Digital media influence Chinese fashion consumers

Digital media influence Chinese fashion consumers
Institution
Date
Table of content
Introduction……………………………………………………………. ….3
Methodology……………………………………………………………….4
Results……………………………………………………………………….5-13
Discussion……………………………………………………………………13-16
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………16-17
Reference………………………………………………………………….….17-19
Introduction
Digital media is composed of all contents which have been digitalized and can be transmitted via the internet or other computerized networks. Digital media can assume various formats which include videos, graphics, magazine, text and many other forms. The Chinese fashion hungry population is rapidly increasing the with the rise of purchasing power among the Chinese people (Zhang, 2011). Statistics have revealed that Chinese fashion consumers prefer online media to access fashion-related information. The fashion consumers also prefer buying their products online with a preference to western products. Statistics have also revealed that Chinese are more aggressive than American and Europeans in shopping on fashion products. Similarly, studies have shown that by the year 2020 China will become the second-largest fashion market across the globe (Kuo, 2016). The paper will aim to show how digital media is an important tool in marketing fashion products among the Chinese population. Studies have shown that Chinese people form the largest market for internet services (Guest Author, 2016). Some of the research question that the paper will answer include: what role do digital media play in the fashion industry, how much influence do middle-upper income class play in the purchase of fashion products.

Also, the paper will be interested in uncovering the role of internet usage to promote fashion products. With the popularity of the Internet, the commercial and social trends are changing, which is an important feature for the fashion industry to understand to be able to reach adequate consumers. The use of digital tools for marketing can increase the sales of fashion products.
Method
The methods section provided the validity upon which the research paper was judged. This section provided the procedure for data collection. The results were based on data that was gathered from an interview and a review of secondary sources for information. E-commerce sites, digital magazines, and a digital journal were used to collected the data for the study. These sites provided information regarding the number of digital media that Chinese used to access information on fashion products, and the sites they used to conduct their online purchase. Also, the information extracted from these sites included the average age of fashion customers and the region which had more shopper for fashion products. The factors that created a significance influence for shopping fashion products was also covered by the study. The interview was conducted with a fashion blogger who revealed the value of digital media in the fashion industry among other information that was a target of the study. The e-commerce sites, digital magazines, and a digital journal provided various forms of information and statistics. Tools were designed to help in the gathering of specific information, concerning the consumption of fashion products (EMarketer, 2016). Some of these tools were created to gather the characteristics of the population that purchased on various fashion products; some tools were used to expose the kind of products found online, while others were designed to reveal the sites that had the largest number online customer for their fashion products.
Results
China became the nation with more consumers for products on the digital retail market in the world by surpassing the number of USA online shoppers. China was also the number one country with the highest number of internet user with over 560 million. More than 240 million of these users are subscribers for e-commerce services (Consulate General Shanghai, 2014). More than 12.5% of Chinese shopping is done by online, with fashion products taking the largest pie of the e-commerce sales. It was indicated that online shopping exposed consumers to more variety than they could access physically, especially cities in the fourth and third tiers where popular fashion products have had no physical presence. The study also revealed that spendthrifts from these cities preferred online shopping. For this reason, aggressive marketing using digital media was important. For instance, C & A, a Dutch fashion products company combined the power of online shopping and its physical presence to skyrocket its sales. Some of the sources for information to guide shopping for fashion products included; social media, radio channels, TV, websites with fashion information, magazines, and newspaper as shown in EMarketer (2016). Similarly, people observed celebrities, people along the streets, beauty salons, posters, family, and friends (EMarketer, 2016). The table below shows their respective contribution in the provision of fashion trend information.

Fig 1: Shows the preferred source of information among the people from Asian and the Pacific countries, including China ( EMarketer, 2016).
The results revealed that more than 57% of internet users preferred to shop online for their clothes ( EMarketer, 2016). The table below reveals the kind of products that most online shoppers preferred to purchase, which included fashion products like cosmetic, clothes and electronics.

Fig 2: Showing products that people from Asia and Pacific region shop online including fashion products by Chinese population (EMarketer, 2016).
The findings revealed the top online sites in China that were used by Chinese fashion consumers. The sites were ranked for popularity according to the number of users who had subscribed (Sherman, 2014). The bar graph below represented that information according to the analysis of research that was conducted on 2014 by the Alliance for Audited Media (Sherman, 2014).
Fig 3: shows the tops sites for fashion products (Sherman, 2014).
