How brands can deal with the new e-commerce landscape in 2023 – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

China’s e-commerce landscape is changing fast and branding expert Ashley Dudarenok explains how brands can deal with the new big five: Alibaba, JD, Pinduoduo, Douyin, WeChat, for Technode. Here are her top-5 tips.

Ashley Dudarenok:

1. Adopting an overall e-commerce strategy and repositioning flagship stores on Douyin and Pinduoduo

E-commerce platforms need to adopt a comprehensive layout and reposition their flagship stores on Douyin and Pinduoduo. Douyin is focusing on developing its digital shelf e-commerce, while Pinduoduo is leveraging its advantage in high-frequency consumer goods categories to become a comprehensive platform that meets diverse needs. For brands, as the digital shelf e-commerce landscape becomes evenly matched, Douyin/Pinduoduo flagship stores will play an equally important role as their Tmall/JD flagship stores.

2. Building a stronger cross-platform synergy and seizing the opportunity to enhance bargaining power with e-commerce platforms

As e-commerce platforms become increasingly mature, the overlap of their consumer groups will inevitably continue to increase, making it more difficult to expand user increment. However, it is a good opportunity for brands to increase their bargaining chip with e-commerce platforms in terms of traffic, product promotion, and consumer data transparency. Stronger cross-platform collaboration between brand and e-commerce platforms is worth exploring on both sides, especially in category differentiation, pricing, and promotion.

3. Reducing the reliance on livestream e-commerce influencers and strengthening content co-creation

The role of e-commerce live streaming, especially influencer live streaming, in “transactions” will be further weakened. Most influencers may find that selling standard or common products are losing their appeal to the public. Influencer live streaming will reach a critical crossroads, and influencers will need to attract consumers through better content. Currently, “selling-only” influencers who lack content will lose their competitiveness and gradually be phased out. Patterns may emerge where common goods are sold more through digital shelf e-commerce and influencers will focus on more niche products with strong digital content potential like trendy goods.

4. Developing innovative supply chain solutions

Innovative supply chain solutions such as direct sourcing and supply chain financing can help brands reduce costs and improve efficiency. Brands need to optimize their organizational structure, develop cross-platform e-commerce capabilities, accumulate universal key capabilities to support multi-platform development, and lay a foundation for other e-commerce models with future development potential, such as instant retail.

5. Improving consumer experience through data analytics and personalized marketing

Brands need to use data analytics and personalized marketing to improve the consumer experience. It can help brands better understand consumer behavior and preferences, and provide tailored products and services to meet their needs. With the convergence of platform models, the profit levels of brand flagship stores on various platforms are expected to gradually converge. In order to improve efficiency, brands need to optimize their organizational structure, develop cross-platform e-commerce capabilities, accumulate universal key capabilities to support multi-platform development, and lay a foundation for other e-commerce models with future development potential, such as instant retail.

More in Technode.

Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more branding experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Pleas

Who is winning the e-commerce wars in China? - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Duarenok

Pinduoduo has been challenging e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD during the corona crisis. Marketing analyst Ashley Dudarenok looks if Pinduoduo can keep up in the e-commerce wars in China, for Bloomberg.

Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more e-commerce experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

How coronavirus changed China's e-commerce landscape - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

China's e-commerce players JD, Alibaba and Pinduoduo tried to build leverage during the coronavirus crisis, explains marketing guru Ashley Dudarenok at Bloomberg. And how are they profiting now the demand for Chinese products in the rest of the world is down?

Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. You can also send an email to get added to our Zoom-account.

Are you looking for more e-commerce experts on the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

2014: A stellar year for the internet industry - Paul Gillis

+Paul Gillis 

China´s economic growth might no longer be double digit, the internet industry keeps on booming, says financial expert Paul Gillis at Aljazeera. Successful IPO´s contributes, although the companies did not really need money, says the accounting professor.

Aljazeera:

"2014 was probably one of the best years for China's internet industry," said Paul Gillis, co-director of the international MBA programme at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. "You'd have to go back to 2007, which was sort of the previous peak. 2014 was so huge because of Alibaba, it kind of dwarfed everything else," said Gillis, a long-time Beijing resident well-versed in China's internet scene. 

Hangzhou-based e-commerce colossus Alibaba Group made history in September this year after it raised $25bn in New York in what became the world's largest initial public offering ever recorded in the United States... 

China's internet titans are not short on cash - and the irony is that this year's wave of IPOs was not triggered by a need to land more financing. 

"The companies actually didn't need money," said Gillis from Peking University. Rather, he said, overseas listings were meant to give an "exit" to the companies' current investors - mostly foreign private equity and venture capital - and provide further room for start-up acquisitions. 

Acquisitions have become more and more important for China's internet companies as the pool of web users expands and usage diversifies. 

By the end of June 2014, China had 632 million internet users, an increase of 14.4 million from last year, according to the China Internet Network Information Center, an official body set up in 1997 that provides regular statistical reports on online developments. 

More noticeable, however, is that for the first time mobile internet use (83.4 percent) overtook traditional PC (80.9 percent) usage in 2014. The number of mobile internet users reached a record 527 million, an increase of 27 million compared to the end of 2013. 

"This explains the success of China's internet companies pretty much completely," said Gillis. "They were at the right place at the right time."

More at Aljazeera.

Paul Gillis is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you interested in more stories by Paul Gillis? Check our regularly updated list here.  

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