China Mobile Commerce: How to Expand Reach and Effectiveness in the World’s Biggest eCommerce MarketWhile the eCommerce growth opportunity for global brands in China is immense, understanding China’s unique, local market nuances will be critical to success.

By Angela LiuDirector of Strategy & Insights, Profitero China

ContributorAndrew PearlDirector of Strategy & Insights, Profitero EMEA

Inside You’ll Learn • What makes China eCommerce

so different

• The importance of supporting a mobile-first strategy

• The key to winning over savvy and social Chinese consumers

• Why doing business with Tmall and JD.com matters

• Which CPG categories are winning in eCommerce in China

• Importance of ratings and reviews and sentiment analysis to earn trust

• The intricacies of monitoring frequently changing content

CHINA MOBILE ECOMMERCE: HOW TO EXPAND REACH & EFFECTIVENESS

China Mobile Commerce: How to Expand Reach and Effectiveness in the World’s Biggest eCommerce Market China is the world’s #1 eCommerce market globally by sales. Multinational consumer product goods (CPG) brands have barely scratched the surface though.

Huge opportunities await companies prepared to win over Chinese consumers, adapt to local market nuances, and put strategies in place to effectively adjust to constantly changing virtual content and an evolving eCommerce environment.

There’s nothing more important to Chinese consumers than trust: trust in eCommerce marketplaces they shop and brands they buy online. To expand reach and effectiveness, earning the trust of Chinese consumers should rank high among a brand’s strategic priorities.

Online ratings and reviews go a long ways toward building consumer trust. Chinese consumers are known to scour reviews to learn of shopper experiences with brands and products. Consequently, it is imperative that companies systematically monitor sentiments to ensure a brand’s image is effectively conveyed. Genuine and authentic reviews are critical.

Extreme brand loyalty presents challenges for brands trying to break into a consumer’s consideration set too. Chinese consumers, however, like trying new products, functions and conveniences. Whether a product trial is satisfactory or not becomes a critical factor in winning new customers and expanding a brand’s reach.

Then there’s the flexibility factor. Rapid fire changes in content, offers, products, promotions — along with consumer expectation of highly tailored and individualized content — characterize Chinese eCommerce and require flexible solutions.

There are indeed plenty of challenges and market-level nuances companies must grapple with in order to succeed. The size of the prize — that is, capturing a piece of the high-growth $800 billion Chinese eCommerce market — is well worth the investment.

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What Makes China eCommerce so Different?

Doing business in any foreign country comes with its share of challenges, but making inroads into China can prove particularly difficult. Retailers and

brands must first understand Chinese consumers, their online behaviors and shopping attitudes — the importance of trust, and trust in brands, for example — that make online marketing and selling in China very different than in many other markets.

Another big difference is the way the retail market has evolved in China. The development of eCommerce has been essentially fast-tracked, in some ways bypassing less developed physical retail altogether. Perhaps even more noteworthy, however, is the rapid adoption of smartphones in China, which quickly made mobile shopping the norm. In other words, the proliferation of smartphones fundamentally leapfrogged that of PCs and laptops, making China a mobile-first nation.

The level and pace of change across China’s eCommerce and mobile platforms is unlike anything seen in other parts of the world. The digital marketplace is characterized by rapidly changing content, products and promotions — oftentimes changing on a daily, if not more frequent basis. Furthermore, eCommerce interactions with consumers are extremely complex. Personalized experiences are the expectation, with the concept of tailoring taken to the extreme in China.

“The e-commerce market in China is largely all mobile and is characterized by flash promotions. Brands need to understand exactly how to optimize their sales performance on mobile platforms, given 80% of Alibaba’s transactions are now via mobile. The Chinese e-commerce market is already the largest in the world but it still keeps growing at an unprecedented rate, with online sales expected to top $800 billion this year. The potential here for brands is enormous.”

- Angela Liu, Director of Strategy & Insights, Profitero China

So, working with the right partners — in China, this essentially means e-tailers Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com, which together own about 80% of the eCommerce market, and eCommerce analytics experts — can make navigating the barriers to trade, understanding Chinese shoppers, and tracking critical eCommerce operational and transactional levers much easier.

China may be one of the most difficult markets to tap, but it’s also one of the most lucrative.

Mobile-First Strategy Will Be Key

With more Internet users than any other country, China is the world’s largest and fastest-growing eCommerce market. But perhaps more notable is

the rapid pace of mobile adoption in China. More than 95% of Chinese digital consumers are on mobile, according to McKinsey.

As such, mobile-based online shopping has gained significant momentum in recent years to become the preferred mode of retail eCommerce in China. According to iResearch Consulting Group, 71.6% of online shopping transactions were made on mobile devices in Q3 2016, up from 47.5% in Q1 2015. During the same time period, PC-based shopping transactions dropped from 52.5% to 28.4%.

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By 2020, eMarketer predicts retail mCommerce sales in China will top $1.64 trillion, representing about 23% of total retail sales. A BCG analysis predicts online purchases made using mobile phones will represent about three-quarters of China’s total eCommerce sales by 2020, compared with a projected 46% in the US. This level of activity and growth underscores the critical nature of having mobile-first marketing and brand strategies in China.

Since mobile devices are the primary connection point for many people, optimizing product images and other content for smaller screens is essential. Brands should focus on producing shorter product titles and descriptions, along with eye-catching keywords and fast-loading images with clearly visible features and benefits. Almost as importantly, they must monitor changes being made by other brands in their category — or work with an eCommerce analytics firm that offers this kind of data and analytics solution — so as not to fall behind the competition.

Market Structure of Online Retailing: Mobile vs. PC, 1Q15 - 3Q16

Source: iResearch Consulting Group

Savvy & Social Chinese Shoppers Transform eCommerce

When stacked up against Western markets, Chinese consumers tend to be more savvy and social when it comes to mobile engagement and mobile commerce.

Not only do consumers go to mobile sites to be entertained and explore new trends, they also want to engage with friends, celebrities and internet influencers — and shop. BCG finds that China’s consumers spend almost 30 minutes a day,

on average, on Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace. This is nearly three times longer than an American consumer typically spends on Amazon.

There’s been a “seismic shift in Chinese consumer tastes,” Chi Tsang head of Asia Internet research at HSBC in Hong Kong told Forbes. In recent years, Chinese consumers have gotten richer. They expect higher quality products, as well as better delivery and customer service from e-tailers.

Despite some deteriorating conditions in China’s economy with the country facing problems in terms of exports and investment, Chinese consumer confidence remains high. McKinsey research found that 55% of Chinese consumers were confident their income would increase significantly over the next five years, a huge percentage when compared with 32% of US consumers and 30% in the UK. It’s this consumer confidence that is propelling spending on products and services both in their native China as well as overseas.

Chinese consumers typically are known to be brand-conscious and brand-loyal. Trust — and finding brands they trust — is a top priority for Chinese consumers. This is especially true for apparel and luxury goods. But the market is a bit more open to trying new consumer packaged goods. Generally, consumers may keep buying the best-selling SKUs, but it doesn’t stop them from wanting to trial new products and brands.

This is a key reason why second- and third-tier foreign brands that have no physical presence in China have found some success online. It gives them access to a huge base of Chinese consumers they otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach.

“Brands must not only focus on producing shorter product titles and descriptions, but also use eye-catching keywords along with fast-loading images with clearly visible features and benefits.”

- Angela Liu, Director of Strategy & Insights, Profitero China

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importantly establish a presence on, to optimize reach. Big brands could easily have a presence in 20 or more stores, depending on company strategy and available resources.

Tmall Store Types Include:• Flagship Stores, which are a must for an overseas brand.

The vendor is the brand or retailer, and has exclusive rights to sell the product. Flagship stores give companies full control to customize their “store front” with their own branding and merchandising. Operating a flagship validates the brand in the eyes of Chinese consumers, proving it as a genuine resource with a trusted history. Only brands with a trademark (either ® or ™) can have a flagship store.

• Authorized Stores represent companies that have a permit to sell a product, but not in exclusivity. An authorized store sells two or more types of goods across different categories. Helping brands expand their reach to more traffic is a key benefit of authorized stores.

• Specialty Stores are vendors that sell several brands in one or at most two categories of different products, either their own brands or when acting as a distributor. It’s smart for brands to have a presence in specialty stores where shoppers tend to search for more variety of the same type of product or within the category.

Both Tmall and JD have a strong position in online grocery and are a one-stop shop for both domestic and international brands and categories. Increasingly, western manufacturers–including confectionery brands like Mars, Mondelez International and Nestle– are establishing their own “flagship stores” on the platform, giving them added control over how products are presented. Among other food and beverage brands operating on Tmall’s platform are Absolut Vodka, Bacardi, Godiva and Skullcandy.

