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Seeking Elusive Profits in China, US Retailers Expand Beyond Tmall, Embracing JD.com, WeChat and Direct-to-Consumer E-CommerceSAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Stronger relationships with Tmall (Alibaba) and JD.com helped deliver U.S. retail brands a successful 2017 Singles Day in China. Continued growth for these brands will come from diversifying channels and strengthening platform partnerships in China, according to research from the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum (GELF). According to the survey, 64% of U.S. marketers plan to implement Tencent's WeChat in the next two years. Though Tmall is dominant with 56.6% of Chinese e-commerce sales in 2016 (eMarketer), newer channels are gaining traction, presenting U.S. brands opportunities to work with other platforms like JD.com and WeChat and invest more in their direct-to-consumer e-commerce operations. One-third of China's 768 million daily WeChat users spend more than two hours per day chatting, sharing and shopping on the application, according to eMarketer. "WeChat feels like the early days of Facebook Marketing," according to one of the executives interviewed. The GELF research is based on a survey of 56 leading U.S. brands active in global e-commerce as well as one-on-one interviews with senior U.S. e-commerce leaders. Click here to download the complete research report, Catching the China Ecommerce Wave: A Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum Study. Some of the key findings include:
"As players like Tencent and JD.com challenge Alibaba for market dominance, those global retail brands sitting on the fence will almost certainly be left behind," said Kent Allen, co-founder of GELF and the lead author of the study. "China e-commerce is different — local payments, different platforms, marketing channels and business models. This won't change and brands operating there need to adapt and evolve or miss out on the world's biggest e-commerce opportunity." The study found that leading retail brands operating in China for five or more years are indeed adapting their e-commerce strategies and becoming more sophisticated. These leaders are pushing partners in China to help them build stronger platform relationships and help them more profitably scale their e-commerce operations. A common refrain repeated in GELF's interviews is "China is different," highlighting the retail, business, marketing, cultural and government-related challenges that still exist in the market, even among those companies that entered China early and generate up to 40% of their international e-commerce revenue from the country. GELF's events and research were created to enable leading global marketers to better understand how to navigate Chinese e-commerce. Download the free report, Catching the China Ecommerce Wave: A Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum Study, here. About the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum About Total Retail Contact info: View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/seeking-elusive-profits-in-china-us-retailers-expand-beyond-tmall-embracing-jdcom-wechat-and-direct-to-consumer-e-commerce-300558981.html SOURCE Total Retail; Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum |