Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Future is Social Media

March 19, 2010
Social Media
As you’ve likely read recently, lots of big corporations are trying to harnass the power of social networks to help grow their sales. But even if you’re not a huge retailer, you can still leverage social media to share information about your products as well as to communicate with your customers. I like to think of social media marketing efforts as one part of a larger strategy. Lots of people (your potential customer base) like to communicate in different ways. Some will browse to your website for info, others are on email all day and respond to electronic promotions over anything they get in the mail, and others still prefer to rely on recommencations from friends and family that they might find on social networks.
One important thing to remember about the various social networks is that each has distinct functionality and users log on for different reasons. Here’s a quick overvoew of three extremely popular platforms.
Twitter
Twitter users (aka Tweeters aka Tweeple) use this service to share 140 character long updates with everyone who follows them. You can log into Twitter on any web browser, or you can send and receive updates through text messages on a mobile device. Because of the character limit, messages tend to be in shorthand and often reference short links created on tinyurl.com or bit.ly. For companies that want to use Twitter to gather followers, here’s some advice.
First, don’t use the service only to blast out messages about promotions and products. Followers will view your messages as spam and will stop following. While it’s okay to use Twitter to share links to products and special deals, be sure to spend some time seeing what other users are saying about or to you, and engage them in conversations about relevant topics. It’s also a good idea to follow the competition and companies that sell complementary items. There fans will make for great potential customers.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is generally considered the more business/career focused version of Facebook (see below). You’re highly unlikely to find photos from last weekends bar crawl or pot luck dinner and users log in and update statuses less frequently. You’ll find more information about educational and professional backgrounds and users can write recommendations about their colleagues or other business contacts.
The best way for you to take advantage of LinkedIn is to use it to connect to potential suppliers and customers through your existing connections. It’s also a great place to post about job openings ors make requests for contractors and other vendors.
Facebook
Facebook is quickly becoming a one-stop-shop for a wide array of online tasks. It’s 300+ million users previously relied on tools like gmail, snapfish, message boards and blogs to get the same information that’s now available all in one place. Facebook users are more likely to regularly post status updates, links, video clips and other media and the platform makes it easy for anyone to comment on or share information that they find on Facebook or the wider web.
All this makes Facebook an ideal spot to engage with customers and potential customers in a variety of different ways. Companies can do this by creating a Public Profile that represents the brand. One key thing to remember, however, is that if your brand doesn’t have a lot of awareness, there is very little reason to for people to become a fan of your public profile. What you’ll be best served by doing is creating a page that’s purpose is to share useful information about a topic that relates to your business. So if your company, Irene’s Custom-Made Handbags, only has a small group of loyal customers, make your public profile have mass appeal by sharing information about all sorts of trends and information about custom made purses and other accessories. If you become the go-to place to find out which independent bag makers, chances are, you’ll develop a list of followers that will be great to market to.

As you’ve likely read recently, lots of big corporations are trying to harnass the power of social networks to help grow their sales. But even if you’re not a huge retailer, you can still leverage social media to share information about your products as well as to communicate with your customers. I like to think of social media marketing efforts as one part of a larger strategy. Lots of people (your potential customer base) like to communicate in different ways. Some will browse to your website for info, others are on email all day and respond to electronic promotions over anything they get in the mail, and others still prefer to rely on recommencations from friends and family that they might find on social networks.

Twitter.com/DHgate

Twitter.com/DHgate

One important thing to remember about the various social networks is that each has distinct functionality and users log on for different reasons. Here’s a quick overvoew of three extremely popular platforms.

Twitter

Twitter users (aka Tweeters aka Tweeple) use this service to share 140 character long updates with everyone who follows them. You can log into Twitter on any web browser, or you can send and receive updates through text messages on a mobile device. Because of the character limit, messages tend to be in shorthand and often reference short links created on tinyurl.com or bit.ly. For companies that want to use Twitter to gather followers, here’s some advice.

First, don’t use the service only to blast out messages about promotions and products. Followers will view your messages as spam and will stop following. While it’s okay to use Twitter to share links to products and special deals, be sure to spend some time seeing what other users are saying about or to you, and engage them in conversations about relevant topics. It’s also a good idea to follow the competition and companies that sell complementary items. There fans will make for great potential customers.

