As anyone who has visited China recently will know, WeChat is enormous, with over 1- billion users, it is the largest App in the Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WeChat is best described as an \u2018eco-system\u2019 rather than as traditional social media or a \u2018WhatsApp of China\u2019. Describing WeChat as an eco-system captures the fact that it is all things in daily life in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is Tencent\u2019s (WeChat\u2019s owners) vision for Chinese nationals to use WeChat throughout their day; using it for calls, messaging, playing games, paying bills, buying products, hiring taxis and posting their social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WHAT ARE MINI PROGRAMS?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mini Programs are best described as \u2018apps within an app\u2019. WeChat is an app and a mini program is an app within the WeChat eco-system. These apps sit on Tencent\u2019s server, not on the users\u2019 mobile phone, as such they are typically fast to access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For brands looking to enter the China market, mini programs can provide additional functionality to their WeChat account, to add shopping functionality for instance, to sell directly via a shop front, or to add booking engine functionality, to take bookings directly. The whole process can be done within the WeChat eco-system, using WeChat Pay as the payment gateway. The end-user never has to leave WeChat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As such, Mini Programs can help brands monetise their WeChat account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For brands wishing to test the waters in China, WeChat is the ideal vehicle, serving as a base to build brand awareness, and as a route to establishing sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BUILDING A SHOPFRONT ON WECHAT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using a mini program, brands can build a shop within WeChat at relatively low cost. The process typically involves taking a product data feed of product SKUs and marrying this up with design templates for the shop front. The whole process can take as little as 4- weeks to build significantly less than setting up a Shopify or Magento e-commerce channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BUILDING UP AN AUDIENCE ON WECHAT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Using the WeChat advertising platform, brands can target users based on age, gender, education, location and importantly on search behaviour, meaning brands can build up a targeted audience over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other main key channel to building up an audience is via Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) who are effectively influencers and hold huge sway in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IT HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER TO SET UP A WECHAT VERIFIED ACCOUNT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is now easier than ever to set up an official Service account on WeChat for overseas brands. The days of requiring a Chinese business licence to register a verified account are long gone. Brands can use their business licence and the whole process takes 2-3 weeks to process, faster than ever. Ownership resides with the brand, not a third party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China accounts for a fifth of the world\u2019s internet users, and 40% of worldwide e-commerce. The Melchers Group has been working with Tencent to produce some of the best-known mini programs in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Melchers Group have also been at the forefront in producing mini programs as booking engines, producing one of the first property booking engine for a student-property business, who are targeting Chinese students in the Europe, via WeChat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHY SHOULD BRANDS BE EXCITED ABOUT THIS?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We believe that brands wishing to test the market in China should be excited about this for many reasons, namely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n