How to use WeChat to boost your sales
WeChat has evolved from a chat app to a super app that not only lets people keep in touch with friends and family but also enables people to take a taxi, book a hotel, order a takeaway, book a movie ticket, share their lives, watch videos, play games, and make payments online and offline without leaving the app.
Almost everyone in China is a WeChat user. WeChat has global monthly active users of 1.309 billion. Overseas Chinese are around Sixty million, and nearly all are also users of this app. This massive number of users and powerful functionality makes this super-app one of the most valuable platforms for businesses to capture customers.
What functions on WeChat can be taken advantage of by merchants?
– WeChat Official Account
This is a subscription-type news push, allowing you to send articles directly to users who are already followers. The content can be about product introductions, branding or promotional information. Merchants can set up their own WeChat accounts to send articles to subscribers or share information with the audience through a popular account with many followers. The content can be forwarded to friends, groups or even to the user’s Moments, where all the user’s friends can see the content.
– WeChat mini-program
Mini-program has been increasingly popular in recent years. Imagine this: you must download a taxi app to order a taxi and a takeaway app to order food. In WeChat, where apps are created as mini-programs and embedded as sub-apps inside, users can simply search and click on the mini-program by name and use it directly to order food, get a taxi, etc., without downloading any app, creating a faster and more convenient consumer experience.
The most common application for a mini-program is an online shop; WeChat users often search for their favourite brands’ mini-programs or have read an article, got interested and then redirected to the mini-program shop. The simple and easy-to-use mini-program has brought huge traffic and sales to brands.
More and more overseas brands have developed WeChat mini-program for cross-border e-commerce to sell directly to China.
Developing a mini-program in WeChat usually is totally customisable according to the merchant’s need. Generally, it costs less and takes less time to develop than a normal APP. Mini-programs can greatly help merchants increase customer conversion rates by making the shopping experience easier for customers, thus increasing merchant sales.
– WeChat Video Channels
With the popularity of short videos, WeChat embedded the short video module in 2020. The WeChat Channels allow users and merchants to post videos on this channel. Videos can be recommended, liked, reposted, and commented on. Recommended and liked videos will appear among more people’s recommended videos section, thus gaining higher exposure.
If users see an interesting video, they may repost it directly to their friends or Moments.
– WeChat Moments
WeChat Moment is a sharing module like Facebook where users can share their daily life and interact with family and friends. WeChat Moments is an excellent way for advertisers to target and share their content. It allows users to forward/retweet articles or videos of interest directly to their WeChat moments.
In China, many shops encourage users to re-post articles to their Moments and ask them to collect “likes” from their friends. This allows more people to be exposed to the contents. Once a certain number of likes have been collected, coupons or gifts will be offered as a reward.
Examples of WeChat marketing
KFC’s Official Account and Video Channels are for posting new products or promotions to attract consumers to know more about them. The shared content can be forwarded to their friends or Moments with one click. The Mini-program allows customers to make online orders directly from WeChat app, then direct them to the shop or use the takeaway service.
Louis Vuitton mainly publishes videos combining various festive activities on their Video Channel, and the Official Account publishes information on thematic activities and new products. Five different mini-programs have been developed for the brand’s different collections. Even a game with Chinese elements has been created.
One thing to pay attention to is that from the moment the marketing message is presented to the consumer and to the moment the consumer takes the initiative to purchase and pay or even to share the news to their moments, all these actions are carried out on one app; consumers do not need to leave the WeChat app.
Can “I” use WeChat?
The answer is yes. WeChat supports over 200 countries and regions. Many Chinese people living overseas are users of this app. According to Global Times inquiries for outbound travel and visa application have surged in China, as people are keen to go abroad again after the country relaxed COVID-19 measures. This will make marketing initiatives like WeChat marketing even more important.
If you are interested in the Chinese market and marketing, PayXpert can help you to apply for a WeChat Official Account and develop WeChat mini-program. We also provide marketing services specifically for the Chinese market.
Merchants can choose one or combine more modules according to their business needs to achieve marketing goals.
A newly launched restaurant can offer a special offer through users reposting articles or videos to their friends. Users are happy to share the offer to their Moments; their friends could also be interested in joining and sharing this campaign, resulting in a much bigger and quicker effect.
If you are an owner of a cosmetics shop, you can share some skin care articles through the Official Account to get more subscribers. Then, through the official account, it guides users to my mini-program to book products and pay online.
WeChat marketing is used in a wide range of scenarios, and of course, accepting WeChat Pay is essential in WeChat’s ecosystem. PayXpert is an official WeChat Pay overseas partner that specializes in omnichannel payment. If you want to open your business to an exciting new and vast market, have a look at our Chinese payments service!
