You might be aware that two of the biggest countries in the world are China and India, both in terms of population as well as the area it consists of. Now, we know that the Indian e-commerce market is already thriving due to the emergence of the internet in the country.
However, China’s e-commerce market has already boomed in the last decade because of the technology advancements. Since we know that China is a huge market for e-commerce, it is obvious that businesses outside of China will also want to operate there.
For this reason, we are now seeing that many western businesses have tried to enter the Chinese markets, especially its e-commerce market. However, it is also quite noticeable that most of these western businesses have failed to make an impact apart from the likes of Apple and some other firms. According to a new study from Econsultancy, the publication tries to understand what is causing the western businesses to fail in China and what they need to do in order to succeed.
One of the big outcomes of this study is that western businesses need to gain trust from the Chinese people in order to succeed there. It is obvious that any business needs a trust factor to achieve success but it is a big influencing factor in the Chinese markets. The study finds that western businesses just don’t understand what Chinese customers are looking for.
They think that adding payment options available in China such as Alipay will make Chinese customers buy their products which is not the case. While the US and UK users do their own research before buying a product, the Chinese customers rely on word of mouth such as a recommendation from their friends and family who have trusted the brand previously. Also, the absence of Google in China does not help western brands as they rely on the platform for their website visits.
