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Chinese Customer Experience

Business in China has grown tremendously over the recent past, making it the envy of most of the traditional economic powerhouses such as the U.S. China’s digital market is breaking borders and records at every corner. But why does it seem so effortless for Chinese businesses to grow? Well, CX professionals attribute this to the unique Chinese customer expectations. Winning customer loyalty here has everything to do with giving them a progressive digital lifestyle.

In the US, customer experience has everything to do with appealing to people’s emotions. Leading brands across industries in America gain customer loyalty by giving their customers what they want, not necessarily what they need. You need to be politically correct for your products to sell in the US, something that isn’t necessarily important in China.

If you want to get a clearer picture of how big the Chinese economy has grown due to the unique Chinese customer experience, just look at their 11.11 Shopping Festival that goes down every year on 11th November. This designated e-shopping day brings together manufacturers and consumers to bring to life one of the craziest 24 hours of business dealings. Get this: In 2013, the festival the reports recorded a whopping $5.8 billion in sales, within 24 hours only. More than 300 million Chinese online shoppers transact on this day.

If you compare 11.11 Shopping Festival to America’s esteemed Cyber Monday or Black Friday; your jaw will definitely drop. According to Internet analytics company comScore, the highest any of these two e-shopping binges have ever recorded is $3.7 billion. That is way low compared to the Chinese e-shopping binge.

That brings us to the question: How different is the Chinese customer experience relative to America’s CX, and how significant is this difference?

The main differences in the Chinese customer experience

Online purchase of offline services is big in China

While trying to measure the behaviors of Chinese online shoppers, reports have some shocking facts. A Chinese consumer is 20 percent more likely to order food online as compared to an American consumer. In the same breath, a Chinese is 9 percent more likely to order dry- cleaning services over the mobile phone than a US customer is. And when it comes to making payment both in online and offline transactions, a Chinese will use a mobile payment tool at least 50 percent of the time while an American will do the same only about 16 percent of the time. This difference means that there is more money making for China’s digital marketing than for the US.

Chinese online shoppers value online reviews more than Americans

Chinese online shoppers are twice as likely to make a purchase based on online reviews compared to an American. This is particularly because culturally-speaking; the Chinese believe more in online relationships than offline relationships. Americans, on the other hand, believe in people meeting offline and then establishing relationships from that point. Not many Americans would believe reviews made by total strangers online.

Chinese online shoppers are more into luxury brands

If you wish to start a business in China, your professional employer organization has probably hinted to you how luxurious the Chinese are. If yet, then get this from me: The affluent Chinese class doesn’t really care about which brand rules and which doesn’t. All they care about is how luxurious a product is and how it can potentially give them a respectable status in the society. Brand loyalty is a new thing in China.

In the US, customers value labels and brands, not necessarily the quality of the products. A popular clothing line, for example, can manufacture substandard fashion products and still make sales in the US. That doesn’t work in China.

Shopping in China is fun

Over 70 percent of Chinese shoppers consider shopping in China – both offline and online – to be a fun activity. They take their time to understand how a product will change their lives and then make shopping decisions from informed perspectives. The Chinese are never in a hurry to get done with shopping, any day of the week.

This is a sharp contrast with the Americans. Only about 48 percent of Americans find joy in shopping. It is worse in Europe, where up to 60 percent of shoppers consider shopping as a chore more than it is a fun activity. As such, these western shoppers end up making fluke shopping decisions in order to save time.

There are many differences between Chinese customer experience and what is currently offered in the US. But now we can ask ourselves: what will be the next initiatives in China’s digital market?

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