Wechat the new gate to Social Commerce in China

Wechat the new gate to Social Commerce in China

Social media and e-commerce have converged on smartphones in China, thanks to an innovative application. Since its launch in 2011, WeChat has grown from a messaging client to WhatsApp true style in a single window for managing lifestyle. Without leaving the application, loyal users of WeChat - whose number is fast approaching one billion - you can book an appointment with your doctor, ask for a taxi, and buy products directly from manufacturers. At least one of every five users WeChat has linked to your debit or credit, a potential bonanza of cash of which Mark Zuckerberg, can only dream of.

Wechat a Content Social Networks !

Like most professionals in the continent, his mother used instead WeChat email to conduct much of their business. The application offers everything from video calls and group chats instant news updates and easy sharing of large multimedia files. It has a service oriented similar to slack US business chat. Yu Hui's mother also uses your smartphone camera to scan QR codes WeChat people (Quick Response) who knows much more often these days than swapping business cards. Yu Hui's father uses the application to do online shopping, to pay for goods in physical stores, settle utility bills and tabs dinner with friends split, with only a few taps. He can easily book and pay for taxis, ball mass deliveries, theater tickets, hospital appointments and holidays abroad, all without having to leave the WeChat universe.
source http://seoagencychina.com/wechat-social-media-agency-in-china-shanghai/

As an equity investor puts US venture, WeChat is there "at each point of their daily contact with the world, from morning till night." This state is the center of all Internet activity, and as a platform through which users find their way to other services, which inspires Silicon Valley companies, including Facebook, to closely monitor WeChat. They are entitled to cast an envious eye. People who divide their time between China and the West complain that WeChat leaving behind is like stepping back in time. Among its services, is perhaps their promise of a cashless economy, a recurring dream of the Internet age, which impresses viewers more. Thanks to WeChat, Chinese consumers can navigate their day without spending once banknotes or pulling plastic. It is the best example of how China is shaping the future of mobile Internet to consumers around the world.
source : http://www.economist.com/news/business/21703428-chinas-wechat-shows-way-social-medias-future-wechats-world

This is logical, for China manufactures and put to good use more smartphones than any other country. More Chinese access the Internet through their mobile phones than they do in the United States, Brazil and Indonesia combined. Many jumped from the pre-web era directly to the mobile Internet, bypassing the entire personal computer. About half of all sales over the Internet in China takes place through mobile phones, compared to about one third of total sales in America. In other words, conditions were all there for WeChat to take flight: new technologies, business models built around mobile phones, and above all, customers eager to experience. It's just a matter of time before this functionality, or something, is the norm worldwide. Now it's time for brands to begin to prepare for a future in which social media will not only be a place in the market, but also an important market in itself. Our recent work, "The use and value of information on the social network in the selective sale" describes how, unlike the current paradigm of e-commerce, selling social media will prosper no transparency and accessibility, but in strategic exclusivity.

selective sale : it works on Wechat

the media, most avid users include those who get pleasure from the envy of their peers. Facebook, Instagram and others offer a myriad of ways to show off, flaunting the latest designer handbag social concern advertising through a charitable donation announced publicly. That's why luxury companies like LVMH have seen a huge increase in the use of social media among buyers of exclusive products, limited edition, especially in the key growth markets of India and China. Naturally, LVMH has begun using social media to identify and market to customers who likes one changing her friends. Theoretically, this select group of customers - if they could be identified - would jump at the opportunity to buy a product designed just for them. So far, however, efforts by LVMH in what we call "selective sale" have been hampered by the disordered information gathering and the huge volume of data available. The seamless integration of electronic media and social commerce represented by WeChat could be the solution. Some companies are already beginning to exploit the possibilities - for example, Tiffany & Co. uses his official account WeChat to refine customer segmentation. Hitting the bull's-eye will depend on the ability of a brand to identify which customers, for all of your social media, are the objectives of greater value to the selective sale. That is where our research.
read also Why Chinese prefer to buy online 

Knowing your customers

In our study, we used mathematical models to reproduce the typical behavior of social media followers who like to show off. We also take into account the fact that companies differ in how much they know about their customers on social networks. Some know nothing or almost nothing. But there are two types of information that are useful: the degree of connection (ie, how many friends have each client) and the degree to which each client participates in a consumerist superiority (researchers call this "visibility"). totally uninformed companies obviously can not participate in any segmentation; Companies that have one or both types of information clients can use all available data to target customer cure.

Try different combinations produced a couple of interesting general principles. First, the most popular guests were not the high value of the majority. Fully informed companies did better when targeting customers with a high level of visibility and an intermediate number of followers: high enough for purchasing touch off the effect desired envy, but not so high as to reduce the novelty of product - and, by extension, its value in the game of competitive consumption - too.

Second, not all customer information is the same. It was found that knowing how many friends have every customer is much more valuable than knowing his propensity to show social media. Both types of information are better than no information, but information visibility add any value to companies who already knew the extent of social networking connections of its customers. In addition, information visibility value added amounted to between two and six percent gains in profits, while connection information presented increased profits ranging from five to 30 percent.

What Chinese customers want

The difference in value between the two types of information highlights another general principle of social means of collecting information. Information is always less valuable when describing aspects of customer behavior that align directly with business goals. In this case, the customers' own actions can compensate for lack of knowledge - the most prolific conceited are not shy about showing you what they are. They happily eligible for a program of selective sales, assuming the marketing campaign were strong in most other respects. In fact, the company can design appropriate systems that have self-selection in the relevant segments of customers.

Privacy concerns

The use of a collection process more demanding information, rather than a data dump, helps companies avoid conflict with the privacy issues that are likely to continue increasing as e-commerce and social networks They are become more intertwined. The advent of WeChat announces the transformation of social networks in digital main streets, where products can be found and displayed in an uninterrupted sequence of clicks. Looking ahead, brands will have to cultivate a neighborhood intimacy and trust with your customer base. That means that e-commerce will become more dependent on tactics adapted as selective selling, and less on off-the-rack approach.