SOGO pushes online promotions hoping to compensate foreseeable decrease of physical shop visit to Thankful Week

Following months of widespread protests, many HK businesses especially those focusing on Chinese Market have noticed a significant slowdown. HK’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po is indicating that the city may slide into a recession. A recession can be a difficult time for all businesses.Local Retail Industry is the most affected since the number of consumers coming to HK has plummeted.

Business mind drives evolving of HK retail business.Traditional retailer like SOGO’s Thankful Week became signature events helped driving traditionally low season November for many years already. But this year as CWB always being impacted during weekends, SOGO pushes online promotions which hopes to compensate foreseeable decrease of physical shop visit.

E-commerce plays a more important role in HK’s economy. In 2018, the sector alone generated revenue worth US$4.8 billion. This figure is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4%between 2019 and 2023, resulting in a market volume of US$6.4 billion by 2023. This indicates an incredible potential for the industry in the next four years.

HK consumers are avid shoppers on international e-commerce platforms as well. Among the most visited are China’s Taobao and JD. As of January 2019, Taobao had over 601 million total worldwide visits, 3.98% of which were from HK. This translates to 23.95 million visits – and the city has a population of 7.5 million.

Top mobile shopping apps

Interestingly, consumers’ purchasing behaviors on desktop and mobile are very different. 62 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase fashion products online.

From some analysis, Taobao is strong in the lead for both their website and apps. This reaffirms the platform’s market-leading position in HK. Taobao has been leading the market since 2017, and 45 percent of online consumers tend to make purchases on the platform.

Another leading e-commerce platform is WeChat E-shop. Since WeChat is the most popular one-stop App in mainland China, brands in HK nowadays are using WeChat as the main tool to enter China Market and sell products to Chinese consumers. Compared with Taobao and T-mall, WeChat E-shops easier for foreign companies to apply and utilize. Also, combined with WeChat Pay, the purchasing process will be much more convenient.

Facing this protesting issue, with less Chinese consumers coming to HK, local businessman should sincerely consider changing selling strategies from offline to online like SOGO did.

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