Top Performers

ByteDance, Xiaomi, and SHEIN lead the list, showcasing the strength of Chinese brands in the entertainment, electronics, and fashion sectors.

Lenovo, Huawei, and AliExpress also remain strong contenders, emphasizing the diversity and innovation in China’s tech and e-commerce industries.

Sector Growth

Smart devices, automobiles, and e-commerce experienced the fastest brand power growth, with China’s industrial ecosystem and technological innovations providing a competitive edge.

Consumer electronics, entertainment apps, and online fashion account for a substantial portion of the brand power growth.

Brand Expansion

Chinese brands have successfully penetrated international markets, with notable growth in regions like Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia.

Brands like BYD and NIO in the automotive sector, and OPPO and Vivo in consumer electronics, have expanded their global footprints, contributing to the increasing brand power.

Market Trends

The report highlights a shift in consumer preferences towards brands that offer meaningful differentiation and high engagement. Brands that have successfully created unique and compelling brand experiences have seen significant growth.

There has been a notable increase in the brand power of mid-sized brands, indicating a shift from the dominance of top-tier brands to a more competitive landscape.

Notable Brand Highlights

• ByteDance: As a global leader in digital content and social media, ByteDance’s platforms like TikTok have become household names worldwide, driving significant brand recognition and engagement.
• Xiaomi: Known for its high-quality yet affordable electronics, Xiaomi continues to expand its product lines and market reach, solidifying its position as a leading global brand.
• SHEIN: The online fashion retailer has disrupted traditional retail with its fast-fashion model, capturing a significant global market share and expanding rapidly across multiple regions.
• BYD: In the automotive sector, BYD’s focus on electric vehicles has positioned it as a key player in the global shift towards sustainable transportation solutions.
• OPPO and Vivo: These smartphone giants have continued to innovate and expand their international presence, offering advanced technology and appealing to a broad consumer base.

Strategic Insights

The report suggests that the key to the success of Chinese global brands lies in their ability to offer meaningful differentiation and engage deeply with consumers. Brands that can innovate and adapt to changing consumer preferences will continue to thrive in the competitive global market.

• Consumer Engagement: Successful brands have invested in understanding and meeting the functional and emotional needs of their consumers, creating strong brand loyalty and advocacy.
• Technological Innovation: Continuous investment in technology and innovation has enabled Chinese brands to stay ahead of the curve, offering cutting-edge products that resonate with global consumers.
• Global Strategy: A tailored approach to international markets, considering local preferences and cultural nuances, has been crucial for the expansion and acceptance of Chinese brands abroad.

Top 50 Brands from Kantar BrandZ 2024 China Global Brands

1. ByteDance
2. Xiaomi
3. SHEIN
4. Lenovo
5. Huawei
6. AliExpress
7. Haier
8. TEMU
9. OPPO
10. Hisense
11. TCL
12. Tencent
13. vivo
14. Chery
15. BYD
16. Anker
17. DJI
18. MiHoYo
19. OnePlus
20. Kuaishou
21. realme
22. GWM
23. TP-LINK
24. HONOR
25. Lynk & Co
26. MAXUS
27. Insta360
28. WORX
29. Lilith
30. Century Games
31. JAC
32. Roborock
33. CHANGAN
34. Geely
35. Midea
36. DiDi
37. POCO
38. ECOVACS
39. Trip.com
40. Magic Tavern
41. Habby
42. Tsingtao Beer
43. EcoFlow
44. Infinix
45. IGG
46. Kunlun
47. eufy
48. 37Games
49. NetEase Games
50. LightInTheBox

BCG: The most innovative Chinese companies

Lufax, a financial platform headquartered in Shanghai, ranked second with a value of 270 billion yuan, and East Money ranked third with a value of 221.5 billion yuan, according to Hurun China Top 10 Most Valuable Fintech Companies 2020 released last week.

Lufax is backed by major internet companies, such as Ant Group, WeBank and Tencent Licaitong.

JD.com’s affiliated JD Digital and WeBank ranked fourth with a value of 200 billion yuan.

