{"id":16186,"date":"2025-06-05T08:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T08:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=16186"},"modified":"2025-06-05T09:50:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T09:50:23","slug":"differences-between-marketing-to-china-verses-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/differences-between-marketing-to-china-verses-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are the Key Differences Between Marketing to the Chinese and UK Markets?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marketing to Chinese consumers is considerably different from marketing to British consumers. It is imperative for localised marketing and an alternative strategic approach, writes Jack Porteous of TONG Global<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s vast consumer market, in particular its e-commerce channels, which accounted for approximately \u00a31.1 trillion of purchases from nearly one billion internet users in 2024, are an attractive proposition for many global consumer brands, including those from the UK. The UK\u2019s e-commerce sales totalled \u00a397 million in 2024, making China\u2019s total market ten times larger, although spend per capita is only around half of that in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of both the marketing channels and points of sale \u2013 from TV advertising and subway billboards, through to retail stores and online platforms \u2013 look similar, but are sufficiently different to derail strategies which have not been sufficiently localised. Whether online or offline, understanding the variance in routes to market, consumer behaviours, and consumer preferences of China versus the UK is vital for any retailer looking to achieve breakthrough success.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Digital Journey: Marketplace vs DTC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online sales represent just over 30% of total retail sales in the UK, versus a slightly higher 37% in China. However, the digital shopping habits of these two nations\u2019 consumers are shaped quite differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many UK brands launch to market through a direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy, creating an optimised, highly converting website, and driving traffic through social media campaigns and search engine marketing, email marketing, and affiliate activity. This offers trackable ROI, reduced overheads, and a direct relationship with customers \u2013 all attractive qualities in a go-to-market strategy for brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China, meanwhile, has a separate digital ecosystem, which has created a different user journey for customers. Rather than on a search engine, consumer search typically starts on either a marketplace, such as Alibaba\u2019s Taobao or JD.com, or on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) or Douyin (Tiktok). Many of these platforms operate in silos \u2013 making effective tracking of marketing investment more challenging. Chinese consumers are also accustomed to the convenience of shopping on marketplace apps or indeed natively on social media apps, with almost no sales occurring through brand-operated standalone websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n