Small Stores consider New Retail Revolution

For the past eight months, 31-year-old He Chang Jiang has been promoting his merchandise on what's arguably China's most powerful retail selling tool, and that they are commerce like hotcakes.

His Chinese pancakes, or jianbing guozi -- a notable product enjoyed by various individuals for hundreds of years -- became a hot topic on Sina Weibo, China's preferred social network, that currently boasts over five hundred million users.

While the Twitter-like social network, that come into being in August 2009, is nonetheless to create a profit -- its latest money report showed AN financial gain of $66 million greenbacks in 2012 against expenditures of $150 million -- thousands of shrewd entrepreneurs like He have managed to ascertain money-making businesses on the rear of the platform, by grabbing the eye of over a 3rd of the nation's population.

"So far, we've three hundred,000 verified company users," explained Hu Weixi, United Nations agency works in Weibo's business management department, that was came upon a year past.

Although there's no distinction on whether or not its verified-business "blue V" users area unit begin ups or multinationals, Hu says the amount of little operators like He might be "substantial".

Last December, Weibo's Hu and his team launched an internet campaign referred to as "those little and exquisite stores on Weibo", thus a lot of users may fathom these "tiny however distinctive stores that were submerged within the ocean of millions-of-followers-owning huge Vs".

"We have received over a pair of,000 applications, much more in variety and richer in diversity than we tend to expected," said Hu.

A total of 118 company users are elite and listed, freed from charge, on AN electronic-magazine-like page, around thirty stores a month, that options banner ads on the page of each user, with links to each one amongst the opposite stores.

The stores vary from sneaker manufacturers to organic farms, cafes, gown manufacturers, music venues and article of clothing.

"The service has attracted over a pair of million clicks, and followers of some stores are increasing many times over as a result," said Hu. "I would not say it is the most thriving campaign, however undoubtedly one amongst the foremost."

(Left) emblem of Huangtaiji in Chinese. (Right) He Chang Jiang, founding father of Huangtaiji.

In the case of pancake-seller He Chang Jiang,whose business is named Huangtaiji, commerce merchandise at nine.5 yuan ($1.53) a packet, the facility of Weibo is over simply a click or the odd additional follower.

Last August, the Harbin native opened his initial eatery within the central city district of Peiping, with thirteen seats, commerce his town specialties -- cooked dough sticks wrapped in AN dish with spicy or sweet sauces -- along side alternative Chinese ancient breakfast things like soymilk and solid tofu.

He registered the outlet's business account on Weibo at a similar time, and his selling creativeness thus far has been spectacular.

As well as responding to on-line orders, or posting savory footage of meals in the dark, the account has been catching attention owing to the images he has been posting showing himself delivering pancakes in his Mercedes or along with his stunning adult female.

He claims that each one amongst the seventy,000 comments left on the account thus far are sent a response.

"I am making an attempt to sell Chinese ancient food in an exceedingly fast-food chain approach like McDonald's or Starbucks, within the social network era," said He, tho' he says it's not possible to calculate what percentage of his customers are drawn to his place owing to Weibo.

In AN interview with Chinese business magazine businessperson early in Apr, He disclosed that annual sales at his outlet area unit probably to succeed in five million yuan, and he estimates the business is currently value forty million yuan.

He refuses to substantiate the figures to China Daily, however he did counsel he had paid off his initial spherical of finance.

Sina Weibo page of BYD motor vehicle Co Ltd. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

Meanwhile, 29-year-old Shanghai workplace employee Tu Jing says she has been "kind of falling in love" with on-line looking, or a minimum of grouping looking data on things, on Weibo.

Her favorite on-line looking destination accustomed be Taobao.

"There are a few things terribly basic, virtually human, concerning interaction with an internet store, and with alternative customers on-line," she said.

"It's a bit like being back in your childhood, after you may typically get a free lollipop from the boss of the native store in your neighborhood.

"It's nice after you hear concerning complaints concerning one thing from another store, although they're strangers in world.

"That's one thing you ne'er get from the big-box stores," said Tu.

She adds that she loves the expertise of telling her favorite cookie store on Weibo, however low-fat she needs her biscuits to be, and next time she buys cookies from the shop, while not a word, the boss offers precisely the low-fat kind she needs.

This idea of a looking community coincides with what Jack Ma, the founding father of Alibaba cluster and Taoboa, currently China's largest looking platform, is believed to require for his sites -- a growing population of small-businesses users.

Having attained one trillion yuan in turnover in 2012 and attracting huge names like Greek deity, Canon and Sumsung to its 2 sites -- the customer-to-customer Taobao.com and business-to-customer Tmall -- Ma has same he believes "the way forward for e-commerce lies in little business".

"Small is gorgeous," he told a forum in Gregorian calendar month, claiming little businesses don't seem to be solely the roots of his e-commerce empire, however conjointly the long run drivers of the worldwide economy over successive twenty years.

The 49-year-old wealthy person same he was impressed to support little businesses throughout a visit to Japan many years past, wherever he saw a small rice cake store with a symbol oral communication "founded 147 years ago".

Intrigued, Ma gave his patronage to the shop, travel by AN aged girl, and same he began to "find the charm and beauty" that huge businesses usually lack these days.

The first step in his support was to introduce the "double million" project, that aims to assist one million commissary deliver the goods annual sales of one million yuan.

Three months once Ma's speech, throughout the "double 12" one-day on-line sales amusement on Taobao -- named once the date it fell on, Dec 12, that featured thousands of stores giving special bargains and sales offers -- eighty p.c of its vi billion yuan turnover came from its "small and beautiful" stores, AN "unprecedented" performance, same officers.

Jiang Peng, the president of Taobao, attributed the huge share of the business to the extent of service these commissary offers, that customers cannot realize elsewhere.

Jiang same he believed the stores do not got to, and rarely do, grow terribly huge owing to the dimensions of the market they're occupation to.

That is not at all he is arrange for his flannel-cake business.

A geographic region, United Nations agency named his eatery once his royal ancestors United Nations agency started the last social structure folk, the dynasty (1644-1911), He says he needs to make a "new era even as my forefathers did, however mine is concerning pancakes."

He dreams his jianbing are talked concerning in foreign countries while not the suffix "the Chinese pancake".

He plans to open 5 to 6 Huangtaiji's in Peiping, and later expand to cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen or perhaps big apple and London.

What's a lot of, He hopes that inside 5 to seven years, he may be independent all told the materials accustomed build his pancakes, already claimed to be "all-green" with no chemical or additives.

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