E-commerce in China: a whole different world

Researching on critical factors of success in e-commerce targeting the world's most dynamic economies and some findings are just amazing. Of course the context is profoundly different from what we have in Europe, but consumer preferences may be even more different and perhaps counter-intuitive in certain cases, e.g. sites designs that would feel crowded and too "loud" in many European markets appear to be just about what Chinese consumers like in many product categories. Really fascinating read, which also makes it very clear that China is as much a big commercial opportunity as it is a riddle for European companies.

Here's a short sequence from a show on CNN in which the boss of leading player Yihaodian (backed by WalMart who have been smart enough to not interfere with the way the business is managed locally). He claims that one of their approaches is to list the top 5 things foreign players are doing when entering China and do the exact opposite (100% different as he says). Better watch: