/ By daphnemoyal / Doing Business in China • Marketing in China • Uncategorized/ 0 Comments

Massive sales during Qixi festival: What Foreign Businesses Need to Know

The legend of the love story between Niulang and Zhinu has been recounted for generations in Chinese households, leading to the celebration of the Qixi festival all across the country. However, with the expansion of the country’s economy and of new technology, ancient traditions – if not disappeared – faded away in favor of consumption and gift giving.

What Is Qixi Festival About and What Are the Trends?

The Chinese Valentine’s day falls every year on the seventh day of the seventh month on lunar Chinese calendar (which is the reason why it is called the double seventh). This year has been a money-spinner for many companies. Ctrip (China’s biggest online travel agency) for instance, published a report with data showing that more than 200.000 customers booked trips during Qixi festival, to destinations like Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong and Indonesia. In a noteworthy trend, the number of solo travelers increased during this period. Surprisingly, singles’ consumption is high during this period!
On the other hand, cosmetics’ and jewelry’s sales increased by 186.7 percent and 122 percent respectively. During this festival, Chinese men tend to offer a lot of gifts, and chocolate to their significant other. A recent report released by Suning showed that the demand of flower bouquets over this period substantially exceeded the demand during the Western Valentine’s Day!
Another sector recorded a significant increase in sales: Cinemas! Yes! To celebrate Qixi, Chinese couples prefer to go to the cinema in order to watch a romantic movie. It is also a great occasion to escape the heatwave and enjoy an intimate moment with your lover!

What Are the Best Practices for Companies During this Period?

While thinking of expanding to China, companies must take into consideration including special promotions or designing special packaging for the occasion Qixi festival. It is indeed not a national holiday. Yet many modern Chinese, particularly youngsters, look forward to it, spending money on expensive and luxurious items to treat themselves as well as their partners.

 

With ASI Solutions, penetrating the Chinese market becomes easier.With our range of solutions from handling compliance, import, custom, labelling, logistics and financial flux, we will give you the necessary assets to perform on the Chinese market!

/ By daphnemoyal / ASI Group News • Import Regulations/ 0 Comments

ASI Solutions’ Conference at the CCI France-Chine

Numerous are the companies eager to launch their business and products in China. Chinese consumers are keen on foreign products and the Chinese market thus represents a huge potential for foreign European brands.. However, many companies lack knowledge about the import process and common difficulties that they could meet on their way.

ASI Solutions was glad to offer its expertise to few members of the Chambre de Commerce et de l’Industrie France Chine (CCIFC) on Thursday, 4th June. Our fellow colleagues had a breakfast presentation session, where they were introducing to the participants the barriers that they could meet and how to overcome them. Many situation were exposed, with a range going from Food & Beverages to textile products.

We would like to thank the CCIFC for having hosted us for this conference, all the participants that were present this day, as well as Madeleine who delivered us delicious breakfast. We are looking forward to exchange again on this topic and share our expertise and experience!
Eager to gain more insight on this topic? Don’t hesitate to contact us!

/ By daphnemoyal / Chinese E-Commerce • Marketing in China/ 0 Comments

Live Streaming: How to Boost your E-commerce Strategy in China

ASI Solutions’ purpose has always been to open the doors of Chinese market to companies eager to expand their activity on the Chinese market. Even though our main expertise revolves around the logistics field, we acquired a strong knowledge of the marketing trends here in China, thanks to our 10-year experience.

Today we will introduce you to live streaming. It may not be a new concept for you: it has increased in popularity these last years, through video games or musical shows directly streamed on Youtube, Instagram or Twitch, the popular media for live streaming in Europe and the US. But in China, the scope of this trend exceeds what we know in the West. Live streaming has indeed overcome many traditional media. The “Entertainmerce”, the fusion between entertainment and e-commerce is hitting Chinese consumers hard, transforming their way of consuming.

Live streaming plays a big role, that any company targeting Chinese market should be aware of. Today ASI Solutions decrypts the phenomenon for you!

What Is Live Streaming in China?

