January 13th, 2023 · Written by undefined
How as a brand, can you become more lucrative and competitive in the world’s second-largest luxury market? China, with its rapid development, boasts increased disposable income and an inclination towards luxury consumption. Even the unprecedented pandemic couldn't stop the increase in purchases as the value rose over 36% from 2020.
As the customer base widens and technology develops, two major concerns rise that luxury brands have to carefully think about. One is the rise of e-commerce among luxury sales as opposed to the core nature of exclusivity. Two, providing premium service to all customers, both in-store and online.
Fortunately, a single solution connects and solves these two concerns with grace and efficiency - Clienteling. In a tech-savvy country like China, this creative way is the go-to strategy for many brands wanting to expand their influence. Want to know more about clienteling and how it works? Keep reading!
In this blog, discover and learn about the following:
An umbrella term, Clienteling is a technique by which brands establish long-term relationships with their consumers based on certain data predicting their behaviors. The data set includes their preferences, past purchases, wish lists, and so on. To put it in simpler words, many brands provide better shopping experiences by learning about their customers through the data.
Every business can create its own clienteling app with ideas and features that appeal to its target audience. Streamline features include a unified chat screen, push notifications, and messages with customized recommendations to each customer, an organized database of their purchases and product browsing history, etc.
While clienteling comes in many forms, a clienteling app is your choice to dominate in the Chinese market that runs on applications. It is software that most brands use to better communicate their offers and themselves to customers through accessing and analyzing transactional and behavioral data.
In addition to the behemoth luxury market of the country, the Chinese consumer landscape has its own unique features, different from the rest of the world. Most of daily life is carried with its super app, WeChat, on which 1.3 billion users are active every month.
From this significant fact, two things can be understood about the Chinese market.
But how important is a clienteling app for luxury brands to lead the market in China? Keep reading to find out!
A collectivist society, China is a country that attaches great importance to communities. These social groups have a remarkable influence on their purchase decisions. Specifically speaking, the mini-programs and channels on WeChat let users know what people in their circle are inclined towards.
Many things can come together through a clienteling app. First of all, with transactional data, brands can let the users know what exactly their peer's purchases are and thereby, influencing their decisions. A community feature on the app can further reinforce the feeling of being together in consumption.
Most luxury brands fail to truly understand the Chinese consumers and their buying journey process. Although they have significant data collection systems on their preferences, there is still a lack of deep understanding which often gets reflected in the customer relationships.
When businesses use clienteling apps, they form both a transactional and emotional bond with the consumers with omnichannel data integration. Irrespective of the consumer touchpoint, brands can provide seamless service both online and offline, giving them the impression of being highly cared for and looked after.
From the product economy, consumers are slowly shifting to the new and rising economies of experiences, personalization, and technology. This means shopping is no more just an economic negotiation but rather a memorable experience enriched by customization and technology.
With tailor-made clienteling apps, brands can offer immersive experiences, for instance, AR filters, personalized to their tastes and preferences. This in turn can be connected to the growing web3 world of the metaverse.
Today’s Chinese consumers do not want to be stopped at the role of buyer. They want to be a part of the luxury brand’s journey and legacy. Luxury brands can help consumers fulfill this wish and have diverse roles of buyer, seller, or shareholder. With a customized feature on the clienteling app, brands can support afluendors, by giving them rights to sell the products.
Afluendors are existing luxury customers who possess significant influences on their circle enough to be vendors of the brand. Besides, high-end labels can make the app community a say to some extent in the decisions, reflecting their importance. In short, the clienteling app allows consumers to choose how to engage with the brand.
The high-end in-store service of luxury brands was disrupted by the pandemic, which promoted users to shop online more. As a result, there is a disconnect between what the luxury brand wants to offer and what consumers experience. A clienteling app perfectly bridges both online and offline experiences.
From the access to consumers’ profiles on the app, in-store associates can better provide service and recommendations when they visit in person. Brands can promote their new products and best offers available in the brick-and-mortar through notifications in an instant leading to efficient outreach.
When you look at the distribution of Chinese luxury consumers by age group, you can find diversity. This means it includes consumers from various generations whose technical capabilities, tastes, and preferences vary. To deeply understand this diverse pool of consumers and quickly provide them with the experience they expect, a clienteling app is what you need.
Today Chinese consumers have a multitude of options at their fingertips which makes it hard for brands like you to reinforce and cement their loyalty. At this time of uncertainty, building a long-lasting relationship with your consumers is a sure way to keep your client base intact. But this takes lots of effort and most importantly understanding and communication from both sides. This is why a clienteling app is made for brands like yours.
If your luxury brand’s goal is to gain new customers while retaining the existing ones, customization that comes through a clienteling app is the best way. Because more than ever, consumers are more aware of their purchases and attach meaning to their consumption. They want to feel and reflect on themselves in their decisions, which led to the bloom of the personalization economy.
Keeping a track of every customer in the old way adds more confusion to your brand’s strategy. Also, there are two ways in which consumers come in contact with your offerings - in-store visits and digital commerce and communication app, WeChat. There is a lot of key information in both of these when integrated can add more value to both the brand and buyer. The clienteling app perfectly sorts and organizes this data for every customer of yours with clarity.
Moreover, the consumer preference landscape is more dynamic with new technologies like metaverse, NFTs, AR, and VR entering the market. As a result, brands need to be on their feet to quickly adapt to these changing trends which require product performance data. Through the clienteling app, it is easier to find out which product is popular, and what adaptions are required to meet the desires and needs of the audience.
To gain a strong foothold in the Chinese luxury market, one of the best ways is to build a clienteling app for your brand. As an experienced tech company in Shanghai, China with more than 10 years of expertise, we have flexible resources and creativity to build your app that amazingly fits your target audience.
Contact us today to get started with your first clienteling app.