Why Should You Enter China’s Sports Nutrition Market?

While still in its initial stage of development, China’s sports nutrition market is nevertheless a fast-growing market showing some of the greatest potential for the coming years. Sales of vitamins and supplements have been exploding in the last few years. And this means just one thing: the best moment for international brands to enter and establish themselves in the market is now!

Market Overview of the Sports Nutrition in China

As the second-largest sports nutrition industry in China in the Asia Pacific region, after Japan, it has $329 million in sales. Let’s have a quick look at the market environment:

• Chinese people are more and more health & fitness conscious. There is of course influence from Western culture, a growing middle class (circa 707 million people), and a large segment of millennials (400 million) that are starting to care about their lifestyle a lot more.
• With the Olympics being held in East Asia (2018, 2021, 2022) for several years, we see the region’s growing interest in sports and fitness;
• Consumption trends: Nowadays, sports supplements are not exclusive to bodybuilders and/or high-level athletes. The idea of a fit lifestyle is growing, and so does your target audience.
• By 2025 the Fitness and Sports industry market size in China is expected to reach $786 billion USD.
• Online sales account for 84% of this segment
• Foreign brands Sports Nutrition Brands are the best-selling brands;

Moreover, the Chinese government, with their 2016-2020 National Fitness Plan is aiming to increase sports participation and improve fitness among the population, in addition to expanding sports infrastructure.

Sports drink consumption is Increasing in China

In China, 70% of people between 20 and 49 years old consume sports drinks, while 65% consume energy drinks. The most common motivations are to:

• Relieve fatigue
• Boost hydration

The flavor and nutritional content are considered the most important purchase factors when it comes to choosing which product it’s better to buy.

It is important to mind the product quality because Chinese customers are highly sensitive to natural and high-quality products, while innovative and interesting flavors are appreciated more and more.

The predominance of a busy, on-the-go lifestyle in China’s urban centers makes sports and energy drinks products that have a huge potential in the Chinese market.

The rise of esports in China offers great opportunities for sports nutrition brands

China has been leading the esports market since 2021 when its revenue reached $360.1 million.

Esports, also known as electronic sports, is a form of sports competition using video games. Esports often take the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. They became one of the main hobbies for Chinese Millenials.

The rapid growth of China’s esports industry has made sports nutrition for gamers a promising opportunity. Sports nutrition that contains ingredients with eye and cognitive health benefits is essential when addressing the nutritional needs of gamers because as we all know, a lot of hours in front of a laptop can affect your eyes.

How Can Foreign Sports Nutrition Brands Enter the Chinese Market?

As we saw before, online sales account for 84% of the sports nutrition products sold in China. Before starting to sell on the Chinese e-commerce platforms, your products must be known in the Chinese market otherwise no one will buy your products. If you do not build a good reputation around your brand, your products will remain unknown to the consumers.

When a Product is “Health” Related, E-reputation Comes First

E-reputation should be the base of your marketing strategy when doing e-commerce in China, whatever platform you choose.

In order to be visible on the market, the first step that we suggest you do is to have a Chinese website on Baidu. Baidu is the most used search engine in China, with 70% of queries, and it offers many tools that you cannot miss.

A high-performance website in China must:

• Be in Chinese. A simple translation is not enough because the content must be localized and adapted to Chinese culture and tastes;
• Your website has to be hosted in China/Hong Kong or a neighboring country to increase its loading speed;
• Contains information about your company and a big focus on storytelling and the quality of your products.
• Identify the effective keywords that Chinese consumers use when they look for products similar to yours and work on ranking on those keywords with regular original content and backlinks;
• Combine a good SEO & SEM strategy.

Baidu SEM: An Efficient Strategy for Your Sports Nutrition Brand

When we speak about Baidu SEM we mean search engine marketing. Here’s a list of all the tools you can use to rank your website in the highest positions:

• Baidu Display Network Advertising is an advertising banner service offered by Baidu that allows you to invest in ads that appear on external sites and earn money based on the number of clicks on the ads.
• Baidu PPC is a way to increase the visibility and presence of a brand on the search engine.
• Baidu Tuiguang is the Chinese equivalent of Google Adwords, the platform dedicated to SEM activities. Consisting of a Search part, and a Display with about 600,000 sites affiliated with the Baidu network.
• Baidu Brand Zone is a sort of mini-site that appears at the beginning of the SERP(Search Engine Result Page). Show information about the brand and its products.

