How to Sell on WeChat – The Guide for Small businesses

If you’re a small business and looking to start selling on WeChat, this guide is for you. In this post, we’ll go over the basics of how to sell on Wechat, including setting up your account and beginning to build your customer base. Plus, we’ll share some helpful tips for navigating the world of WeChat e-commerce. Let’s get started!

With over 1.2 billion monthly active users and still growing, WeChat is China’s largest social media/messaging app. It started out as a messaging service, but it expanded to online payment and a strong mobile e-commerce platform that anyone can use to start selling. With 1 billion WeChat users who perform more than 1 million transactions per minute on the app via WeChat pay, the platform represents a real growth potential for e-merchants.

Why is Wechat Store Popular?

WeChat stores have become a huge phenomenon in mainland China. It marked the start of the ‘Social Commerce’ revolution – the integration of social networks with stores. On WeChat, users can play around, connect with their friends, show their feelings, make small transactions, and also do a lot of shopping!

• They are highly trusted by users (thanks to the fact that they’re hosted by Wechat)
• They allow for instant and convenient payment via WeChat pay which directly connects to the users’ bank accounts
• They are the ideal place especially to shop for quality products from abroad since these products are sold by trusted individual sellers recommended by their personal social network. Therefore, most of the cross-border e-commerce in China now operates via WeChat stores.
• It may also be a cheaper and easier option for foreign brands to test new products in China, compared to Tmall Global – which can be quite complicated to get into.

Design a WeChat Store with a Third Party Program

After brands create their online stores, they can link them to their official accounts in the menu bar. If a consumer chooses to buy a product in the online store, they can click the menu bar linked to the external online store. In this way, customers can finish the whole purchasing process within WeChat, so a higher conversion rate can be expected.

Today, you can build a well-designed WeChat store within 5 minutes using 3rd party WeChat e-commerce platforms. Most of these platforms offer multiple payment options, and a clean design. The 4 most popular 3rd party WeChat e-commerce platforms are Weidian, Youzan, JD.com, and Lewaimai.

Design your Wechat Store with Weidian

Weidian is the biggest free platform to create WeChat shops. Weidian enables companies to create stores connected to WeChat via WeChat login, payments, and other WeChat social functions. As of early 2015, Weidian claimed that almost 30 million stores had been created on its platform.

Use Youzan to sell on Wechat

Youzan is also one of the largest ones. Note that Youzan is not free. It costs 4,800 RMB (about $750 USD) per year for its cheapest plan.

There is a lot more insight and knowledge you need to know before deciding which platform to use. Procedures to set up a shop are also different among platforms as well as between a local seller and a foreign seller. Just drop us an email if you have any questions or simply want to have a talk about selling on WeChat!

Wechat Mini-Program: a Hot Tool to Sell on Wechat

WeChat mini-programs have been taking China’s eCommerce industry by storm. Mini-programs are mini-apps that customers can seamlessly access and use without leaving the WeChat app. Users are using mini-programs instead of mobile apps to book movie tickets, order food delivery, or do shopping.

Of the 2.3 million mini-programs on the market, 18% are dedicated to ecommerce, according to data provider ALDZS.

Why do customers LOVE Wechat mini-programs?

• Easy to access, quickly loaded, and easy to share with friends. In fact, 35% of users access mini-programs because they’re shared by friends or family.
• Users can complete closed-loop transactions where they can discover, browse, and pay for items without downloading an app or loading a page on a separate browser.

Why do brands LOVE Wechat mini-programs?

• Freedom to design user interface the way brands want
• Can access and analyze customer data
• Chinese consumers are more likely to share e-commerce promotions and items with friends and family through mini-programs because such items are more visual and appealing when shared within a mini-program rather than a simple link.
• Brands can customize their mini-program stores in new ways that improve the customer experience and increase brand engagement.

