How to win friends and influence shoppers in China

It is that time of the year in China when the buzz invariably shifts to the upcoming Singles Day shopping festival on Nov 11. The hype and hoopla over the shopping extravaganza is such that people often start talking about it weeks ahead of the event.

So it was no surprise when one of my colleagues asked me the other day what were my plans for the same. I replied I am not an avid shopper, and as such did not have any special plans. Though she was surprised at my tepid response, she urged me to have a look at some videos of a popular key opinion leader or KOL on the WeChat social media platform. She told me that the KOL is extremely popular in China and she herself was inspired by his messages to buy several products.

Though I did view the videos, I was not inspired to make any purchases. Maybe it was because none of the products being promoted were things that I wanted or it could be because they appealed to a much younger generation of shoppers. But one thing I did realize is that social media is no longer just an entertaining extra, but a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of our daily lives.