• Ant Group
• Lufax
• East Money
• JD Digits
• WeBank (Tencent has an estimated 30 percent ownership share)
• Hundsun
• Hithink RoyalFlush
• Suning Finance
• ZhongAn (online-only insurance company)

Some highlights about the Top 10:

• The top ten fintech enterprises mainly cover financial management, microloans, payment, Internet financial information services, and other fields.
• Among the top ten companies, 2 are mainly B2B business and 8 are B2C business
• 7 of the top ten companies are in the Yangtze River Delta region, including three in Hangzhou and Shanghai and one in Nanjing; two in Shenzhen and one in Beijing
• Among the top 10 companies, 5 are public listed, 3 are in the process of IPO, and 2 are private

Financial services is the industry that has been transformed by unicorns. The traditional financial service industry is greatly influenced by these technology enterprises. For example, the market value of ICBC is 1.8 trillion yuan, and the market value of Ping An of China is 1.5 trillion yuan, which has been surpassed by Ant Group.

There are 63 fintech unicorn enterprises globally, including 21 in the United States, with a total value of $84 billion, and 18 in China, with a total value of US$239 billion.

Chinese unicorn overview 2020

In China, the online retail B2C e-commerce grew by 28.4% to a US$226.38bn market in Q4 2018. Tmall took the lead, followed by JD, Suning, Vipshop, and Gome.

China’s online retail B2C e-commerce market reached 1,526.76 billion yuan (US$226.38bn) in Q4 2018, an increase of 28.4% year-on-year.

Revenue from Alibaba’s core commerce grew by 40% year-over-year to 102,843 million yuan (US$14,958 million) as of Q4 2018. Its annual active consumers on the China retail marketplaces reached 636 million.

Related: China e-commerce market overview

Tmall took a market share of 61.5%, with a GMV increase of 29.5% year-on-year. JD ranked in the second place with a share of 24.2%, whose GMV grew by 21.1% year-on-year. Suning, Vipshop, and Gome listed third, fourth, and fifth with a share of 6.7%, 3.7%, and 0.7%, respectively.

71 brands exceeded 100 million yuan (US$14.37 million) in GMV in the pre-sale period of Double 11. Among that, 15 brands came from Tmall apparel, i.e. Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lining, Converse, Anta, Fila, Skechers, New Balance, Underarmour, Uniqlo, Eifini, Only, Vero Moda, and Bosideng. The same figure was only 40 in last year’s Double 11. You can find out the top statistics of Double 11 2018 here.

In 2018, the online retail sales of goods and services totaled 9,006.5 billion yuan (US$1,328.59 billion), up by 23.9% year-on-year. China’s retail market is estimated to hit US$6.77 trillion by 2019 with e-commerce representing 14.46% of this market.

Individual agents (Daigou), who frequently promote products on WeChat Moment or sell products in live streaming and short videos, are facing a new e-commerce policy on the first day of 2019. Under this new regulation, they need to make market entity registration and perform the obligation of tax payment.

In order to meet the ever-changing consumer preferences, companies should adjust their products and marketing based on people’s shopping motives, methods, time and results. Read more on Chinese digital consumer trends here.

China’s US$16bn cross-border e-commerce market overview in Q4 2018

The record-breaking 213.4 billion yuan gave this year’s Tmall Double 11 a good ending. Some turned their attention to the performance of top retailers and wanted to check out what they did to achieve such success.

Double 11, named after Singles’ Day (or Bachelor’s Day) in China on 11 November, is the biggest shopping festival of the year. The magic cannot happen in one day. Let’s see the marketing tactics deployed by the top players for Double 11.

Alibaba Taobao’s “Double 11 Partner”

Alibaba created new gameplay for social marketing, that’s Taobao “Double 11 Partner”. Alimama, Alibaba’s big data marketing platform, supported this with data and 3 million Taobaoke (affiliates). Under “Double 11 Partner” program, anyone could be a Taobaoke.