But for consumers and these lesser-known brands, what does become critical is if the trial is satisfactory or not. Negative comments left in reviews can make or break a brand from winning new customers and extending its reach.

Bigger, top-selling CPG vendors face their share of challenges too, to continually and effectively engage with consumers who are constantly being bombarded with new offers — new products, brands, features, conveniences, etc. — in the marketplace. This fast pace of change and access to just about everything from everywhere makes Chinese consumers increasingly impatient and picky. It also means that innovation as an ongoing practice is a must, even if it only means a change in package, images or celebrity endorsements.

This ultra-competitive landscape makes the market quite challenging for CPG vendors. For those able to get it right, the rewards and customer loyalty could be substantial. So, tracking best-selling brands on a dynamic basis — along with understanding the reasons that make them best-sellers — is important.

A Tail of (Mostly) Two e-Tailers: Tmall & JD.com

Interestingly, Chinese consumers rarely visit company or brand websites. Instead, they discover what they want to buy through online marketplaces

such as Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao, entertainment apps like iQiyi, or China’s most popular social media platform, WeChat.

These types of eCommerce platforms typically give consumers access to sufficient varieties of selection — more brands, functions, services, access to other users’ experiences, and more. There’s a good chance of finding better discounts than on a company website too.

So, for brands looking to gain a presence in the Chinese eCommerce market, selling through an established marketplace is the way to go. And there are only two platforms that really matter: Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com. Together, these e-tailers capture 83% of China’s eCommerce sales. Having a presence on Tmall or JD is one way brands can effectively reach many Chinese consumers in such a big country.

Tmall is by far China’s largest B2C platform. There are several different types of “stores” operated by Tmall that global CPG brands should be aware of, and perhaps even more

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Where Do Chinese Consumers Shop Online in China?

Brands Operating on Tmall’s Platform

Source: China Briefing, China Investment Roadmap: the eCommerce Industry 2016

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Tmall - Makeup RemoverTop 5 Products - Ranked by Total Volume Sales Published on Tmall

*Volume sales published on Tmall website

Tmall - Oral CareNumber of Products Per Top Brand*

Tmall - Facial Skin CareNumber of Products Per Top Brand*

Tmall - ToothpasteTop 5 Products - Ranked by Total Volume Sales Published on Tmall

*Volume sales published on Tmall website

Source: Tmall, August 23, 2017

*By number of products among Tmall 100 Best-Selling products. Source: Tmall, August 23, 2017

Source: Tmall, August 23, 2017

Rank Product Name Brand Total Sales* Price Star

RatingReviews

CountImages Count

1 黑人牙膏双重薄荷 225g 清新口气有效防蛀去牙渍去口臭 DARLIE / 黑人 2,941,430 ¥13.90 4.9 921664 5

2 黑人牙膏超白竹炭 190g 双重美白防蛀去口臭亮白牙齿 DARLIE / 黑人 2,106,183 ¥14.50 4.9 774083 5

3 云南白药牙膏留兰香型 180g 减轻牙龈出血祛除口腔异味 Yunnan Bai Yao / 云南白药 2,012,928 ¥28.30 4.9 550650 5

4 高露洁光感白沁亮薄荷专业美白 113g 牙膏美白亮齿 Colgate / 高露洁 1,773,740 ¥9.91 4.9 531621 5

5 舒客舒克早晚牙膏2支美白去牙渍正品口腔牙膏套装 Saky / 舒客 1,256,865 ¥13.90 4.9 458190 5

Rank Product Name Brand Total Sales* Price Star

RatingReviews

CountImages Count

1 法国进口贝德玛卸妆水舒妍洁肤液 500ml 粉水 深层清洁 Bioderma / 贝德玛 143,300 ¥168.00 4.9 50,187 5

2 百雀羚 凤凰甘油一号 170g 维C滋养美白保湿 卸妆柔肤 PECHOIN / 百雀羚 108,880 ¥11.60 4.9 29,366 5

3 美宝莲眼唇卸妆液温和清爽卸妆水清洁眼唇专用 70ml Maybelline / 美宝莲 45,824 ¥27.90 4.9 16,306 5

4 法国进口贝德玛卸妆水净妍洁肤液500ml蓝水控油保湿 Bioderma / 贝德玛 31,491 ¥168.00 4.9 11,812 5

5 今之逸品卸妆湿巾 25 片 深度清洁免卸妆水卸妆油 便携 今の逸品 29,694 ¥12.80 4.9 9,062 5

Brands Number of Products

Saky / 舒客 17

DARLIE / 黑人 15

Colgate / 高露洁 14

LION / 狮王 11

Crest / 佳洁士 6

Brands Number of Products

PECHOIN / 百雀羚 26

大宝 11

Nivea / 妮维雅 8

千纤草 8

Perfect / 完美 3

Olay / 玉兰油 3

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Which CPG Categories are Winning in eCommerce in China?Online grocery lags in terms of a sustainable business model in most countries around the globe. But in China, buying food online has generally reached a high level of adoption, with almost half of consumers making some purchases online, according to McKinsey’s research. While food has higher eCommerce penetration in China than most other markets, the volume bought online is still fairly limited, accounting for just 5% of consumers’ total food spending.

Nielsen finds that non-edible grocery categories – including skincare and other personal products – dominate China’s top 15 online CPG categories. Edible grocery categories in the “top 15” include infant formula, milk, cookies/biscuits, and chocolate candy. However most grocery categories, whether edible or non-edible, are posting huge double-digit year-over-year increases, according to Nielsen’s research.

Profitero monitors the digital shelf in China for the world’s largest CPG brands – providing a “big picture” of their overall global eCommerce performance. Profitero has now expanded its successful alliance with Nielsen to offer our Digital Shelf 360 analytics suite to global brand clients in China, helping them correlate online performance with actual sales data in the world’s biggest eCommerce market.

Use of Ratings & Reviews to Earn Consumer Trust

There’s nothing more important to Chinese consumers than trust: trust in the eCommerce marketplaces they shop on, as well as brands

they buy online. The basis for this overarching sentiment stems in large part from unfavorable experiences many Chinese consumers initially had with Alibaba’s initial retail marketplace, Taobao.

Taobao is somewhat notorious for its highly unregulated buying and selling. Few, if any, policies and restrictions are set for those selling their wares on the platform, so Taobao gained a reputation, whether warranted or not, for distributing fake products, as well as somewhat misleading pricing and promotional practices used by some vendors.

At first, unknowing consumers bought into these kinds of “tricks.” They found out the hard way that some brands and products were not real or genuine. So, consumers shared their bad experiences by word-of-mouth offline and through negative reviews online. It’s these kinds of past experiences, along with bad reviews and sentiments that have left an indelible mark on the trust factor among Chinese consumers, still making them cautious when shopping online.

Source: Nielsen Global eCommerce Measurement Sales data, Sept. 2015 - Aug. 2016

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Enter Tmall and JD.com. These platforms have earned a reputation of being credible eCommerce shopping alternatives and thus their popularity has soared. Strict rules and regulations in place on Tmall and JD are intended to prevent fraud and fake product distribution. Consequently, shoppers have come to place much more trust in shopping through Tmall and JD. They’ve earned credit for providing real and genuine products and consumers are spreading the word.

Consumer-generated ratings and reviews thus carry extraordinary weight in China and have become an integral part of purchase decisions. It’s common for Chinese consumers to carefully scour ratings and reviews to grasp an understanding of shopper experiences with a particular brand or product — rewarding those with positive reviews and steering clear of those expressing negative sentiments.

“China is such an important eCommerce market now, making it critical for our clients to understand the many dynamics of online sales and activation. Our strategic alliance with Profitero allows us to offer our clients a greater breadth of tried-and-tested eCommerce solutions, and provides new insights into China’s eCommerce landscape to help them grow and succeed online.”

- Vishal Bali, Nielsen China Managing Director

Tmall

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JD.com

Profitero Digital Shelf 360 App

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“It’s clear that Profitero has the (technological) expertise to help us understand the nuances of the complex eCommerce market in China. Supported by an easy-to-navigate Chinese user interface, and a local analyst to help us drive meaningful insights from Profitero’s Digital Shelf 360 analytics platform, we’re excited to accelerate our eCommerce performance in this must-win market.”

- Global CPG Customer

About 80% of Chinese shoppers leave reviews online, Nestle Asia EVP Wan Ling Martello told ConfectioneryNews.com. For brand marketers, this high level of ratings and review activity, and the importance of sentiment analysis over star ratings, is all the more critical when doing business in China. Whatever companies can do, including teaming with analytics partners like Profitero, to monitor and ensure the authenticity and quality of brands through ratings and reviews analytics and sentiment analysis, is well worth the investment.

Brands Must Tune Into “Tailoring to the Extreme”

In China there is a word that means “thousand people thousand faces.” In very rudimentary terms in the online space, this fundamentally means that

each consumer sees a different face on their smartphone or eCommerce page.

