PARENTAL ADVISORY: THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN SOME CRITICAL INFORMATION ABOUT CHILDREN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA. DO NOT REPEAT IT TO YOUR KIDS OR BE PREPARED FOR A TREAT.
Why is Pinduoduo a great place to sell toy in China?
Pinduoduo, the unique, the one. Pinduoduo in China could remind us of the story of David fighting Goliath. A newcomer that decided to make its own path among two of the biggest e-commerce platforms: JD.com and Tmall/Taobao. Starting as a startup and reaching today a valuation worth $57 billion USD.
Pinduoduo its 585 million active buyer base that generated over $145 Billion USD Gross merchandise volume over the last year.
Today, Pinduoduo is one of the leading Chinese e-commerce platforms reaching the 2nd place as the largest one and therefore surpassing JD.
Based on social e-commerce and group buying deals, the platform answered the needs of its client about social engagement while reproducing offline buying experience through community building, product recommendation, and team purchase. It’s fun, interactive, rewarding, personalized and people love it.
Users Demographic information:
- Mostly female over 40 years old
- Middle & Low-income class
- Second, third, fourth-tiers cities
Toys & Social eCommerce: A winning Combo to Sell Toys in China?
The China toys market was worth US$ 14.9 Billion in 2019. China is one of the leading toy markets in the world and its potential growth has created a huge opportunity for domestic and international toy manufacturers. Imarc
Recently in China, it was Children day. Every year, on 1st June, kids got their day. An amazing event that could almost be compared to 11/11. There are already kings 365 days a year, but this one is special… they have no class and one more occasion to enjoy lovely presents from all their family members. (Awesome to be a child in China, isn’t it?)
And when you get a platform composed of 65% users coming from third-tier cities and beyond, crawling for discount or cheap price, and you give them the opportunity to get the ideal gift for their kids at a lower cost than normal… you get a purchase increase of 317% compared to last year.
Yes, you read well. 317% growth based on toys and products related categories. And half of the people searching for Children day’s gifts belong to 25-40 years old segment. The millennials. Young parents ready to spend a bit on the simple trade of a smile. Isn’t it beautiful?
A dream platform to sell Kids Related Items
Childhood snacks, uniforms, cosplay, retro games machines, video games, T-Shirt… everything is good to buy on such events and merchants were more than pleased to take out their Santa Claus uniform from the closet.
The funny thing is that consumers did not only buy products for themselves or their kids. Many young adults also bought stuff for their friends. Because we’re all big children, even with a beard (or not), it’s always pleasant to be treated by our relatives. And in China, there is a strong gift culture.
What about teenagers on Pinduoduo?
Too old to only wait for Mumy’s gift and still too young to enjoy financial freedom and please themselves as they want… These youngsters were not seating quiet and enjoyed instead of some sets of collectible toys, Lego’s set, and construction games. If looking at Pinduoduo statistics, the consumption of users born after 2000 raised by 137%!
Just to be clear:
- +137% purchase among youngsters, compared to last year
- +317% purchase growth on toys and related products categories, compared to last year
It’s good to be a Toy Merchant in China…
Let’s have a look now on the top-selling products during Children’s day:
Get Your Store on Pinduoduo
That’s the easy part. One of the most accessible e-Commerce platforms in China. And here’s what you need to know if interested in opening your flagship store.
You’ll need:
- Company registration certificate
- Identity of the legal representative of the overseas company
- Identity of the store manager
- If you have your own trademarks: trademark registration certificate
- If authorized trademark: authorization letter from the company
Once you get all this, you can apply for your store and start working on the design and set up.
In terms of fees:
- You could trade your combo MacBook Air + iPhone for an account on PDD. Currently cheaper than a flight ticket, Pinduoduo is at present, the cheapest e-commerce platform in China. Contact us for more details.
- Warning: Everything’s moving fast in China. And if nowadays the platform is accessible, it gets more and more selective. Don’t overthink, later is already too late.
Did we mention how easy it can be to do e-Commerce in China?
Get Your Pinduoduo Store and Start Selling Toy in China
Having a store is good, the first step. But do not imagine you’ll get sales like that… nothing is magic. Especially in China. Everything’s possible over here, but nothing’s easy.
From now on, your mission will be:
- Step 1: Drive traffic to your store
- Step 2: Convert your traffic into actual sales
Brand Traffic: The base
This first step will be about building your brand awareness at both the micro & macro level.