From October 20th to October 31st, as long as consumers set up the “Double 11 energy PK team” or was invited to one such team, what he need to do was to encourage others to like it. If his team wins, he will get a specific bonus. For instance, 100 energy points could exchange for 1 yuan.

Either inviting others or liking other teams, users connect to the gameplay of energy for red envelope. The gameplay is everywhere in Alibaba-affiliated apps and channels.

Red envelopes are gifts presented at social and family gatherings such as weddings or holidays such as Chinese New Year. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is a symbol to ward off evil spirits.

Users can generate energy points in all related apps, even in the offline Hema grocery/restaurant stores. All energy points made will become red envelope for shopping on the very day of Double 11.

Such gameplay not only brought traffic to Alibaba, more importantly, it also integrates all channels and makes them connected. In this way, Alibaba knows its consumers better.

Luckin Coffee sold 5.15 million cups of coffee by sending coupons

Consumers can get two coffee coupons after buying one coffee, which means they can get three coffees at one coffee’s price.

Luckin Coffee attracted lots of new consumers. It worked exceptionally well among the white collar who are likely to invite others to buy together to get more coupons and waive delivery fees. And, it also retains existing customers at the same time.

Driven by this marketing strategy, Luckin Coffee successfully sold 5.15 million cups of coffee on Double 11.

Weilong, a snacks brand, taking advantage of Tmall marketing tactics

Weilong took advantage of Tmall’s promotion for Double 11 “50 yuan off 400 yuan purchase” to make itself a good option when lots of consumers’ total purchase order didn’t reach 400 yuan.

It specially arranged an exclusive landing page for this promotion tactic making it very easy to be understood and adopted by online shoppers.

Viya, the top Taobao host socialized Taobao

Online celebrities’ Taobao shop has become an important force for Double 11.

The 33-year-old top Taobao streaming host Viya has 3.67 million followers on Taobao. She earned 30 million yuan last year, the number 1 host of Taobao. A week right before Double 11, Viya did one live streaming every day. On average, she introduced 60 products in every live streaming.

Besides live streaming, Viya also took advantage of Weitao, Tik Tok, and Weibo to make a 1,000 must-buy lists for her followers. She also interacted with her followers to choose a special one who wins the online lottery and gets a million yuan valued prize, sponsored by 100 brands.

Read the story of this Taobao celebrity who sold 300 million yuan products on Double 11.

Related eBook: 7 lessons from Double 11 marketing campaigns

The Double 11 rising on the popularity of China Singles’ Day (Nov 11) is growing bigger every year. Top e-commerce players all saw record-breaking sales on this very day. Sales on Tmall reached 10 billion yuan in 00:02:05, sales on NetEase Kaola exceeded 100 million yuan in 00:03:49, and GMV on Suning exceeded 100 million yuan and 1 billion yuan in 4 seconds and 50 seconds, respectively.

Orders on Vipshop hit 2 million in one hour. GMV on JD exceeded 100 billion yuan in 10 days during this shopping festival. Xiaomi new retail saw GMV reaching 100 million yuan in 36 seconds.

Tmall

This year, Tmall took 00:02:05 to hit 10 billion yuan, 01:47:26 to reach 100 billion yuan, and 10:28:30 to exceed US$20 billion. GMV totaled 213.5 billion yuan (US$30.7 billion) by the end of Double 11.

Tmall logistics orders exceeded 1 billion as of 23:18:00 on Double 11.

The first cup of Starbuck Coffee was delivered by Ele.me “Starbuck Deliver” to a Shanghai consumer in the first 9 minutes 2 seconds on Double 11. Starbuck takeaway has covered 17 cities with over 1400 stores at the very day of Double 11.

The first Tmall Supermarket parcel- a piece of spring water- was delivered to a Qingdao consumer in eight seconds. A consumer living at Putuo District, Shanghai, received a cocktail cabinet from Cainiao-cooperated RRS Logistics 12 minutes after Double 11 begins.

