Videos, ‘key consumers’ and recommerce: ten keys for China’s ecommerce future

Social networks, new consumption habits, and technology. These three vectors will determine the evolution of online business in China. The new functionalities of social networks will also condition the development of the channel. Coresight Research advances ten trends that set the course of ecommerce in China.

The first trend, and one of the most important, will be real-time videos to sell products online. In 2019, this marketing tool moved $63 billion, a total that will increase this year, according to China's financial services. This sale format easily captures users and enables the exposure of many products.

Taobao, part of Alibaba, used this tool with Viya, a Chinese influencer, in Single's Day. The company achieved an audience of 43 million users during the eight hours of live broadcasting, in which it presented ecommerce products.

Chinese ecommerce will be marked above all by technology and the new functionalities of social networks

The key opinion Consumers, the latest version of influencers Chinese, will also increase its presence in online marketing plans. These characters publish evaluations of the products they consume on platforms such as TikTok and other social networks.

In addition, short videos within these social networks will also have a greater impact. TikTok, for example, has already included a feature called Marketing Label, with which brands can label their products to redirect to their online store.

On the other hand, the recommerce, the sale of second hand now in app format, will be very popular in China throughout this year, the report stated. This business segment will reach 178 billion dollars in 2020, according to MobData. The profile of these consumers is young and comes from big cities. Retail companies will have the challenge of incorporating collaborations with these apps.

The group consumption model to obtain offers will also grow during 2020. The big ecommerce companies such as Alibaba and JD.com are already launching platforms with which to make these types of purchases, with Juhuasuan and the WeChat program, respectively.

Recommerce will gain prominence in China, reaching 178 billion dollars in 2020

Following this line, WeChat mini-programs and other messaging applications will increase their influence. Armani already used it with a cosmetic launch with which the user could try the lipstick thanks to the augmented reality offered by WeChat. The messaging application shared that 700 million users signed up to use this functionality in 2019.

In line with the new technologies, these will also be responsible for the acceleration of the delivery of the packages, one of the great challenges of the online channel. Thanks to 5G, digital commerce companies such as JD.com have already opened a new digitized logistics center in Beijing, seeking greater efficiency in the last mile.

Coresight Research also points to the rise of the consumer to manufacturer (C2M) market, that is, the relationship between the end consumer and final producer, within the online. The forecast for this segment is estimated at $6 billion by 2022, according to an iResearch analysis.

The cross-border ecommerce model will also emerge. In 2020, this segment will reach 164 billion dollars, positioning itself as a new focus for online sellers. Hence the online giant Alibaba bought Kaola, the digital platform for selling foreign products.