How to win friends, influence shoppers on 11.11

It is that time of the year in China when the buzz invariably shifts to the upcoming Singles Day shopping festival on Nov 11. The hype and hoopla over the shopping extravaganza is such that people often start talking about it weeks ahead of the event.

So it was no surprise when one of my colleagues asked me the other day what were my plans for the same. I replied that I am not an avid shopper, and as such did not have any special plans.

Though she was surprised at my tepid response, she urged me to have a look at some videos of a popular key opinion leader, or KOL, on the WeChat social media platform. She told me that the KOL is extremely popular in China and she herself was inspired by his messages to buy several products.

Though I did view the videos, I was not motivated to make any purchases. Maybe it was because none of the products being promoted were things that I wanted, or it could be because they appealed to a much younger generation of shoppers.

But one thing I did realize is that social media is no longer just an entertaining extra, but a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of our daily lives.

And indeed that is true, as research more or less bears this out. Facebook, the largest social media platform in the world, has over 2.4 billion users. Other social media platforms like YouTube and WeChat also have more than 1 billion users each.

Social media platforms are used by 1-in-3 people in the world, and more than two-thirds of all internet users, said Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, a

Ullattil Manranjith senior researcher at Our World in Data, in an article published by the World Economic Forum. “There are 7.7 billion people in the word and nearly 3.5 billion of them are online,” he said.

But in China it has been the steady rise of the KOLs that has defied all logic. Unlike their Western counterparts, Chinese consumers are not only sold on social media, but will turn to it before making a purchase.

Global consulting firm Accenture said in a recent study that nearly 70 percent of Chinese consumers born after 1995 depend on social media for direct purchase of products as opposed to other channels, compared with a global average of 44 percent.

Coming back to KOLs, I was curious as to what really makes them tick? To understand this phenomenon further I asked one of my Chinese friends, Hong Mei, a 32-year old white collar worker in Beijing, about KOLs.

“It is simple. KOLs on WeChat are more like bloggers. The content they post is longer and is usually made up of a combination of text and visuals. Most of the KOLs on WeChat have subscription accounts that are seamlessly linked to e-commerce mini-programs. So when I click to read the latest post from one of these KOLs, I am directed to the WeChat mini-program which allows me to browse, purchase and share products with friends,” Hong said.

She cited the examples of Jackson Wang for Fendi, Lu Han for Louis Vuitton, and Angelababy for Dior, all of whom made big bucks from paid sponsorship deals.

Newrank, one of the largest social data analytics companies in China, recently released a report on the online market in which it said beauty products and clothing are the top product categories that sell the best with KOL recommendations.

But as they say in the online world, there is something new happening every second. So it was no surprise that I came across a new form of influencers who are driving the change at the mid- to lowerend segment called Key Opinion Consumers.

KOCs are everyday consumers, whose value is based on their relatability and trustworthy nature. Their entire focus is on product review, and for millennial Chinese consumers, the personable, friendlike appeal can have a powerful impact on purchasing decisions, according to a recent report in Jing Daily. The article said that the luxury retail and lifestyle platform Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) is proving to be the ideal place for KOC marketing.

All of that aside, I could not but help think of how the e-commerce sector is developing in India, the next biggest market after China. Though it is still far behind China in terms of market penetration, social media is still a significant presence when it comes to purchases.

“People still rely largely on channels like WhatsApp, TV and individual recommendations from friends. But the concept of KOLs and KOCs is still new, and it is only a matter of time before they will also be seen in the Indian e-commerce sector,” said T.B. Nair, an independent analyst in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.

As for me, KOLs or KOCs notwithstanding, I still prefer to peruse and look at the products before purchasing them. Call me old-fashioned.

VCG