Live streaming had started with gaming but became more developed and opened to a variety of contents nowadays. It is not anymore only limited to pro-gamers, who earn their revenue from advertisement, sponsoring and number of views. Filming has shifted from backward to frontward camera, in a selfie live: you can watch popular streamers filming themselves singing, dancing, eating, or even driving. Viewers can send directly their comments, that the web celebrity can see in live and reply directly. The more they interact with their viewers, the more they will prompt to send them tip, in the shape of virtual gifts that the streamer can convert into real money. Popular among connected youngsters, these streamers are mostly millennials (born 1990s), as their viewers. Around 456 million of people had already watched a live streaming, which is more than a half of Chinese internet users.

“Entertainmerce”: How live streaming has linked entertainment and e-commerce.

But what is the most interesting is how e-commerce platforms have been engaged in China with live streamers, and are aiming at reaching consumers through them. Some live streamers, known as KOL (Key Opinion Leaders), are specialized in online selling. Through their live stream channel, they will introduce products to their fans – mostly fashion and cosmetic goods, while this practice is also developing in the food and services sectors - presenting their advantages and replying the viewers’ questions. Chinese consumers are demanding more transparency, sored of buying fake or goods which look nothing like the pictures. Live streaming enables them to better judge the product, avoiding bad surprise upon receiving it. They can ask questions in the live chat, which are answered instantly by the customer service. Moreover, a KOL with an important fan-base will inspire trust in her/his choices, even for new viewers, since appearing closer to the public.

These KOLs have been entertaining potential buyers, and these potentials became real customers: live shopping has a high conversion rate, sometimes up to 30% - even 50% as some platforms released. Live streaming offers interactive contents between the KOL and the viewers, but also between the viewers themselves. In one click, the viewer can add the good in his/her cart or be redirected to the shop page. When a viewer adds the product to his/her cart, it will appear on the screen where all the other viewer can see it. This strategy has considerably fostered impulse buying: people were not thinking about getting the product before watching the live, but the KOL show and viewer’s community convinced them.

Many foreign brands present in the Chinese market now rely on KOLs to push their branding and sales. China counts hundreds of live streaming apps, and the two biggest ecommerce platforms, JD and Tmall are hosting daily live streaming. For relatively important sales, such as 11.11, e-commerce platforms can host and stream big fashion shows that gather many luxury brands.

How to choose your KOL?

First of all, the choice of the platform matters. If your main goal is to drive sales, streaming on e-commerce platform is accurate. If you are targeting brand awareness, other platforms might be more relevant, as they are hosting more creative contents.

You also need to care about your KOL’s fame level, as it will impact the number of viewers and potential sales. More importantly, it will impact the cost of your campaign. Some KOLs already are big celebrities: actors and actress, singers, etc. They thus already have an important fan-base, bringing you much more visibility. They will cost you millions of RMB per single campaign. Middle range KOLs are composed of Internet celebrity. Some of them have their own shop on e-commerce platforms, where they resell their stylish clothes on: half of the bestselling lady’s clothes shop on Taobao are held by fashion KOLs (FBIC, 2016).

Generally speaking, you would be better of choosing a KOL used to represent the kind of product you sell. Some KOLs are well-known for their face as visual, while some would have built their reputation thanks to their expertise in some fields. Even if 80% of the viewers are millennials, keep in mind that some streamer may have a more segmented audience. You will have to find a streamer that have a viewer-base that fits to your target. Plan the content of the live up ahead, thoroughly brief the streamer you are working with, and focus on providing content he/she can use to create a story involving your products as for the message to reach Chinese viewers better.

Forget what you know about marketing: you will need a new strategy that will drive your business according to the peculiarities of the Chinese market.

As your one-stop-shop in China, ASI Solutions can link you to the best marketing agencies based in Shanghai. We work hand in hand with Chinese e-commerce specialists, used to partnering with KOLs to drive brand awareness and sales, and able to provide you with the perfect e-commerce solution to reach your targets!

At ASI Solutions, we are also used to working with e-commerce platforms and take care of your product from origin to your final customer’s doorstep!

Contact us to starting your business on the Chinese market.

Discover our full range of solutions!

