According to a report released by the National Health Commission, more than 50% of the adult Chinese population is overweight, as CCT stated. The report monitored around 600 million people from 2015 to 2019. Those increasingly high health concerns have pushed Chinese people in droves to use vitamins and health supplements.
How high are the rates of overweight and obesity in China?
- 34% of adults are overweight
- 15,4% of adults are obese
- 20% of children aged 6 to 17 are overweight or obese
- 10% of children who are less than 6 years old are overweight or obese
Obesity rates are too rapidly increasing.
Unfortunately, the pandemic has contributed to accelerating this trend
What is the average weight of adult men and women in China?
According to the same report, adult men in China weigh 69.6 kilograms, while women 59 kilograms. This data tells us that Chinese men’s and women’s weight respectively has grown by 3.4 kilograms and 1.7 kilograms in only 5 years.
Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, said that the unhealthy lifestyle, the growing time spent outside of the home for dining as well as the excessive quantity of fat and salt ingredients in cafeterias, are the main cause of such a negative trend.
On the other side, the nutrition expert, Gu, thinks that the higher consumption of meat in recent years is also contributing to accelerating the trend. In fact, a high-protein diet needs to be accompanied by a very active lifestyle.
An overview of the health and dietetics products market in China
China is the second-largest healthcare product market in the world
From a global perspective, China has the second-largest share of the healthcare product market after the United States, accounting for 16% of the market. A consistent growth rate considering the 10% share China owned in 2007.
Vitamins and dietary supplements account for 91% of the healthcare product market
The healthcare product industry is divided into three categories: vitamins and dietary supplements, sports nutrition, and weight management (meal replacement). In China, the three sub-sectors accounted for 91.1%, 1.4%, and 7.5% respectively.
Chinese lifestyle is worse than in the past, but health awareness grows
The Health product market is a fragmented market, with vitamins and dietary supplements accounting for 91%. 道道网 News stated that China is starting to become an aging society. Statistics show that China’s over 60 years old people reach about 250 million, accounting for 18% of the total population.
In addition, problems such as overwork and life pressure, irregular work, and a poor diet, have further aggravated the health status of Chinese residents, leading to an increasingly obvious trend of younger diseases. The health problems faced by the old, middle, and young generations mean that health care is not the exclusive need of the elderly. As society pays more attention to health, more and more people will be interested in healthcare products.
China’s healthcare expenditure is expected to grow
Although the disposable income of Chinese residents continues to grow, the level of healthcare consumption expenditure is still at a relatively low level. In 2019, the per capita healthcare consumption expenditure of residents was 1,902 yuan, accounting for 6.19% of per capita disposable income. The increase in income levels and in national health awareness will continue to stimulate residents to satisfy their health consumption needs.
So, the proportion of medical and health consumption expenditure is expected to grow significantly, highlighting the huge development potential of the healthcare product market. The market size of China’s healthcare products industry in 2019 reached 222.7 billion yuan, an increase of 18.5% year-on-year, and it is expected to reach 330.7 billion yuan in 2021.
How to sell dietetics products in China?
Segmentation to meet the Chinese customers’ demand
Dietary product companies are segmenting their products to satisfy the increasingly specific needs of their Chinese customers, offering different categories of products, such as memory boosting, immunity enhancement, or pregnancy health.
In addition, they are adapting their original products’ ingredients and foreign branding to meet Chinese preferences.
E-COMMERCE: the right place to sell your dietetics products
The complexity and the excessive length of the registration procedure for companies belonging to the Health sector (even three years just waiting for the approval of the Chinese government) bring foreign companies a simpler way to sell their products in China.
With E-Commerce, you can sell without a license. Chinese internet users are very familiar with e-commerce and are incredibly numerous. So, the e-commerce solution is the best solution for foreign companies, without any doubt.
TMALL: a powerful e-commerce platform to sell your dietetics products in China
Tmall is certainly the right place to open an online store in China since it is considered the most reliable e-commerce platform in the country. The platform only offers high-quality products. A very important feature in the healthcare context.
This feature becomes even more relevant in China, where consumers faced many counterfeit scandals and are now afraid of the possibility of a new similar event.
To join Tmall’s platform there are two routes:
- If your company already has in-China business operations, you should apply to Tmall.com.
- If your company just has an overseas license, you can only open an account on Tmall Global.
On Tmall.com, you can have your storefront and unlimited access to an infinite number of shoppers. On Tmall.com you are the owner of your place, then you can independently manage your store, choosing the design and deciding on fulfillment and logistics.
The official authorization to sell dietetics products via Tmall
As we already said, quality and authenticity are very important in China. This means you need to show immediately your reliability in order to reach your customer’s trust. A good way to do this is to provide official authorization to sell dietary products via Tmall on the product description page.
That is the only way the Chinese have for checking the genuineness of your brand. A solution that leads to higher conversion rates.
Driving traffic to your online spaces through QR codes
The QR Code is a powerful method for driving traffic between multiple platforms. You can use numerous codes to redirect users to:
- your official or service WeChat account
- your shopping cart page
- your app
It’s a very simple way to get traffic. After scanning the QR code via mobile camera, the user will be immediately redirected to one of the above-mentioned digital places.
Tmall any other distributors don’t want to work with unknown brands
Tmall is an amazing platform, however, any other distributors in China only accept to work with brands that already have an online reputation. This is because Chinese distributors just want to sell fast and easily.
So, when a distributor will check your e-reputation you need to:
- have a website hosted in China with content adjusted to Chinese taste
- ranks high on the first pages of the most famous Chinese search engine, Baidu; in order to do this, you need to be present on Chinese forums, blogs, and social media (generate leads). In a few words, doing SEO.
- Have an account at least on one of the several Chinese social media, such as Weibo or WeChat.
What should a dietetics brand do after having opened its online store?
Obviously, any brand in China must invest a lot of money in brand awareness if wants to be competitive in the huge Chinese market.
There are many possibilities, and you can choose one of those according to your budget and objectives.
Of course, you should continue the way you start by building your online reputation: invest in social media, PR, and SEO. In addition, you can create original marketing campaigns with the collaboration of Key Opinion Leaders (big influencers) or Key Opinion Costumers (micro-influencer), participating infamous Chinese events (for instance, Double 11), and promote your products via live streaming.
As you can see, the Chinese digital ecosystem is very complicated, but companies can find a goldmine in it.
If you want to try this challenging adventure and be ready for the future…
(there are high probability that western countries will become the China of the present)
GMA can help you to succeed.
With more than 300 clients and over 7 years of experience in the e-Commerce market, we are experts in the Chinese healthcare products market.
GMA is a Marketing Agency
We are among the most visible Web & Marketing Agency for China you will find on the web.
Our Services are:
- E-Commerce
- Search Engine Optimization
- Advertising
- Social media management & registration
- PR
- Audit