Promote your WeChat Shop

Chinese will not buy a product from a brand that they do not know. It is not enough to simply have a Wechat official account, you’ll need a WeChat Marketing Strategy. You need to market your brand in order for consumers to trust it and look for your store. This is where our agency can help because e-reputation creates the difference between success and failure.

1. Compelling content for customer engagement, promotion and sales

You can use different types of multimedia content on this app but the most popular content on WeChat is images. More than 50% of people on this platform prefer images to any other content. The next most popular type of content is text messages and articles. Businesses should write informative articles about their product, services, trends, and tips….. People also share informative articles that they consider interesting, therefore a well-written valuable article can help businesses to increase brand awareness. You can also share articles from other accounts to increase your audience. It is relatively easier to share articles than create an original one but the original content gets more attention. When it comes to video content, it is recommended to use short videos of 30 seconds to one minute, because people don’t like watching too long videos. Post content regularly on your official account to keep your fans engaged.

2. Generating traffic to your Wechat store 

There are 5 main ways that we can help you to generate traffic to your WeChat store:

• Moment Ads: WeChat has been allowing brands to advertise on Moments since 2014. We can define target users based on gender, age, location, occupation, preferences, consumer behavior, etc. This is quite a good target. Moments ads can be texts, pictures, or a video, sometimes along with promotional campaigns or giveaways. If readers are interested, they can click the “Read More” button for more information, which is usually linked to a promotional post, an H5 campaign page, the brand’s official account, or a mini-program.

• Account ads: Alternatively, Account ads appear as a banner ad at the bottom of a WeChat article. When users finish reading a WeChat article, they will see the advertisement.
• Key Opinion Leader ads (KOL advertisements) are paying for a WeChat blogger to boost your brand or products or services. The KOLs can either compose an article mentioning your brand or simply put a banner connecting to your WeChat account somewhere in her/his own content.
• WeChat Groups: WeChat groups can reach a larger community and have better visibility. If your brand is recommended by one of the users, people will have more faith in the brand and will arouse the interest of other users. However, it should not be in commercial form because it will have no impact. There must be a strategic way to bring the conversation back to your online store.
• Questions and Answers: Question and answer platforms such as Zhihu are very effective for feedback on the brand or product. This is a great way to engage your potential customers by adding a QR code to link your customers to your WeChat shop.

China is a huge marketplace with a large number of diverse people. WeChat with its all functionalities has made it much easier to approach the majority of market segments quickly and cheaply. However, this is a complex & competitive arena, so you should speak with an expert first about how best to develop your WeChat e-commerce strategy.

Here are Some of Our Wechat Ecommerce Case Studies

Case study: Wewood 

WeWOOD is a super trendy watch Brand. Why? because 100% Natural wood is made from reclaimed material. It is Made in Italy, fashionable, and has Good Pricing.

Our Mission:

• Social Commerce
• Work on the E-Reputation
• Develop Distribution Sales
• e-Commerce Development

Results:

• WeChat

30-50 watches sold per month in first 6 months Campaign.

• Weibo

250 exposure per month, 8000 engagements per month

• E-reputation

Very good reputation, on all Channels.

WECHAT IS A CORE ASPECT OF GMA’S BUSINESS:

We work extensively in the:

• Mini/Micro Site Development
• Ad Campaign Management
• Content Promotion Strategy (Organic)
• WeChat Content Creation & Formatting
• Reporting & Analytics
• HTML5 Content & Account Development

WHY CHOOSE GMA FOR WECHAT DEVELOPMENT:

1. We are Tencent’s Official Partner
2. We have  10 years of experience in WeChat Marketing
3. 5 years experience in WeChat E-Commerce
4. +400 projects working with WeChat
5. GMA is a team of 70 marketers

• We have a Cost-effective Solution 
• We know how to optimize your sales Results on WeChat and Maximize ROI
• We are a Perfect Match for Small Businesses and Entrepreneur in China
• Contact us to know our pricing Conditions and our Case studies