One of the main reasons Chinese consumers buy themselves silly abroad – including Hong Kong – is the high difference in pricing of similar products in mainland China. Cosmetic giants Estee Lauder and AmorePacific have lower their prices up to 30 percent, as also the government is revamping its import fees. More will follow, tells retail analyst Ben Cavender to the South China Morning Post.Read More →

Fashion has been changing massively, as low-cost manufacturing moved from China to other countries, and the fashion brand focus on value, more than on cheap production, tells Shanghai-based retail expert Ben Cavender in Just-Style. And the transition process in fashion brands will continue to cause pain, as robots move in.Read More →

WeChat has been for long the golden grail for marketing to China´s consumers. But those days are over, says innovation expert William Bao Bean, director of the Shanghai-based ChinaAccelerator to TechNode. Marketing needs more platforms than WeChat, although the Tencent tool is still an important center piece.Read More →

When you deal with consumers in China, WeChat and its payment systems, cannot be ignored. Starbucks did so for years, and lost much business, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg. The American company now joined WeChat, although concerns about data safety remain.Read More →

China´s consumers have been eager purchasers of foreign products, but getting them at the right price proved to be troublesome. New startups are going to make that choice easier, predicts William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV and managing director of Chinaccelerator, in TechNode, after closing days of presentations by startups.Read More →

Following their Western counterparts, Chinese companies like Alibaba and drone maker DJI turn back to brick-and-mortar retail operations. Chinese consumers are becoming more demanding, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg, and while previously sloppy service was common, now standards are going up.Read More →

Logistics firms in China, like ZTO Express, build on the booming e-commerce. Despite their success in China, it might take quite some time before they become global players like FedEx or UPS says business analyst Shaun Rein, and author of The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia,to CNBC.Read More →

Fashion retailer M&S got it all wrong in China as they focused on non-exciting customers, says retail analyst Paul French to Bloomberg. M&S decided to close down some of its China operation to cut their losses, after a very ambitious start in 2008 in Shanghai.Read More →

Getting traction among China´s picky consumers is one thing, keeping it up is another. Larger foreign firms like Yum and Starbucks have been slow in picking up consumer trends in China, says business analyst Shaun Rein to Bloomberg, for example in their adoption of fintech developments.Read More →

Being perceived as a bull in China does not bother him, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in the China Daily. His on-the-ground observations and research are a solid foundation, for example for what he calls China innovation curve.Read More →