E-commerce on mobile in China

With the fast development of different kinds of smartphones, shoppers and consumers today use their mobile devices for a range of retail activities, from looking for special but cheep items to couponing to ordering a pizza for lunch.

By the other side, Consumers have come to expect to a quiet consistent shopping experience across any purchasing channel. It seems that the mobile devices provides a much more broader space for e-commerce, and there is no doubt that the further development of e-commerce demands the mobile devices to be more professional and user-friendly. There are many popular e-commerce apps in China, including Taobao, Jingdong, etc., which are classified as shopping app, while there are also some apps providing people with service that help them find popular restaurants, shopping malls, for example Dazhong Comments and Meituan. And also some other apps such as Eleme, are orientated as new O2O ordering platforms.

If you want to know more about the e-commerce market in China, we must not miss the case of Taobao, which belongs to Alibaba Group and is the largest e-commerce platform now in China. Alibaba Group is a Chinese e-commerce company, which provides C2C and B2C sales services via web portals. It also provides electronic payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services. Over the five years, double 11 has gradually transformed from the marketing day for electricity suppliers to Shopping Festival for the whole country. This year the turnover of TAOBAO and T-mall, two main platforms, topped 57.1 billion yuan in the 24-hour period, surpassing last year’s 35 billion yuan. It reached to one billion in three minutes. It is expected that the turnover will be at least 800 billion yuan this year. The scope of last year also benefited from domestic to global expansion. The most significant feature of last year was “Buy things from all over the world and the world can buy from us", domestic consumers can buy products from the entire world, and overseas consumers from more than 220 countries around the world can buy domestic goods.

It is necessary for us to pay attention to one fact: among all the turnovers, about 42.6% were finished on the mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. The Internet has created new ways to do business through the opportunity of universal information distributions. The 3^rd generation wireless networks provide new business opportunities and new market segments to the existing and traditional telecommunication market."While mobile-commerce in China was almost non-existent just several years ago, shopping through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has quickly gained acceptance among Chinese digital consumers. The spread of mobile-commerce will make it the purchasing channel of choice going forward." David Wei, Former CEO of Alibaba said. A strong indication that e-commerce in China is rapidly transitioning towards mobile in 2015.

However, to make money through the small screen of mobile phone is, after all, much different from the traditional electronic business. Under double restrictions including the hard one of flow and soft one of user experience, can the mobile electronic business move forward smoothly in Chinese market?

First we could see there are several reasons for the rapid development of mobile e-commerce in China, or we could say it is these advantages of mobile e-commerce that attracts more people to use mobile devices other than PC. The first reason for choosing mobile devices is that it is much more convenient. Just one smartphone in hand, it is possible for us to choose products, pick up restaurants that offer coupons or even find a parking spot by the information provided by thousands of apps on the mobile phone. All of the information is integrated by the personal preference that is recorded by the backstage supporter. In such consuming pattern, the customers but not the sellers play the leading role. On the other hand, we also could find that the number of mobile users has achieved four hundred million and in the future there is no wonder that it will still rise. With the rapid development of technologies, the cost of producing smartphones is much cheaper while the ability of consumption is much stronger, which means more people in China can afford a smartphone or tablet. These kinds of mobile devices have achieved more people in more areas than PC. And among people who prefer mobile e-commerce, from a research, there are also considerable high-end consumers. As a conclusion, with strong ability of consumption and broad user scale, e-commerce on mobile has more potential in future market.

But there are also some other challenges that retailers need to face and solve. First comes the problem of the safety of personal privacy. In order to attract young people, most of mobile e-commerce platforms allow users to post their information among the friends, which leads to reveal of personal information. Second, people hope to have better user experience and it results in new expectation: the products and pricing they see online to be the same products and price they find in store; efficient product delivery and returns processing, regardless of whether they ordered the product online, at the store or over the phone. Because of this trend, mobile must be fully integrated, both technically and strategically, with the greater commerce ecosystem.

Today’s mobile infrastructure has leapfrogged mobile commerce strategy, and mobile platform capabilities are processing rapidly with the continuing proliferation of smartphones and tablets and faster cellular networks. For this reason, e-commerce on mobile in China must evolve beyond its current situation and make mobile to become a rich, multifunction commerce platform that drives sales and retails more efficient.

Gaoxin prepare HSK and work for market research company in Shanghai

Here is the story of Gaoxin, an intern for Shanghai market research agency Daxue Consulting and HSK platform Global Exam.

Q: Can you tell us more about yourself? Education? Experience?

My name Is Gaoxin, my English name is Fay. I graduate from shanghai institute of foreign trade. Now I study here with my master degree. In school, I am outstanding; I have won many times scholarship and the title of Excellent Student. I also participated in many competitions, such as the financial case analysis competition, Computer Design Competition for Application Ability, Social Entrepreneurship Competition. At the same time, I take an active part in internships. All of these experiences have made me a hard worker, good learner and adapter. I have excellent logic and analytical capability. I am always willing to devote myself into daily work in the future.