The average age of Chinese people in the working segment is 18 to 25 years (Zhang, 2011). The studies revealed that this age group contained the new generation and some people from the first generation of the one-child per family policy (Nelson, 2o11). This age had no limit for spending and had no culture for saving. They preferred shopping on luxury products, for instance, electronics, and clothes (EMarketer, 2016). This age group had people who used the internet and preferred shopping online (Nelson, 2o11). Another group was the wealthy who were living in tier 1 cities like Guangdong who preferred to import expensive and high-quality products (Consulate General Shanghai, 2014). Different spending trends were exhibited by the various groups of Chinese consumers. In an interview with Rina Qiu, a fashion blogger at Haper’s Bazaar China indicated that digital media was effective to meet the young and the rich when marketing products. She said “…I have noticed that paper media is more or less struggling these years after the digital media growing dramatically. People started to gain information through their smartphones, not even have time to sit down and read a nice article in magazines (Tang, 2016).” The study also revealed some of the top fashion magazines as indicated in the table below.
Fig 4: Showing leading fashion magazine in China (Sherman, 2014).
The findings indicated that for a successful fashion business the application of digital media was a prerequisite. Chinese people had considered the online reviews on particular fashion products before they made a purchase (Guest Author, 2016). Most of the online shoppers did not purchase products without a review and a good review for that case. The shopping sites hired online magazine among other digital media platforms to build a reputation for their products to influence buyers (Olivier, 2015). For instance, the use of a more reputable magazine like the cosmopolitan, which had been traditionally the pace setter for Chinese fashion consumers, attracted more consumers (Guest Author, 2016). Haibao.cn is also among the websites that specialized in fashion products. From this website, people accessed information on fashion and fashion trend by celebrities and branded look books which had fashion products from different online stores. Jimmy Choo is among the prominent Chinese fashion designers, and every time the designer launched a fashion product to get proper feedback, they used the online magazines like Yoka (Guest Author, 2016). The reviews they get from consumers was used to measure the satisfaction in the market and inform necessary adjustment. Chinese consumers value stories, and these digital media was used to share stories, to enlighten people on the value of the fashion products (Guest Author, 2016). For instance, a French fashion product was featured in Vogue in early 2015 to market their lingerie; the results were impressive as customers for the lingerie flooded online.
Social media has a great impact in the fashion industry. More than 450 million Chinese are connected through various sites. WeChat and Instagram are examples of these sites, and through shared threads and messages people make choices on various matters and subjects. The image bellow shows Instagram follower of various fashion magazines
Fig 5: show Instagram follower for various online magazines (Sherman, 2014).
Opinion leaders played a huge role in influencing fashion consumers and through digital media these key players in the fashion industry expressed their support for products (Sherman, 2014). People published and shared posts on Twitter, which had over 500milin subscribers among other social media platforms. The study also revealed that Chinese shoppers were keen on the opinion leader’s comments and posts, that endorsed products (Olivier, 2015). These digital media helped fashion companies to increase their presence in the Chinese market by creating awareness for them (Olivier,2015). The advantage of using social sites it’s because of user’s login to their account frequently, hence getting feeds for a given fashion product at that rate.
Between 2014 and 2015, the number of Chinese shoppers has risen by almost 200 million (Zhang, 2011). People below the age of 25 years were shown to spend 40% and more of the disposable income on fashion products, with most of the shopping done online (Zhang, 2011). The statistic also revealed that Chinese make more than 40 million trips to the international destination, this number of trips was bound to double or triple by 2020 (Zhang, 2011). The study also revealed that in the year 2010, Chinese people spent over $60 billion on fashion products and by the year 2020 the figures are expected to rise to around $200 billion (Zhang, 2011). With this trend, China is expected to be the market for at least 30% of the fashion products. These improvements are based on the rapidly growing Chinese economy, with more Chinese people enjoying a good purchasing power (Zhang, 2011). With a good economy, foreign fashion companies will launch their products in China to promote their products. For this launch to be successful and make a rapid sale, digital media was considered an important tool to help them establish their presence among the Chinese population (Olivier,2015). Some of these international fashion brands include Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Coach, which have aggressively utilized the digital media to market their products and establish a lasting presence among Chinese fashion consumers (Ng, 2014). The statistics also revealed that China was not only the second largest consumer of various products across the globe but also the second best fastest growing rate of consumption after the USA (Kuo, 2016). Such statistics can be used to predict the future of the consumption fashion products among the Chinese.
Fig 6: Showing consumption among leading world economies (Kuo, 2016). 