/ By daphnemoyal / ASI Group News • Doing Business in China/ 0 Comments

ASI Solutions Joins OSCI Network

ASI Solutions is now part of the French OSCI (Opérateurs Spécialisés du Commerce International) business federation.

OSCI is representing 150 export consulting companies, and more than 2000 trading companies, that contribute to more than 120 billion Euros of export annually.

Companies belonging to OSCI are sharing a strong field expertise overseas and a culture of results that make them natural business partners. Their services are part of the general framework of the French support system for exports and provide SMEs with a unique approach to export. These operators are able to support, over time, companies on complex industrial projects in difficult countries and far from French production areas.

The membership of these operators in the OSCI guarantees their clients a professionalism recognized by proven references and a business ethic affirmed by signing a code of ethics.

The OSCI actively contributes to the promotion of its members through different actions: the OSCI manages the French collective agreement of import-export, inspires the initial training in International Trade, promotes indirect export, etc.

ASI Solutions, sharing the same values of OSCI, decided from this year on to be an active partner of this organization. Our teams are happy to contribute to the development of French companies’ internationalization, especially around China, Vietnam and Cambodia.

/ By daphnemoyal / Doing Business in China • Get Your Business Started in China • Our Success Stories/ 0 Comments

ASI Solutions at SIAL Shanghai 2019

ASI Solutions’ team attended the 20th edition of SIAL Shanghai to introduce its global supply chain solutions for Food and Beverage products to existing and potential partners. .

From May 16th until May 19th 2019, Asia’s biggest trade show gathered 4,300 exhibitors, taking place at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre and covering the 17 Halls of the exhibition center. It attracted 117,595 professionals to see products from all around the world. SIAL Shanghai represents a unique benchmark of Food and Beverages in Asia . French, Italian, Russian products… Every country is represented under its national booth and shows its willingness to expand overseas.Among others, wine, meat, dairy and refined products were presented, as well as services such as retail and hospitality actors.

Many business meeting and insightful discussions have been shared with our partners. We were happy to meet you, especially for those who are not used to come to China and have been discovering this country and its market on this occasion. Thanks to SIAL, interesting new projects with strong potential were launched.

Selling your F&B products in China might be challenging, especially when one is unfamiliar with the process. With its 10-year experience in China, ASI Solutions is your ideal partner for expanding and managing your international operations. We cover every step, from origin to your final customer’s doorstep.

 

Discover our full range of solutions!

/ By daphnemoyal / ASI Group News • Uncategorized/ 0 Comments

ASI Group performed at the Shanghai Butterfly Football Cup!

On April 14th, a team of ASI Group Shanghai Office played football at the SHANGHAI BUTTERFLY FOOTBALL CUP, a charity event organized by the Rotary Club of Shanghai Elysee, for the benefit of the DEBRA association.

What Is DEBRA Association?

DEBRA association tries to ensure visibility and medical support to the children affected by the epidermolysis bullosa infection, a painful genetic skin blistering condition which, in the worst cases, can be fatal. The blisters present on the children’s skin at the origin of their name of "Butterfly kids". The DEBRA International is now present in more than 50 countries around the world.

All the support received is used to improve research efforts, in order to find effective treatments that can cure this disease. DEBRA association collaborates with international institutions and coordinates research projects, while also raising awareness toward people who are directly or indirectly affected by this disease, to strengthen children’s self-confidence and improve their daily life.

ASI Group's soccer team performance

ASI Group was very proud to participate in this charity event, which was a success! We were happy to play with our colleagues and with the other teams, to share playful time with colleagues who came to cheer us.

This inter-companies tournament gathered 32 mixed men and women teams of 7 players each. Our Soccer team had been training hard for several weeks , and met many other great teams coming from different companies well-established in Shanghai.

Our team, initially in Group G, won the three group games 4-1, 1-0, 1-0, and managed to finish at the first position of the group. Our ranking enabled us to participate in the Elite cup tournament. Then, we won again 1-0, but sadly were defeated in quarter finals by Decathlon-Kipsta team 0-2. Nevertheless, all of us spent a good day and enjoyed playing on the field for this charity event.

Contact us if you want to hit the ball another time!