The flower market in China: a big potential

In China, flowers are the symbols of love and happiness. Chinese are using amounts of flowers during festivals to cover the buildings and streets. Moreover, flowers are also a common gift on special occasions.

The flower industry in China

For the moment China is not a big competitor in the flower industry, however the country has a huge potential to become one. Indeed, China is a nation with a total population of more than 1.40 billion citizens. Consequently, this country has a gigantic purchasing power with many possibilities and opportunities for your business. The United-States, Russia and Germany are the main flowers buyers, but the Netherlands is still the center of the flower industry with tulips. However, the demand for flowers is increasing in China.

The tulip has been the most exported flower bulb with a share of 33% for years. In 2014, more than 2 billion tulips were exported worldwide. After the tulip, the lily is the most exported flower bulb with 1.1 billion lilies world-wide. China has expressly reported that the Netherlands is the only EU country that can export flower bulbs to China. There is an import ban on flower bulbs from all other EU member States. Direct export from other EU Member States, or re-export via the Netherlands, to China is not allowed. In other words, the Netherlands has a great advantage in the Chinese horticulture market compared to other countries.

How to market your flower in China?

To market your flower business in China, it is important to have a clear strategy to approach your target audience.

A Chinese website

A website in Chinese is necessary to enter a market and realize branding. This is an efficient solution to increase the popularity of your products, influence consumers with content and design, and develop the image of your company in the country. Moreover, having a website written in mandarin is essential. Chinese consumers spend more than 40% of their daily life on Internet and these internet users trust more Chinese websites than English websites.

Increase your visibility with SEO on Baidu

SEO on Baidu is the key for the visibility of your business in China. Baidu is the most used search engine in China, it ranks 5th among the most visited sites in the world and currently has more than 800 million web pages. Baidu now offers a wide range of services, such as web searches, image search, music, forums or a Q&A service. SEO on Baidu requires several steps, which may be different from what needs to be done on Google.

The notions of trust and notoriety remain essential for schools wishing to enter the Chinese market and be visible on Baidu. Key SEO strategies include keyword optimization, backlinks, and content sharing, this is the way to generate quality traffic. Compared with SEA, SEO takes more time, but it is long term solution in terms of developing a better e-reputation and is ultimately more stable. The quality search result won’t disappear after you stop the campaign, on the contrary, you will remain higher in the rankings and continue to drive traffic.

Video advertisement

The ratio of smartphone users in China has been increased tremendously. Last year, digital ad spending in China reached $40.42 bn, a 30% increase on the previous years’ spending. Ad spend in China is expected to reach over $80 bn by 2020. The numbers speak for themselves, this is a lucrative arena in terms of spend and return on investment.

Chinese people like to watch videos on smartphones and you can develop unique ideas to spread your brand awareness campaigns through effective video messages. Advertising in China is however a very unique eco-system that requires a different approach, understanding and mind-set. When it comes to ad spending you have to understand not only the most popular platforms in terms of user number but also, and most importantly, the infrastructure each platform has for advertising services.

Key opinion leader

KOL’S (Key Opinion Leaders) are social media influencers who have anywhere between a thousand and hundreds of thousands of followers on Chinese digital platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, QQ or video platforms such as Youku or Meipai. You can recruit these Key Opinion Leaders to represent your company, brand, product or service in China through paid posts. This is a very powerful tool for international companies new to the Chinese market, allowing you to tap into large active communities who are strongly influenced by a KOL’s opinion.

GMA is the top and most visible digital marketing agency in China. We have helped a lot of brand to develop their business in China, by leveraging the latest and most efficient digital tools. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information:

The flower market in China: a big potential

The flower industry in China