Checkout www.twitter.com/dhgate to see what my marketing team are doing here.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is generally considered the more business/career focused version of Facebook (see below). You’re highly unlikely to find photos from last weekends bar crawl or pot luck dinner and users log in and update statuses less frequently. You’ll find more information about educational and professional backgrounds and users can write recommendations about their colleagues or other business contacts.

The best way for you to take advantage of LinkedIn is to use it to connect to potential suppliers and customers through your existing connections. It’s also a great place to post about job openings ors make requests for contractors and other vendors.

Facebook

Facebook is quickly becoming a one-stop-shop for a wide array of online tasks. It’s 300+ million users previously relied on tools like gmail, snapfish, message boards and blogs to get the same information that’s now available all in one place. Facebook users are more likely to regularly post status updates, links, video clips and other media and the platform makes it easy for anyone to comment on or share information that they find on Facebook or the wider web.

All this makes Facebook an ideal spot to engage with customers and potential customers in a variety of different ways. Companies can do this by creating a Public Profile that represents the brand. One key thing to remember, however, is that if your brand doesn’t have a lot of awareness, there is very little reason to for people to become a fan of your public profile. What you’ll be best served by doing is creating a page that’s purpose is to share useful information about a topic that relates to your business. So if your company, Irene’s Custom-Made Handbags, only has a small group of loyal customers, make your public profile have mass appeal by sharing information about all sorts of trends and information about custom made purses and other accessories. If you become the go-to place to find out which independent bag makers, chances are, you’ll develop a list of followers that will be great to market to.

Check out www.facebook.com/dhgate to see what my company is up to in this exciting space.

Read more tips on promoting your business at IntroducingSuccess.com and let me know what you think!

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Chinese Parliament and You

March 14, 2010

Now that the spectacle of the Chinese Spring Festival has finished, China is back to business. Whereas February is the festival season, March is politics season. This week I want to focus on some pressing economic and financial issues because of their importance to US buyers of Chinese products.

Beijing has become the focus of China as over 3000 government and people’s delegates descend on the capital for a ten day Congress which decides the economic, social, legal and other policies of the country. It is a particularly important and timely meeting as there are a number of pressing economic and financial issues, like inflationary pressures and the valuation of the Chinese currency the yuan, that are uppermost in many people’s minds – Chinese and foreigners alike.

February was a great month for Chinese exports which were up about 45% on the previous year. There is guarded optimism that this trend will continue and I believe that cross-border ecommerce will be a driving force.

Looking at our transactional data and talking to our DHgate.com Chinese suppliers, I believe that foreign companies, particularly US firms, are replenishing their inventories and introducing new product lines. This is a strong sign of increasing confidence in the future.

Also in my discussions with Chinese and international clients and colleagues, I am constantly asked about my opinion on the direction of the value of the RMB. Clearly this has a direct impact on the costs of sourcing and has tremendous importance. You will no doubt have seen and read numerous analyses, commentaries and articles on this issue.

I don’t want to get into a debate of the rights and wrongs of this issue, but I think it’s suffice to say that there’s a lot of misconception and misunderstanding on both sides. I believe though that there will be no significant movement in the value of the RMB in the short term. Whether there will be a slight rise in its value later in the year as some are predicting will depend on the economic performance of the country. In the meantime, China-sourced products continue to remain extremely cost competitive for SME buyers. Stay tuned as there is a lot more to come on this issue.

The other major Chinese financial issues that have the potential to affect Chinese suppliers and overseas buyers are the specters of inflation, wage rises and looming labor shortages.

Despite a recent spike in inflation (particularly in the food, housing and wages sectors) over the past few months, the Government appears to have it under control. With respect to the labor market and costs, I’ll post on this issue in the future.

On a final note, during the Congress, the Government announced a major commitment to the development of China’s ecommerce platform, particularly in the SME sector. This is the first time it has been made a ‘front and center’ policy. A number of initiatives will be promoted to introduce SME online suppliers and manufacturers to better business practices and ecommerce trade. This is a welcome development.

My own company, DHgate.com, is actively developing its training and education programs for our online Chinese clients and welcome this Government policy which complements our vision for the future of high-quality product and service offerings from China’s manufacturing sector. I’ll talk more of these initiatives in a later post.