If there’s a “why” coming up to your mind, understand the following:
First of all, China got a completely different ecosystem than what you may have experienced before. They got a close communication system meaning that they have no clue about who you are. And no need to mention your millions of followers on Instagram. They don’t have access to such platforms. So, be prepared to start from scratch. Second, you’ll be new on the platform as well. So better for you to be active, referenced, and drive users to your store.
What should you do at a macro level:
Everything is about optimization. And Alibaba themselves recommended investing 20% to 30% of your end goal in marketing. Here’s our recommendation.
WeChat: a great communication tool and much more. Number 1 social media in China with close to 1 billion monthly average users, that’s a must-do. You can’t operate in China without having an official company account.
Perfect to interact with your followers and potential partners/distributors, but useless for ads. Let’s save your budget for the useful stuff and optimize your results.
Consider:
- Post articles and deliver useful content
- Develop a professional HTML5 e-Brochure
- Develop mini-games or mini-program
Weibo: aka Chinese twitter. A great platform to get huge exposure in China. On this one, you want to do ads and KOL promotion. It will boost your visibility and drive traffic to your platforms.
Consider:
- Posting articles and useful content
- Promotional activity through paid ads, coupons, discount, online events
- KOL
What should you do at a micro-level:
Pinduoduo Marketing Tools: as mentioned above, the platform has been building a very complete model based on fun & entertainment to boost customer engagement. You may get some very loyal customers as well as some buzz, but you’ll have to be ready to use their tool for that.
Consider:
- Limited purchase: You can choose to set up a discount based on a determined quantity of products to create store promotions. Example: You can offer a 30% discount on 80 items, after what the price will go back to normal. Very powerful, be sure people will do the promotion for you. Do not underestimate the power of Guanxi 😉
- The more, the cheaper: Can set up a general option in which the price will decrease according to the product’s conversion rate. The more order, the cheaper. Win-win situation. Alleluia
- Limited time exemption: the buyer purchase the specified item within a limited time, and the system takes a part of the order from all orders and returns the platform coupons equivalent to the item. The cost of the returned coupon is at the expense of the store.
Pinduoduo Livestreaming:
An amazing way to promote your store and the current booming trend in China. Can use KOL to promote your products on your behalf. They’ll make a live streaming video, talk some details about your product and recommend it to their fan base.
Just to give you an example of how powerful such a tool can be, PDD hosted a live streaming session for Guanzhou, a city of 9.83 million inhabitants. A simple 30min session drove over half a million viewers and resulted in an increase of +350% increase in Ganzhou related product sales.
Pinduoduo Optimization:
Need to make up an attractive store based on your brand image, but also to optimize your instore SEO to appear in the top search result of the platform. Add to this, consider doing PPC, and banners.
Boost Your Brand Reputation
In China, reputation is everything and a mandatory step if you intend to convert your traffic into sales.
PPD gets more and more quality brands but is still impacted by low-quality brands or counterfeit. So, be prepared to get your potential clients investigating your brand to be sure they’ll get what they’ll pay for. Nobody likes to get cheated.
If you want to build your credibility in China and get the needed trust to sell your toys, you’ll need:
Online PR: It’s recommended to be visible on high ranked and high average daily traffic media, news websites, and specialized press. Can work on a couple of articles every month. A great way to boost your credibility. If Chinese customers don’t trust corporate communication, they trust the media. Online PR is a cost-efficient and lasting solution.
Forums / Blogs / Q&A: if there’s something more important than anything, it’s a positive image on public forums & group discussions. In China, people don’t want to be the first ones paying for a new product. They need to see proof of concept and customer experience. They may not trust you, but they’ll trust what others may say about your brand. Therefore, you’ll need to have positive reviews and nice comments praising your brand and product’s quality.
BONUS:
Kids & teenagers are big fans of videos and if there aren’t the ones paying for toys/games, there are actually the ones deciding what toys they want.
Therefore, you have all interest to promote your brand through the use of trendy video platform or specific platforms for kids such as:
- Douyin
- Bilibili
- Youku
- QiBubble
- etc.
WE ARE GENTLEMEN MARKETING AGENCY
- Expert on the Toy & Gaming industry
- Over 7 years’ experience in the Chinese Market
- Digital Marketing Specialist
- Pragmatic approach
- We know your target and problems you may face in China
For inquiries or if you have any questions about how to sell your toys on Pinduoduo, feel free to contact us. 30min free consulting.