Top 50 Tmall Stores by GMV on Double 11

Jingdong (JD.com)

Total orders from 00:00:00 1 Nov till 22:56:00 10 Nov exceeded 100 billion yuan on Jingdong (JD), which reached 159.8 billion yuan as of  24:00:00 11 Nov, an increase of 25.7% year-on-year.

Smartphone, TV, Huawei, wash machine, and Nike were the most searched keywords. Notably, the sales of TV and air conditioner hit 100 million yuan in 36 seconds and 40 seconds, respectively. The sales of refrigerator and wash machine exceeded 300 million in 3 minutes.

The sales value of laptops in the first 10 minutes reached 2 times as much as last year’s. The sales volume of the translator, student tablet, and keyboard and mouse reached 36 times, 4 times, and 4 times as much as last year’s, respectively.

The total GMV of JD.com for the 11 days ending on 11 Nov reached record 159.8 billion yuan.

NetEase Kaola

Netease Kaola saw sales hit 100 million in the first 3 minutes and 49 seconds and exceeded the entire sales of last year’s in 78 minutes on Double 11. Total GMV reached 4.3 billion yuan, a 140% increase year-on-year.

A consumer living at Jinhua, Zhejiang received an imported paper diaper from NetEase Kaola in the first 26 minutes.

Suning.com

GMV of Suning.com on Double 11 exceeded 100 million yuan and 1 billion yuan in the first 4 seconds and 50 seconds, respectively. Its one-hour sales increased by 153% year-on-year. The sales of air conditioner hit 100 million yuan in just 35 seconds. As of 18:00:00, its online orders grew by 132% year-on-year and offline orders increased by 96% year-on-year. Total GMV was 14.8 billion yuan, an increase of 44.8% year-on-year.

Total orders on Suning Supermarket increased by 500% in the first hour. Among that, fresh food increased by 800%. The top 5 cities contributing most GMV on Suning were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Shenzhen.

Driven by free logistics and shopping coupons, Suning.com saw orders of products  (ships from and sold by Suning.com) less than 86 yuan increased by 6 times from 1 Nov till 1:00:00 11 Nov. Its first delivery on Double 11 was sent to Haikou in 9 minutes 48 seconds.

Sales on Suning Supermarket and Readbaby increased by 546% and 151% year-on-year, respectively.

Vipshop

Double 11 started from 20:00 10 Nov on Vipshop. Orders exceeded 2 million in the first hour. The first package was delivered in 12 minutes 25 seconds after 11.11 begins. Orders exceeded 8 million in 12 hours 11 Nov, 30% of which was placed by post-90s. Especially, 97% of orders were placed via mobile devices.

Post-90s accounted for 40% of Vipshop’s customers as of Q1 2018. Moreover, nearly 50% of its newly added customers were post-90s, whose favorite products were the facial mask, skin care products, and women’s boots.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi new retail omnichannel saw sales exceeded 100 million and 5 million in the first 36 seconds and 13 minutes and 37 seconds, respectively. The sales on its Xiaomi flagship on Tmall hit 100 million and 5 million in 56 seconds and 33 minutes and 8 seconds, respectively.

Its first order – Mi TV 4S 65 Pro – was placed in the first 19 seconds on Double 11 in the Mi experience store that locates at Golmud, Qinghai with an attitude of 278.0 meters. Its over 5,000 offline stores shared the same discounts as online on Double 11. The sales of Mi Notebook hit 3 billion yuan as of 12:00 on Double 11.

Double 11 Sales of Luxury Goods

The luxury apparel and cosmetics brands, high-end products, and imported products were all booming on Double 11.

LA MER’s 17,200 yuan-priced global limited edition was sold out in the first hour on Double 11, 10 times as much as the total of previous 10 months. 300 thousand bottles of Lancome Tonique Confort was sold in the first 8 hours.

The Italian brand VERSACE that just participated in Tmall Double 11 for the first time saw booking 20 times as much as one day sale in the first three days of pre-sell. 2.83 million Canadian sweep shrimps, 1.37 million Australian steaks, and 140 thousand Mexican avocadi were sold within one hour.