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China Brands on the Move

March 4, 2010

In my last post I touched on the Chinese Government’s ‘Made in China’ promotional advertisement. I took the view that Chinese companies were increasingly serious about their products quality and integrity and becoming brand aware.haier

Recent surveys by the World Bank and the leading international brand development and valuation companies show that Chinese brands are on the move internationally. The big State-owned banks, technology and oil companies are now consistently in the top 100 and a number of them threaten the top 20 in the near future.

Remember that these brands (for example, banks like ICBC and Bank of China, the oil giant Sinopec and China Mobile) essentially did not exist 10 years ago. Much in the same way that the top Japanese brands like Sanyo, Panasonic and Toyota were 30 years ago, and Korean companies like LG, Samsung and Hyundai had no international presence 10-15 years ago.

We are all aware of the times when the phrase ‘Made in Hong Kong/Japan/Korea’ was used in a derisory manner to indicate low quality and unreliability. How things have changed (even despite Toyota’s current woes).

There are now a large number of Chinese companies that are poised to move into the world’s best brands lists in the next decade. Companies like Huawei, Midea, BYD and Haier to name a few.

Take Haier for example. One of China’s largest companies, they are now the 4th largest home appliance manufacturer in the world. You may have seen their low-cost and energy efficient refrigerators and air conditioners in your local stores. In many ways Haier have outmarketed and outplayed GE and the Japanese producers. Expect to see this company rocket up the leading brand lists in the future.

BYD (Build Your Dreams), the Chinese car manufacturer which has a special interest in electric vehicles and is the recipient of Warren Buffet investment, is also a brand that could be on everyone’s lips in the future. I will talk more of them in later posts.

And what does this increased brand awareness and success mean for online retailers sourcing products from China? One of the flow-on effects is that small to mid range Chinese manufacturers, including online suppliers, are rapidly improving their game in order to remain competitive – both in terms of cost and quality. We are currently seeing this on DHgate.com

Read more blogs like this on my “The View from China” blog at Practical eCommerce. Don’t forget to let me know what you think!

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China Sourcing Trends

March 1, 2010

In the January issue of the UK’s ‘Internet Retailing’ magazine, I wrote the below piece for their ’Insights from Around the World’ column on the sourcing trends in China for overseas retailers. It includes some information that many of you will find interesting. Let me know your thoughts!

Insights from Around the World: China

Despite the winter chill, China was red-hot at the close of 2009.The country’s manufacturing activity accelerated in December at its fastest pace in several years and foreign exports were up USD$130.7bn, up 17.7% year-on-year. J.P. Morgan said it expects China’s growth momentum to continue throughout 2010. All this at the same time as internet shopping in the UK grew at its fastest rate for 22 months in December, as millions of shoppers migrated online to buy their Christmas goods.

Controversy over Beijing’s policy of pegging its currency to the U.S. dollar may continue to concern economists, but for the time being the fixed exchange rate gives China’s factories a nearly unbeatable price advantage against manufacturers in other countries.

The price advantage has grown even larger after the U.S. dollar, and therefore the Chinese yuan, fell sharply against other major currencies last year. Combine this financial situation with the growth of an already mammoth manufacturing industry and you get a retail buyers market.

Retailers purchasing inventory in China via DHgate.com demonstrated some interesting trends in 2009. Although Apparel and Accessories remained strong, technology purchases ranked as the most popular, accounting for around a third of transactions and a rise of over 10% on the previous year. Strong growth was also seen in the Health and Beauty and Home and Gardens categories, both showing year-on-year increases of around 40%. And with total Christmas stock purchasing representing DHgate’s busiest in its five year history, Chinese manufacturers are expecting to see huge growth in 2010.

With an increasing number of Chinese businesses setting up wholesale and manufacturing operations online, those who source from China will have a distinct advantage.  Traditionally it has been the Big Box retailers who benefit from China sourcing. The new evolution of this industry online allows smaller business to also benefit and pass on savings to their customers – increasing profits.

As consumers resume normal spending habits, retailers capitalizing on the surge of quality goods provided by Chinese manufacturers have the potential to expand their market share.

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