that are floating around in OS limbo, making apps that can be used by everyone with a smartphone is nearly impossible.
Since each operating system is programmed using a different language code, often times an app coded for Android has to be completely re-written to be used on another OS. At the very least, it requires a lot of tweaking and it is really just a big hassle. Not to mention, if a mobile OS is updated, the app software needs to be updated as well, making maintenance of every app a huge hassle as well. Some of the major problems with apps today are listed as below:
  • Apps take too much space of smartphones leaving little for other purposes
  • Most apps are only for specific purposes which begs the need for a lot of apps for various purposes
  • It is more difficult and expensive to create a smartphone app
  • Upgradation and maintenance of mobile apps is difficult
  • Apps on different developing platforms require diverse technical skills
  • Users are more likely to uninstall mobile apps for using for sometime
  • It requires great sums of capital to keep the mobile app smoothly running
What are we going to do?

Generally speaking, apps are problematic for just about everyone involved. But we can’t just stop using apps. How do we fix all of these problems?
Actually, companies are already in the process of finding ways around the idea of single-use apps. One of the most likely solutions to the many app problems that is already slowly being implemented today is something called “Super Applications.” A super app is basically an app that combines the functions of multiple apps.
A really good example of a super app is WeChat. With the ability to make voice and video calls, call taxis, pay bills, order movie tickets, use the virtual wallet feature and more, this app basically eliminates the need for a dozen apps by allowing you to use the features of 12 or more apps all in one, saving time and precious phone space for the app user and developing time and dollars for the app creators.
How long will we have single-use apps?
It is impossible to say how long apps will continue to exist and be used regularly. But it is safe to say that to the popularity of apps is declining and will continue to decline while better, simpler, and more convenient options are explored.
As these other options like super apps continue to be improved upon, we will begin to see the use of the types of apps we see today decline drastically. Before long, apps will be as obsolete as floppy disks, CDs, and Blue-ray.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

SHOULD I CHOOSE A SITE BUILDER OR WORDPRESS FOR MY WEDDING BUSINESS WEBSITE?

Almost every service provided in the wedding industry needs an online presence. Professionals rightly wonder which type of site they should opt for. The most frequent dilemma is deciding between WordPress and other website builders.

SO, YOU ASK: WHICH ONE IS BETTER FOR YOUR WEDDING PROJECT, A SITE BUILDER OR WORDPRESS?

Understanding the way these platforms work can provide you with an answer or at least, help you gain insight into their very nature. Unlike Squarespace or Weebly, which are website builders, WordPress is actually an open-source platform. That means the commercial restrictions are virtually non-existent and your project can be hosted anywhere. That alone can be a reason enough to prevail in its favor.
website-builders-wedding-business

SYSTEMS SUCH AS SQUARESPACE AND WORDPRESS ARE EQUALLY ESTEEMED.

Yet, these content management systems do differ in several aspects.
First of all, being in the wedding industry demands creativity. This is where WordPress features outweigh those of Squarespace or Weebly. Its customizability makes it the most popular platform of this kind in the world because thousands of widgets, themes and plugins work visual miracles.
On the other hand, Squarespace offers fewer themes than WordPress does but quantity and quality in this instance come with strings attached. Unlike WordPress, Squarespace is cloud-based and that means everything is pre-installed and downloaded. Squarespace is generally a lot easier to use, especially for people who do not have any or have very little experience in website building.
website-builders-wedding-business 3
Being a cloud-based platform, Squarespace comes with a massive drawback, though. All updates and installments are done automatically so the moment the system goes down, your project is likely to go down with it. Conversely, WordPress is being continuously maintained and this can save you a lot of time and nerves.

ON TOP OF THAT, WORDPRESS BRINGS THE CREATIVE EXPERIENCE TO THE MAXIMUM.

The themes (so-called “skins”) WordPress employs support a range of website types – publications, blogs, online stores etc. Along with the plugins – tools for social sharing or e-commerce payment systems, WordPress delivers unparalleled customizability and functionality ideal for building an online wedding project.
website-builders-wedding-business 4

SO, IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE PURPOSE OF YOUR PROJECT.

What is the name of your game? Are you a blogger? Then, the ease of use Squarespace offers could be the right solution.
One thing is irrefutable – Squarespace is characterized by its overall simplicity and usability. But, as with any other business, you want to think ahead and minimize your website’s flaws in the long run. This is exactly why WordPress is a safer bet.
Wedding industry is an ever-growing one. The services you provide need to be presented with a dose of responsibility and professionalism. WordPress is fully-featured and depending on your desired content, the complexity it offers exceeds any other platform.
website-builders-wedding-business 2
The bottom line is that with WordPress, you have the upper hand in the business you are trying to pitch. This top-notch web publishing system exceeds any other on the market by enabling unrivaled performances suitable for any kind of online business and weddings are no exception.

