A select group of influential online celebrities from China will arrive in Australia next week for the ‘Walk Into Australia and New Zealand’ campaign, organised by leading turnkey e-commerce solutions provider Azoya and China’s leading online shopping guide SMZDM.
The ‘Walk Into Australia and New Zealand’ campaign is focused on building the bridge between Chinese online shoppers and Australian retailers by offering face-to-face interactions to help them understand the authenticity and reliability of ethical products from Australia.
Deterred by safety and quality issues with domestic products, particularly for healthcare and food supplements, Chinese consumers are increasingly looking to Australia to buy directly through cross-border e-commerce.
“China’s ecommerce landscape is rapidly evolving, offering Australian brands and retailers a huge opportunity to take advantage of it,” said Sylvia Wei, deputy managing director – Australia for Azoya.
“If they’re going to survive in such a competitive market, they’ll need to build relationships with key online influencers, who are invaluable sources of promotion in China. This campaign will help them develop more effective and rewarding channels, as well as better understand what Chinese consumers need and want.”
As traditional marketing channels continue to lose their impact in acquiring new consumers in China, live streaming marketing and influential online celebrities, known in China as key opinion leaders (KOLs), are emerging as the channels employed by the local ecommerce industry. While the marketing influence of celebrities in the Western world is useful, KOLs in China have a very powerful influence over consumers.
They mainly attract followers by being an authority on a particular subject and gain credibility through a long history of interacting with followers, who have a high-level of trust in them. Therefore, leveraging high-profile bloggers and microbloggers boasting millions of followers is a very effective strategy for brands and retailers to reach target audiences. Retailers can directly influence a large community and reach thousands or even millions of potential customers.
The 12 person delegation participating in the ‘Walk Into Australia and New Zealand’ tour – including four high-profile Chinese KOLs (selected from over 1,000 applicants) and editors from SMZDM – will participate in a series of online and offline events in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland between 21-30 August.
They will experience production, supply, marketing, order fulfillment and customer service from the stores and warehouses of five of Azoya’s participating retail customers, which all have established ecommerce businesses in China. These include Pharmacy Online (Sydney), Pharmacy 4 Less (Sydney), Amcal (Melbourne), Kiwi Discovery (Auckland) and Pharmacy Direct (Auckland).
In return, the KOLs will share their experiences online on SMZDM and other sources, potentially exposing participating retailers and brands to more than four million Chinese consumers. The tour will also be broadcast by professional editors on online live streaming channels, giving Chinese consumers a glimpse into how their favourite products are packaged and distributed, showcasing the quality of the products they plan to purchase. During the live streaming, purchase links will be pushed to users to place orders immediately. In addition, a local team in China will help promote the ‘Walk Into Australia and New Zealand’ tour to attract more users to participate.
“We’re really excited to be able to offer our healthcare retail customers in Australia such an amazing opportunity to strengthen their brands with Chinese consumers,” added Ms Wei. “China’s healthcare sector keeps developing at an astonishing rate, fueled by favourable demographic trends, continuing urbanisation, an increasing disease burden, the overall economy’s healthy expansion and income growth. The campaign will help drive awareness of their quality healthcare products in China and take their ecommerce businesses to the next level.”
