China's live commerce: a way forward despite COVID-19

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On April 14th, digital marketing company meyco Inc. conducted a survey targeting companies that have implemented overseas initiatives and cross-border e-commerce in light of the market changes caused by COVID-19, asking about the actual situation, including what impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on their future overseas expansion.
The survey results showed that 88.5% of respondents said they would continue to develop overseas initiatives, and China and Taiwan were selected as potential destinations for overseas expansion.


China has announced that the COVID-19 pandemic is now under control, but the impact of the virus has led to increased EC consumption through contactless retail, i.e. live commerce.
This time, we will look at some examples of live commerce in China that have significantly improved sales during the spread of the coronavirus.


The impact and reality of overseas policies
Digital marketing company meyco Inc. conducted a survey on the impact of COVID-19 on overseas expansion businesses between March 24th (Tue) and March 28th (Sat), 2020.
In response to the question of whether they would like honduras whatsapp data to continue implementing overseas initiatives in the future amid a decline in inbound demand due to COVID-19, 88.5% of respondents said they would like to continue, indicating that the cross-border e-commerce market is expected to continue to expand steadily.

Figure 01

In response to the question, "Which country are you considering expanding into?", Taiwan came in at the top with 33.7%, followed by China at 31.7% and Southeast Asia at 27.9%.
For China, the large market size and growth potential were cited as reasons for its selection. For Taiwan, the pro-Japanese sentiment was cited as a reason, and it appears that future overseas expansion will be primarily directed towards Asia, including China, rather than the US or Europe.

Figure 02

KOL strategies are becoming increasingly important in overseas strategies
When asked about the overseas initiatives they are taking, digital advertising came out on top at 47.5%, followed by KOL initiatives at 41.0% and cross-border e-commerce initiatives at 32.8%. Customer attraction initiatives using KOLs (influencers) are seen as more important than listing ads when it comes to China and Taiwan.

Figure 03

One challenge facing KOL strategies is that, while KOLs are rapidly increasing their customer attraction and have become widespread in China, Japanese companies face challenges such as the difficulty of measuring the effectiveness of KOLs and the lack of clear criteria for selecting KOLs.