A Digital Strategy for Foreign SMEs in China: A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese Online Ecosystem and E-Commerce Websites

The rise of the People’s Republic of China as a major economic power may well be seen as a “trends-shaper”. Considering the latest business digital evolution, China might be considered a threat or an opportunity for foreign small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop or enhance new businesses within the country. Cross-border e-commerce is boosting economic growth despite the global lockdown that constrained shipping capacity and supply chain operations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, China has established new measures to ease and enhance cross-border e-commerce, as retailers are increasingly using online sales to compensate for offline losses. As the only economy that experienced growth in 2020, China’s cross-border e-commerce is the driving engine for the country as well as for worldwide foreign trade recovery. For this reason, SMEs seeking to expand their business in China how can enter the market? For those with a wealthy budget social commerce and online shops on e-marketplace is a good solution, but for those companies with limited budgets could be difficult. Hence, there is the possibility to apply a solid business and marketing strategy to let the brand be known in China and to convey organic traffic on the brand.com e-commerce website. Nevertheless, strong attention at and a solid presence on Chinese social media (e.g., WeChat, Little RedBook, Douyin and Weibo) is unavoidable.