Top 5 countries selling to China on Double 11 were Japan, the U.S., South Korea, Australia, and Germany.

Top 5 popular imported brands among Chinese consumers on Double 11 were Swisse, KAO, Moony, Aptamll, and Dr.Ci.Labo.

More and more paying for hobbies

At the time when sales of brand new smartphones like iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR exceeded 100 million in 30 minutes, DJI Osmo Mobile 2 UAV, GoPro HERO7 Black, and ThundeRobot 911 ME Game Notebook were sold out. 5 thousand Xingxing Lenglian household freezer were sold in 20 minutes.

Seeing from JD’s performance, sales volume of UAV and noise-cancellation headphone, smart pet products, and health and workout kind of dietary supplement increased by over 400%, 600%, and 225% year-on-year, respectively.

As for Suning, sales volume of Smith water heater exceeded 1.5 thousand. Sales volume of electric warmer increased by 321% year-on-year.

Integration of online and offline in new retail is necessary

The first cup of Starbuck coffee was sent by Ele.me “Starbuck Deliver” to a Shanghai consumer in the first 9 minutes and 2 seconds on Double 11.

Tmall had cooperated with 100 new retail business districts, 200 thousand smart stores, 62 Intime Department Stores, 41 Easyhome stores, 100 Hema Supermarkets, 470 new retail supermarkets, and 1 million Ele.me and Koubei businesses to promote Double 11 offline.

Transactions on Xiaomi new retail omnichannel exceeded 4 billion yuan as of 18:00 on Double 11, more than last year’s 2.46 billion yuan on its Tmall flagship shop.

Amazon’s brand value has risen 42% to US$150.8 billion, retaining top billing as the world’s most valuable retail brand according to a Brand Finance report, while other e-commerce brands are in strong growth, such as Alibaba (up 58% to US$54.9 billion) and JD.com (up 47% to US$19.6 billion) as well as Germany’s Zalando (up 40% to US$3.8 billion).

Brand Value Change 2017-2018

Alibaba is this year’s fastest-growing retail brand, who plans to invest US$15.2 billion towards its global logistics chain expansion according to Brand Finance, an independent branded business valuation and strategy consultancy based in UK.

Jingdong (JD.com) got into the world’s top 10 most valuable retail brands for the first time, driven by its advancements in retail technology and plans to market its developments to third parties around the world, effectively creating a Retail-as-a-Service (RaaS) offering.

Top 10 Retail Brands in the World in 2018

The total value of the top retail brands from China, Alibaba (3), JD.com (7), and Suning (30), accounts for 12.7% of all 50 top brands, following that of the U.S. (66%).

Check out Carrefour’s retail transformation with WeChat Mini-Programs

China online retail market totaled 1,974.59 billion yuan (US$311.69 billion) with an increase of 41% YoY in Q4 2017 according to data from Analysis. China’s B2C online retail market reached 1,189.35 billion yuan (US$187.74 billion) with an increase of 43.2%.

Total transactions on Tmall grew by 45% in Q4 2017, accounting for 60.9% of the total B2C market in China. JD grew by 35% to 25.6% market share, followed by Suning and Vipshop.

China’s FMCG spending grew by 4.3% in 2017

The total transactions of China’s online shopping market totaled 4.7 trillion yuan (US$680 bn) in 2016 with an increase of 23.9%; and, it’s estimated to reach 7.3 trillion yuan (US$1.06 trillion)  in 2019. Tmall dominates China’s B2C online shopping market with over 56% market share.

B2C online shopping market will grow to over 60% in 2019 from 55.3% in 2016 while C2C continues to shrink.

Mobile shopping begins to dominate China’s online shopping market and will grow to 5.6 trillion yuan; 76.9% of total online shopping transactions in 2019.

Tmall continued to lead China’s B2C online shopping market with 56.6% market share, followed by Jingdong (24.7%) and Suning (4.3%).