HOW TO SET UP A WECHAT SHOP

If you are not a regular WeChat user, you might be wondering what the entire stuff all about is. Here is some important information that might help you get some ideas on it.
What is a WeChat Shop?
It is an e-commerce platform that exists within the WeChat App. A majority of Chinese consumers in today’s date make use of this app in order to purchase and consume different things. It is a mobile website that can help in connecting with the official account of WeChat.
How to register and setup WeChat shop?
If you want to reach your target of Chinese consumers, you should certainly think of setting up this shop. There are some steps involved in opening a WeChat store. Based on whether you have a Chinese business or a Non-Chinese business, the step might be different. However, it is an easy step where you can set up the shop through a 3rd party ecommerce platform. This can include anything from Youzan, WalkTheChat, Weidian, JD.com and Lewaimai.
The best part about these platforms is that they are very easy to use. Even if, you are a first time user, things will not be difficult for you and you can Create WeChat shop to reach your Chinese consumers. You will get lots of supportive user interface along with multiple payment methods. This is not the end. The app is supported by lots of other features that will blow your mind.
Below is a list of some of the features of the platforms that will help you easily walk through the process of opening WeChat shopping mall.
YouShop: In this platform, they accept 5 different methods of payment methods and these are absolutely for free. The methods of payment include WeChat payment, as well. The platform comes with an English version and the interface is easy to use.
Youzan: It accepts around 4 different methods of payment, which also include WeChat payment. The platform is available with several features and it has around 5000 RMB/year. The best thing about this platform is that the design can be customized and it includes lots of menus and music.
JD.com: This store accepts around 2 free payment methods with WeChat Pay and COD. This trusted platform comes with a good User interface due to which it will not be difficult even for a first time user.
Lewaimai: The platform supports 4 different payment methods, but it is ideal for food delivery stores. It even comes with the feature of GPRS.
By now you must have got an idea of the overall process. Thus, you can now Open WeChat shop and increase the numbers of your customers.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

PLANNING A WEBSITE FOR A CHINESE AUDIENCE? – CONSIDER THESE POINTS

A website is very important for any business house or professional individual. It gives a face value to the customers and followers while giving them the information about the products and services that you provide. When you are planning to build a website for Chinese audience, the conditions are little different from rest of the world. Most of the basic concepts are similar but there are some aspects that you need to consider before moving ahead.
chinese audience
Image Created by Mindandi – Freepik.com

PURPOSE

First of all, you need to decide the purpose of the website. You need to be clear in your mind if it is going to be a website that provides complete details about your business, if it is going to be a blog, or if it is going to be an e-commerce website where customers can place orders for the services or the products.
1. The domain name: The second point that you need to consider is the name of the website. When we discuss the importance of the name, a lot of people use the famous phrase “What’s in the name – Williams Shakespeare”. Now, if you notice, his name appears at the end of the quote and everyone knows that he said this phrase. This is how important the name is.
When we talk about the name of the website, consider the following points:
  • Pick the word or combination of words that mean something to a Chinese audience. The common English names and combinations generally do not work for them.
  • A domain name that has foreign influence will be hard to remember for the customers in China. Avoid such names.
  • There are some words which have awful meanings or usage in China. Please do consider checking the meaning and usage in the country before finalizing it.
  • Keep the name of the domain small and meaningful.
  • Do not use “-“ in the name of the website and people do not remember to put the “-“.
  • You can use Chinese PinYin as an alternative choice. The Chinese customers remember the name of the websites which are easy to pronounce for them.
  • If your desired domain name is already registered, you can contact the owner to negotiate a purchase.
  • Do remember that if you plan not to go for a .com domain and prefer a .cn domain, you will have to go through a lot of paperwork. The domain name with a .cn extension is not a necessity to establish a name in Chinese market so if you can, avoid it.
2. Web hosting: First of all make sure that the location of the server is as close to China as possible to ensure faster loading time. You can choose Chinese servers but they require a lot of paperwork just like registering a domain name in China. However, if you host the website in Hong Kong China, Singapore, Korea and Japan, the location will be much closer to the mainland China and it will work like a charm for you
The next point to remember about the web hosting service is how reliable is the hosting service provider. Do not randomly choose the service provider and do check the online reviews for the company. If possible do consult with the friend circle to get some offline reviews.
You also need to consider the amount of traffic that you are going to get. A small blog may not get a lot of visitors on daily basis as compared to an e-commerce site. So choose the hosting plan according to the number of customers you expect that you will get.
planning-website-chinese-audience-02
3. Administration: When you are setting up a website in or for the Chinese audience, you will require doing a Real Name Verification of the business entity. You will need to provide your documents that contain personal and business details. Also, it will require a submission of ICP license along with some other formalities.
4. Content Management System: Better known as CMS, it is the backend of the website based on a coding language like PHP. The CMS helps the owner of the website in making simple changes without the in-depth knowledge of the coding languages. You can add pages, posts, images, videos etc. via CMS and make some design changes as well. There are a number of CMS systems available in the market like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magneto, Blogger, Shopify etc. Out of these CMSs, WordPress has the market share of above 50%. It is easier to hire a WordPress developer at an affordable price and the CMS has tons of add-on as well which can be helpful in making the website an easy deal for both owner of the website and the customers.
5. Importance of translation: When you get a website done for China in English, you may need to add the whole content in the Chinese language as well or vice versa. Make sure to hire a professional translator so that your customers do not get lost in the translation.
6. Website design: Make sure the color, style, theme, structure, and language meet the eye of the customers that you are targeting. For example, if your target is mature people, you need to keep the color scheme calm while for the young people, it should give the energetic vibe.
7. Functioning: Make sure to sit and discuss the functioning of the website with the developer for the Chinese audience. You should be clear on the points that if it is going to be a combination of information, blog, e-commerce etc. or you want to have just a blog or just an e-commerce website. Also, you need to consider the best possible payment gateway for the e-commerce website. There are services like Alipay, WeChat payment etc. which you can use in China.
8. Website testing: It is very important to test all the aspects of the website for the Chinese audience before making it public. You need to make sure that there are no services included in the coding which may block or slow down the website. The services including GoogleFacebook, and Twitter etc. are banned in China. Make sure the Google fonts are not used by the website. Also, do make sure that website is mobile friendly as most of the Chinese users use their Smartphone to access the websites. A mobile app for an e-commerce website can do wonders for you.

CONCLUSION

The process of making a website for the Chinese audience may look overwhelming but it is a small price that you need to pay to have the access to the biggest economy in the world.