One person, for example, could search and save many favorites so their Tmall landing page, in a sense, is

“customized” to display all their favorites. Chinese consumers oftentimes purposefully conduct these kinds of searching activities to make their layout of Tmall or JD more to their tastes and favorites. It actually becomes a sort of game consumers play in order to better personalize their pages. So, it’s not just about retailers or brands pushing pages, but shoppers doing what they can to also influence what they see.

The e-tailers themselves — Alibaba’s Tmall and JD — harness big data and apply formulas, algorithms and analytics to provide truly personalized shopping experiences for the consumer to a degree not yet seen in Western markets. Alibaba’s Tmall has its own big data team. As reported by BCG, Alibaba’s suggestions tend to be “spot on,” driving exceptionally high click and follow-through rates.

“Drawing on its detailed data on nearly 500 million active users, Alibaba has identified 8,000 different consumer descriptors, so that merchants and brands can home in on their target customers with extraordinary precision — and increase the effectiveness of their consumer engagement efforts,” reports BCG. This enables merchants to improve their marketing ROI and increase conversion rates.

It’s also common practice to use third-party agencies that focus solely in this area: to help make recommendations more valuable for each individual shopper. Nielsen and JD.com recently announced a collaboration, giving Nielsen access to the online behavioral data of JD.com’s 236 million active users, including the ability to track their online shopping paths.

The data, insights and analytics coming from the partnership are designed to help brands understand and leverage various consumer touchpoints in order to better engage with shoppers and improve communications and content.

When talking about eCommerce tailoring, it’s definitely done to the extreme in China. Basically, every single eCommerce interaction is effectively personalized for individual consumers with content that is relevant and resonates with them based on past experiences and through the use of cookies. This becomes a huge challenge for brands not used to operating this way. And, it’s something that requires constant monitoring, managing, and the local market know-how like that offered by Profitero in order to deal with it.

Taobao App Search Results are Personalized and Customized for Different Users

Source: Alibaba 2016 10-K

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Frequent Content Changes Require a Flexible Solution

Another eCommerce-related implication of “thousand people thousand faces” is the intense focus China places on the individual rather than the

mass market. Brands most likely to gain consumer trust are those that, through tailoring and personalized offers, make consumers think they care about them, what they think, and their needs by providing highly individualized content and product recommendations.

Keyword: Face Cream. Showing Two Distinct Results (below) for Two Different People

It’s this way of thinking — along with excessive tailoring and individualization — that drives the rapidly changing content, offers, products, choices and more that characterize China’s digital marketplace. Monitoring and managing this constant barrage of change requires flexibility, and flexible solutions.

Brands that want to play in the China eCommerce market must understand the amount and pace of change required: the work changes because changes happen every day, and at times even much more frequently.

This is in stark contrast with how things work in the US, UK and Europe, where eCommerce content is largely standardized. A brand can, for example, set up a product page on Amazon and then not worry about changing it very often. It may actually stay the same way for months without requiring a brand marketer’s attention. This is not the case in China. eCommerce is exponentially more complex.

“Online shopping in China is very different than what US, UK and other western cultures are accustomed to. In China, eCommerce is very much cookie-driven, so what shoppers see is based on their past activities: what they’ve purchased, websites they’ve visited, and so on. When working with global CPG brands, I collaborate closely with Angela Liu in Shanghai to ensure that any eCommerce strategy is flexible enough to accommodate local-market nuances.”

- Andrew Pearl, Director of Strategy & Insights, Profitero EMEA

Brands typically need to review and change content, images, pricing and promotions frequently and even daily during peak seasonal or holiday periods, including special event festivals such as Singles’ Day.

It’s also critical for brands to keep an eye on competitive moves, i.e., the changes and updates they make and how often. For example, they may be applying more attractive keywords in their product titles, swapping out images or even videos, changing image position, and adding reviews to attract shopper attention.

Enormous amounts of changes happen every day and require close monitoring. Brands indeed need a flexible solution in China. Third-party eCommerce analytics companies like Profitero offer the technical capabilities and flexibility to track changes — in product pages, keyword search, images, promotions, pricing, and more — in near real-time, therefore keeping vendors informed and able to adapt to all the change.

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Spotlight on Singles’ DaySingles’ Day is the largest online shopping event globally. It first began as a shopping holiday in 2009 by Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba as a way for young Chinese people to celebrate the fact that they’re proud of being single — and what better way to commemorate it than by buying themselves a gift.