Baidu Seo: Backlinks and PR

Baidu Zhidao, Baidu Baike, and Baidu Tieba are part of the Baidu ecosystem. They are excellent tools to drive traffic to your website and obviously, because they belong to Baidu they tend to rank higher.

Backlinks & PR are some of the most cost-efficient solutions when it comes to building your e-reputation in China and at the same time boosting your website ranking on Baidu. They help to build credibility and to get more visibility.

The purpose of the backlinks is to give some importance to the pages in terms of popularity and authority. Backlinks are links between a receiving page, called a landing page, and another donor page called a resource page. Through these links the landing page receives and gets value from the page the link came from.

PR is a marketing tool that excludes Paid ads. It consists of having an authority profile talking about your company. It can be media (newspapers, blogs), KOLs, or even the community.

Zhihu: The Right Platform to Increase Awareness of Your Sports Nutrition Brand

Zhihu is a Q&A platform that brings together a community of educated and informed users seeking information and knowledge about a specific topic. It doesn’t only offer question-and-answer services, but also focuses on publishing articles, round tables on various topics as well and online debates.

Over time, Zhihu has become a rather important platform for brands to create their own brand awareness in China since it also allows the creation of official company accounts.

Sports nutrition brands can use it to educate Chinese consumers about their products and their better usage.

Xiaohongshu: The E-commerce Platform for Small and Medium Sport Nutrition Brands

The more visible you are the better your brand awareness gets. The more a consumer sees you, the greater he/she will think about your brand when in need of an item like the one you sell. A higher online presence is also key to building trust.

Once you have built your reputation in China, you can start selling your products on cross-border e-commerce platforms.

For small and medium enterprises, we suggest Xiaohongshu. It is social commerce, that combines the e-commerce and social media functions together. It has grown a lot in recent years, especially in the health food sector.

It is based on a “content-driven” model, which gives great importance to content. It was born as a shopping guide. It mainly attracts consumers who reward quality and authenticity. For this reason, it represents an opportunity for international brands.

To sum up, using this platform you can both buy products and see the reviews and the experiences of other consumers.

Tmall: The E-commerce Platform for Big Sport Nutrition Brands

Tmall is the Chinese most famous e-commerce platform. Since it has quite expensive fees, we suggest using it only for big brands. It is the leading B2C e-commerce site in China.

It is a generalist platform, which offers each kind of product from more than 100.000 brands. You can find products of all kinds, from beauty to mechanics.

The brands are visible on Tmall in the form of graphically customizable flagship stores.

Once that you are registered on Tmall, each supplier can take care of his own “store”. It must manage the promotion of its brand, the delivery of its goods, the management of customer service, etc. It is quite similar to having your own website. However, brands can benefit from the Tmall interface which will give you visibility and credibility with Chinese consumers.

Contact us to Enter China’s Sports Nutrition Market!

If you are looking to build a distribution network in China, the previous steps will be as necessary. Indeed,  no Chinese distributors would consider working with your brands if it’s unknown in China. Whether you want to sell in China directly or work with distributors, your number one step should always be your brand’s awareness in the country.

Are you ready to conquer the dynamic and ever-evolving Chinese market? At Gentlemen Marketing Agency, we’re not just experts; we’re trailblazers in the realm of digital marketing in China. Picture your brand standing out amidst the bustling streets of Beijing, the vibrant nightlife of Shanghai, or the serene landscapes of Guilin. We’re here to make that vision a reality.

Whether you’re a seasoned player or a newcomer, we tailor our strategies to suit your unique needs. Our toolbox includes the latest in SEO, social media mastery on platforms like WeChat and Weibo, and an innate understanding of Chinese consumer behavior. We don’t just expand your business; we amplify your success.

Don’t hesitate to take the first step towards soaring sales and unmatched growth in the Chinese market. Contact us today, and let’s embark on this exhilarating journey together. Your brand’s success story in China begins here with Gentlemen Marketing Agency.