Global Marketing News –14th March 2016
Spanish store shows how to win with social media in China
The Spanish department store El Corte Ingles has run a successful social media campaign targeting Chinese tourists.
Chinese tourists are famous for their holiday spending, having spent a staggering 230 billion US dollars abroad while on holiday last year.
To reach these lucrative tourists, El Corte Ingles invited 4 Chinese influencers to a 4-day holiday in Spain and showed around the best attractions in Madrid.
These influencers then shared photos from their trip on their WeChat and Weibo profiles, with fans being invited to vote for their favourite “Madrid Moments” picture.
The campaign, which ran throughout February, resulted in a 90% increase in followers on El Corte Ingles’ Weibo account, and a 500% increase in followers on the store’s WeChat account.
Weibo and WeChat are two of the most popular social networks in China.
Online shoppers in South Korea sensitive to discounts and rewards
Online shoppers in South Korea are extremely sensitive to discounts and rewards.
Online buyers are more likely to buy from an ecommerce site if it has a loyalty scheme, and are more likely to buy an item online if it is at a discounted price.
The most popular ecommerce sites in South Korea are Gmarket, 11 Street and Coupang, with travel, fashion and household goods being the most popular items bought online in the country. Credit cards are the most favoured payment option for online shoppers.
The South Korean ecommerce market is worth 22 billion US dollars and has a digital buyer penetration rate of 75%.
Email marketing is growing in Canada
Email marketing is growing in Canada, according to research by Emarketer.
Last year, Canadian marketers spent almost 22 million Canadian dollars on email marketing. This is expected to grow by 10% this year, with steady year-on-year increases being predicted up until 2020.
By 2020, 32 million Canadian dollars are expected to be spent on email marketing.
The growth has been put down to the introduction of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation. The legislation states that email marketers must only send out emails to users who have consented to being on the mailing list, and that unsubscribing options must be clear and easy to use.
The legislation has helped cut down on spam, meaning that Canadians are more trusting of the emails they do receive.
Canada has an internet penetration rate of 93%, equivalent to 33 million people.
Rakuten launches ecommerce app in Taiwan
The Japanese ecommerce company Rakuten has launched an ecommerce app in Taiwan.
The app, called Rakuma, is a free consumer-to-consumer app that allows users to buy and sell items to one another. Users can post product listings and send messages via the app.
Taiwan is just the latest South East Asian country that Rakuma has been launched in. Earlier this year, Rakuten announced it was going to close down its ecommerce websites in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand and replace them with the Rakuma app instead.
South East Asia has a rapidly rising mobile internet population, facilitated by the rise of affordable smartphones in the region.
It is this affinity to mobile internet use that seems to be driving Rakuten to push its Rakuma app in the region.
Facebook buys video filter app Masquerade
And finally, the social media giant Facebook has bought the video filter app company Masquerade (also known as MSQRD).
Masquerade allows users to add filters to their videos, and is similar to Looksery, which was recently bought by Facebook’s rival Snapchat.
Facebook has been focusing on expanding the range of video features it offers, having recently introduced the option for users to add stickers and text to their videos.
A Facebook spokesperson commented on the Masquerade acquisition, saying: “We’re excited to welcome Masquerade to our team and continue enhancing the Facebook video experience.”
Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, with almost 1.6 billion users from all over the globe.
Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Cal O'Connell
Latest posts by Cal O'Connell (see all)
- Facebook to decrease visibility of business posts - January 16, 2018
- Naver criticised for manipulating suggested search terms - January 9, 2018
- Google Launches Google Go App For Emerging Markets - December 8, 2017
