E-commerce brands have relied on paid ads offered by platforms to acquire and re-target customers. Slowing growth in China however, has pushed up the cost of customer acquisition.
Brands are now paying more attention to private-domain traffic, as they look to build direct communication channels with customers and engage them directly to drive repeat purchases.
Rising Cost Of Customer Acquisition Amid E-commerce Slowdown
The overall growth of China’s internet is moderating as the penetration rate peaks. In e-commerce, this is reflected by the slower increase in gross merchandise value for major e-commerce platforms. Meanwhile, brands find themselves paying higher fees to the platforms for marketing services to acquire traffic to their stores.
The Solution: Private Domain Traffic
Companies have turned to marketing strategies around “private-domain traffic” to build direct communication channels with customers and engage them directly to drive repeat repurchases.
Platforms enabling private domain traffic are the ones with free and user-friendly features that allow brands to build their own communities and communication channels with their users, and launch direct marketing campaigns. These platforms enable 2-way communication between brands and customers, facilitating engagement and efforts to drive repurchases,
WeChat has been a dominant source of private domain traffic, thanks to its large userbase, as well as its comprehensive ecosystem encompassing message, social, e-commerce and payment functions
How Perfect Diary Used Its Private Traffic
Home grown cosmetics brand Perfect Diary has been lauded for its sales and marketing strategy relying on private domain traffic. Private domain traffic is estimated to have contributed 15% of the brand sales.
Step 1: An invitation comes along with the shipment of perfect diary products. You can scan the QR code to follow its WeChat public account or add the personal account of one of its beauty advisors. A code at the end allows you to win random “red packet” money.
On its public account, Perfect Diary posts promotional messages and a QR Code allowing you to add the personal account of one of its sales staff. Whereas, through the personal account, the beauty advisor invites you to one of its promotional WeChat groups. You can gather more information about the product.
Step 2: Once in the WeChat Group, you will receive information on its products & promotional activities like live streaming events. With a simple click, one of the posts will lead you to its e-commerce platform, built as a WeChat mini program. You can purchase directly within its mini program. Instead of paying with Alipay, as you do on Tmall or Taobao, you can pay with Tencent’s WeChat Pay.
Need to strengthen the communication channels with your customers using private traffic. Digital Crew is a Chinese digital agency that can help you hit your private traffic goals. Get in touch with us today.