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Travel the digital Silk Road to develop your online strategy for China

The world’s largest online marketplace, China, shows no sign of abating and is a key factor in strategy development for Australian businesses across multiple industries and company size, be it SME or Corporate. With China recently becoming Australia’s No.1 trading partner, Australian businesses are clamouring to engage in trade with the East Asian country, targeting […]

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The world’s largest online marketplace, China, shows no sign of abating and is a key factor in strategy development for Australian businesses across multiple industries and company size, be it SME or Corporate.

With China recently becoming Australia’s No.1 trading partner, Australian businesses are clamouring to engage in trade with the East Asian country, targeting Chinese consumers and creating brand awareness for their products or services.

The numbers are impressive. By 2016, China will have:

  • 730 million Internet users
  • 380 million online shoppers
  • 527 million mobile Internet users
  • 95% social media usage

However, successfully navigating this enormous space proves to be a major battle for Australian businesses.

Mark Tanner of China marketing, online and research agency, China Skinny believes that “successfully navigating the Chinese online marketplace comes down to understanding the scale of the market and reacting to your target consumers”.

One way to do this is the initiation of Online-to-Offline (O2O) integration. Chinese Property Conglomerate, Dalian Wanda Group, has teamed up with Tencent and Baidu to build a successful O2O platform which allows consumers to purchase products via online browsing and have them delivered within a matter of hours.

Tanner believes that the appropriation of O2O platforms presents vast opportunities for Australian companies engaged in trade with China. “With 75% of Chinese consumers using their mobile devices to research and purchase products, having Online-to-Offline integration for your business is essential in reaching your target market in China”, he says.

Mark Tanner will be presenting on Online-to-Offline integration at Australian Business Forum’s China Digital Conference 2014. Billed as the premier conference within the Chinese digital space, over 1000 delegates are expected to attend to gain the latest information and trends in doing business in the China digital market.

The conference will be held in Brisbane (20 October), Melbourne (22 October) and Sydney (24 October). Chinese digital heavyweights, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent will have representatives at the conference, which is supported by Australia Post, AusIndustry and China Southern.

For further information, including a list of speakers, visit https://abf.events/events/chinadigital/