What started with just 27 merchants participating in that first Singles’ Day has grown to more than 40,000 merchants worldwide now taking part in the renowned Chinese shopping festival. Thousands of brands have popularized Singles’ Day by offering massive discounts and promotions on their goods, transforming Singles’ Day into a nationwide — and even global — shopping holiday.

Alibaba made $7 billion dollars in the first two hours of the 2016 11.11 Singles’ Day Global Shopping Festival. In total, Alibaba generated $17.8 billion on Singles’ Day 2016, well surpassing the previous year’s $14.3 billion.

“Chinese consumers purchased more in the first hour of 11.11 this year than the entire 24 hours in 2013, reflecting the incredible evolution of our global shopping festival,” Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said in a press release. “This unprecedented level of engagement demonstrates both the consumption power of Chinese consumers and their embrace of online shopping as a lifestyle.”

10 Ways to Extend eCommerce Reach and Effectiveness in China 1. Establish a presence. China has more eCommerce activity

than any country in the world. Chinese consumers are set to spend more than $800 billion online this year. Brands must be there to play or risk falling behind other early-movers that may already have established a presence online in China.

 2. Emphasize mobile-first strategy. With nearly three-quarters of online shopping transactions in China made via mobile, brands must optimize content accordingly to win. This means shorter product titles and descriptions, common eye-catching keywords, and fast-loading images with clearly visible features and benefits.

 3. Test with Tmall and JD.com. For brands looking to test the Chinese waters, make absolutely sure it’s with one of these two e-tailers. Together, Tmall and JD.com capture 83% of China’s eCommerce sales. They’re the only ones that matter — at least for now. Establishing a flagship store on Tmall is a must-have for an overseas brand.

 4. Continually engage with consumers. The ultra-competitive and evolving eCommerce marketplace means consumers are constantly bombarded with new offers, products, brands, and more — from well-known national and foreign brands, and a growing number of second- and third-tier foreign brands alike. This means relevant and regular consumer engagement is critical to sustain loyalty and meaningful relationships.

 5. Ensure authentic ratings and reviews. Consumer-generated ratings and reviews carry a lot of weight with Chinese consumers. Reviews and comments left by shoppers about their experiences with a brand or product are an integral part of the shopping process and help ensure trust among consumers. Brands must carefully monitor reviews for negative sentiments, and to ensure ratings and reviews are authentic.

 6. Tailor content to the individual level. “Thousand people thousand faces” means each consumer sees — and perhaps more importantly, expects to see — a different face on their smartphone or eCommerce page than other shoppers. eCommerce in China is very much cookie-driven based on past activities. Tailoring is done to the extreme in China, and brands must be prepared to deliver.

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 7. Frequently update online content. China’s digital marketplace is characterized by rapid fire changes in content, offers, products, promotions and more. Monitoring this constant barrage of change requires a flexible eCommerce analytics solution. Managing it requires a flexible strategy.

 8. Leverage seasonal and shopping festivals. More than 40,000 merchants representing thousands of brands participated in last year’s Singles’ Day (11.11) event. Having a presence in China eCommerce means leveraging the enormity of what’s become a worldwide shopping event - but it’s not enough. Frequent content changes — images, pricing, promotions — are required to win during the 24-hour event.

 9. Innovate or be left behind. The fast pace of change and access to just about everything from everywhere makes Chinese consumers increasingly impatient and picky about the products and brands they choose. It also means constant innovation is a must. Even small changes in packaging, images or celebrity endorsements make a big difference.

 10. Monitor, adjust, monitor, adjust. Working with the right partners — whether e-tailer or eCommerce analytics experts — can make navigating the barriers to trade and tracking critical eCommerce operational and transactional levers much easier than going it alone. Profitero — now with an office in Shanghai — helps global consumer brands and retailers grow online sales and market share by monitoring what shoppers see and buy online, actively tracking more than 450 million products across 5,000 online stores in more than 50 eCommerce markets, including China.

ConclusionChina consumers are set to spend more than $800 billion online this year. What’s more, the industry is growing at an unprecedented rate. Multinational consumer product goods brands have barely scratched the surface, so the opportunity in China is immense. Understanding unique, local market nuances, monitoring the evolving marketplace and competitive moves, and devising a proactive market strategy will be critical to success. China may be one of the most difficult markets for global CPG brands to tap, but it’s also one of the most lucrative.

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