Q: Can you tell us more about the city where you come from in China in terms of culture, economy and history?

I come from baoding, hebei province. Baoding is a city of heroes; it has a long history of a glorious revolutionary tradition, on this land. As the main battlefield enemy combat and command centers, there are many heroic deeds during the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation. Now, economy here has a rapid development. More and more large enterprises settled in Baoding. People’s life get better and better. We like enjoying the life.

Q: What brought you to Daxue Consulting?

My classmates introduce me to this company.

Q: Can you tell us about the biggest change you have been witnessing in China over the last 10 years?

I think te biggest change in China is the Chinese have gone to the world. They opened their eyes and look for ways to get knowledge and wealth. We Chinese are really wise and have learning skills. We import technologies, and then turn them into wealth. In this ten years, we hardly realize our shortage and have the courage to change. And the result is that China has become the second rich country in the world, and the Chinese become richer and well-educated.

Q: China has changed so quickly. What is your vision of China in 10 years?

People get richer and richer. We can hardly imagine one day we can buy goods from the Internet that conveniently, but now it just like our daily task to buy something we need. And we can afford almost everything we want now, no matter it’s in foreign  or nation, no matter  it’s expensive or cheap, we can just buy it by moving our fingers.

Q: How do you see yourself in 10 years?

Of course I work hard and have made great improvement. I graduate from my undergraduate degree and start my master degree. I take an active part in all kinds of competitions .and I also do some academic research at school. I become more and more optimistic and cooperated.

Q: What do you do in your free time? Why? What for?

I like to spend my time on reading books. I think writers such as Wang Xiaobo, Han Han and Mo Yan’s thoughts are look-ahead and their words are sharp. By reading their words, I learn a lot. I get the skill to analysis the seeming and look into the core.

Q: What is special about you? Cooking? Playing an instrument? Sport? Painting? Own story? Etc.

I think I’m a really good strong girl. I can’t stand for the failure in my daily life. So I have to work hard in studying, working and so on. I know living in the special society of China, a girl must pay more endeavor if she wants to be successful by herself. That is the distinction between I and the most of girls, and I’m very proud of it.

Foreign universities in China

China: high-standard education is crucial for the country

According to official statistics, some 1.27 million Chinese students are currently studying abroad including the universities of the US, England and other European countries. Such an interest is explained by high-standards, which these countries offer in education. Due to China's rapid development, a number of middle-class families is rapidly shrinking every year. These families have an opportunity and usually a desire to invest in their children. As a result, European and American universities stand as a first choice for higher(or college) education. An increasing demand for high-standard institutions facilitates development of relationship between China and foreign countries in this area. It may take different forms including student exchange, joint research, joint programs, joint degrees, setting up a educational institution branch in a foreign country, and many others.

A number of partnerships between Chinese and foreign universities is increasing each year

Since such an interest has emerged, there have been few initiatives, designed to facilitate foreign university (or college) education on the territory of China. For example, London School of Economics and Peking University currently have a 2-weeks summer program, which introduce students to various areas of economics and politics. Courses itself take place in Beijing, although professors, a final certificate and academic syllabus are joint attempts of both universities. Another great opportunity, became available for Chinese students, is the initiative of Oxford International College, which opens two branches in Chengdu and Changzhou in 2014. Both branches offer full British curriculum and foreign exchange opportunities. The campuses have excellent learning and sports facilities as well as green areas and high level security.

Foreign professors: plagiarism and cheating are major problems among Chinese students

However, it is crucial to recognise some difficulties, which foreign institutions come across, when they attempt to enter Chinese educational industry. The main challenges, highlighted by foreign professors and researchers working in China, were plagiarism, cheating and politically sensitive topics. These lead to some partnerships to break up, including Yale University-Peking University. The major reasons were those highlighted above. After the program was launched, Stephen Stearns, a visiting member of Yale University, commented: “When a student I am teaching steals words and ideas from an author without acknowledgment, I feel cheated...I ask myself, why should I teach people who knowingly deceive me?” He suspected that such practices were not discouraged by Chinese academics, thus resulting in massive plagiarism by Chinese students. Another major problem, which European academics come up with in China, is the limitation of topic, which can be discussed and included in the syllabus. Such politically sensitive topics are population-control policies or the use of executed prisoners as organ donors for transplants. However, Dali Yang, who heads a research and conference centre in Beijing run by the University of Chicago, advices to be understanding to it: “They have good judgment and know to be respectful of what goes on here. That doesn’t mean they have to shut up, but they know it won’t go well if they go so far that Chinese counterparts won’t be able to participate”.

Regardless unsuccessful experience of Yale-Peking universities, Chinese officials strongly encourage the presence of European educational institutions in China. They believe that it will prevent smart student from leaving the country as well as allow Chinese higher education to improve and develop.

For more information:

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21569070-foreign-universities-find-working-china-harder-they-expected-campus-collaboration

http://studymagazine.com/2011/04/22/chinese-students-studying-in-canada/

http://daxueconsulting.com/recruiting-chinese-students/