Mobile MAUs on Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 493 million in December 2016 while annual active buyers on its China retail marketplaces reached 443 million, an increase of 4 million. It has 82.6% market share in China’s mobile shopping market according to iResearch.

Jingdong annual active customer accounts increased by 46% to 226.6 million in 2016 from 155.0 million in 2015. Net revenues for 2016 were RMB260.2 billion (US$37.5 billion), an increase of 44% from 2015.

Also read: China’s cross-border online shoppers to exceed 200 million by 2020

Deloitte’s annual Global Powers of Retailing report identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world. JD.com ranks on top of all Chinese companies in the Top 250 retailers list.

14 Chinese companies including China and Hong Kong who made it to the top 250 list include:

• JD.com, 36
• Suning Commerce Group Co., Ltd., 46
• A.S. Watson Group, 51
• China Resources Vanguard Co., Ltd., 54
• Gome Home Appliance Group, 69
• Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited, 85
• Shanghai Bailian Group Co., Ltd., 121
• Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, 128
• Belle International Holdings Limited, 145
• Yonghui Superstores Co., Ltd., 146
• Vipshop Holdings Limited, 157
• Chongqing Department Store Co., Ltd., 192
• Dashang Co., Ltd., 195
• Nonggongshang Supermarket (Group) Co. Ltd., 214

Retailers based in China and Hong Kong generated the strongest growth in the region with combined revenue up 12.9% in FY2015 although they posted a slight growth of 0.7% net profit margin.

Vipshop (1), JD.com (2), Yonghui Superstores (13), and Suning (48) are among the top 50 fastest-growing retailers for FY2010-2015. JD.com (2), Suning (5), Vipshop (8), Dangdang (47) were also in the top 50 e-retailers for FY2015.

In 2016, the national online retail sales of goods and services in China was 5,155.6 billion yuan, increased by 26.2% YoY.

Also read: What are consumers buying for Chinese New Year 2017?

The top e-commerce platforms in China are JD, Tmall, and YHD in 2016 according to Kantar Retail.

Top 10 e-commerce platforms in 2016 based on comments from more than 200 participants from FMCG manufacturers are:

1. JD
2. Tmall
3. YHD
4. vip.com
5. Amazon
6. Suning
7. Jumei
8. Xiaohongshu
9. sfbest.com
10. Feiniu

The top roles of of e-commerce according to Kantar survey:

1. Additional sales channel
2. Brand building
3. Stronger communication with consumer/shoppers
4. Penetrating lower-tier cities or markets
5. Additional profit
6. An efficient way to enter new brands / new products into the China market

Total transaction value of China online shopping market reached 1.15 trillion yuan (US$166.85 billion) in Q3 2016, up 23.6% YoY or 2.6% QoQ, according to data from iResearch.

B2C (600 billion yuan) accounted for 55.1% of China online shopping market in Q3 2016, led by Tmall (56.2%), Jingdong (25.1%), Suning (4.4%), and VIPshop (3.2%).

The total transactions of China mobile shopping market reached 820.15 billion yuan (US$), an increase of 56.1% YoY. Mobile accounted for 71.6% of China’s online shopping market, led by Tmall/Taobao with 82.7% market share.

Alibaba will invest approximately 28 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion), for a 19.99% stake in Suning, which is going to make Alibaba the second largest shareholder in Suning. The two companies will expand comprehensive cooperation in the near future, providing both Chinese and international consumers with more holistic customer service, and will also play a leading role in bringing a new transformation to the retail industry.

Suning has more than 1600 stores covering over 700 cities of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan and its e-commerce platform, Suning.com ranks among top three Chinese B2C companies.

In H1 2015, China online retail market reached RMB 1645.9 billion (USD 265.126 billion) with a YoY growth of 39.1%. According to data of China National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail value of social consumer goods accounted for RMB 14157.7 billion (USD 2280.557 billion) in H1 2015, with an increase of 10.4% (10.5% if price factors excluding) year on year,0.2 percentage points lower than last year.

Read more:  China Online Shopping Accounted for over 10% of Total Retail in Q1 2015