Discussion
The over 625 million users of social media in China applied the Chinese social media platforms for their interaction (Olivier, 2015). These digital tools were incredibly useful in performing digital marketing on products including fashion products (Olivier, 2015). The fashion industry with ready made products established their presence through this strategy. Most Chinese preferred e-commerce since it provided access to a variety of high-quality fashion products. The Chinese expressed their displeasure on Chinese products for instance, due to the issue of counterfeit fashion (Olivier, 2015). Through the digital media, they accessed information on international brands. WeChat and Weibo were some of the Chinese social media platforms which both the sellers and the buyers of fashion brands interacted. The Chinese people were linked to the trend of sharing their latest purchases, a habit that informed other consumers the brand and price for a product (Olivier, 2015). Products with better reviews from many people attracted more consumers. Most of the key opinion leaders in the Chinese fashion industry used Weibo to share their feeds concerning a given product. The consumers subscribed to this site to get such information to guide their shopping (EMarketer, 2016). The fashion companies utilize these key opinion leaders to popularize their products among the Chinese people (Olivier, 2015). Key opinion leaders with more followers meant that their opinion was trusted by many fashion consumers. Their single message went viral and influenced a surge in the purchase of a particular product. Locals brands are stored in a building but still making big sales on their fashion products. But yet these sales cannot be compared with online shopping that boast of many customers for fashion products. For instance, the use of Taobao as an online commerce site boosted sales for various Chinese fashion products. Statics show that Taobao can be compared to eBay due to the number of consumers using this site for shopping as indicated by Consulate General Shanghai (2014).
For fashion designers, a reliable market is their main target to meet their sales needs. In China, Shanghai is the capital for fashion products (Consulate General Shanghai, 2014). Aggressive use of influential digital media and key opinion leaders was fundamental for a successful establishment. Foreign brands for fashion and jewelry targeted this market, the combination of e-commerce and operation stores in a strategic building was applied to facilitate the sales of fashion products (Ng, 2014). With many competing brands from Dutch, Italy, and other nations, the use of digital media was used to offset the challenge. Beijing is the center for all media in China for instance Vogue, and Cosmopolitan has their headquarters in Beijing (Consulate General Shanghai, 2014). The location of these social media companies in Beijing compelled the fashion brands to also locate a public relation office in this region. Fashion is categorized under Entertainment, in past few years’ major fashion events were conducted in Beijing, and fashion brand understood the value of fashion events, in marketing their products. Digital media were used to advertise the events to attract more people (Consulate General Shanghai, 2014). For instance, the events were hosted by Versace and Louis Vuitton, which are leading international fashion brands.
Studies also revealed that there was a rapid growth in e-commerce among the young generation in the middle upper middle-income class. The traditional mode of retailing for lower income and old generation was slowing down. Also, the rise of the upper middle class has contributed to increased sale on the e-commerce platforms. The upper-middle-class consumers contribute to above 55% of the consumption of fashion products in urban China (Kuo, 2016). Beijing and Shanghai are some of the tier one city with the highest population of the upper-middle-class population. For this reason, fashion brands have been targeting to establish their presence in this regions, to promote sales of their product. With such ambition, their popularity can rise faster by the utilization of digital media. For instance, they can feature some of their brands in a local online magazine or TV advertisement or use the key opinion leaders (Consulate General Shanghai, 2014). These strategies are used to reach many people within a short duration. Once their presence has been established, it will be easier to launch an online shopping option to complement their physical stores along these metropolitan cities streets. Studies have also revealed that e-commerce has been growing by 20% annually among the Chinese, a trend which is expected to continue to the year 2020 (Kuo, 2016). The upper middle class in these metropolitan cities contribute to over 55% of all the online sales, and the figure is bound to increase.
Conclusion
Digital media uses the internet to transmit a message. The Chinese trends to consume fashion brands has increased rapidly, with people utilizing the internet to access the information for fashion products and buying. The Chinese use online magazine, newspapers, social media and other digital platforms to share and access information on fashion trends and products (EMarketer, 2016). The most influential of these media include Vogue and Cosmopolitan. These sites were used by most Chinese and affect their demand for fashion products. Taobao is a giant online e-commerce site, and various local and international fashion brands have utilized this site to market their products. Some of the products that Chinese consume include clothes, cosmetics, and electrics (Consulate General Shanghai, 2014). With over 450 million Chinese internet user more than half of this prefer online shopping. The preference for online shopping is based on the idea that international products are better than local Chinese products. Online retail shops also provide a variety of international fashion brands. Some of the international brands embraced by Chinese fashion consumers include Gucci and Versace. An interview with a blog editor at Haper’s Bazaar China indicated that the fashion brands that utilized the traditional paper marketing strategy were losing customers. The retail fashion brand that has embraced the digital tools for marketing their goods are the ones winning more customers. More than 500 million people are connected to the Chinese social media platforms, for instance, Weibo and WeChat. These sites are used to pass information concerning fashion products and trends. Opinion leaders contribute a lot to the shopping trend among the Chinese for fashion brands. In 2013 China became the number one nation with more online shopper by surprising the number of USA consumers. The rise of middle-upper income class promoted the fashion industry with people having more disposable income to spend (Zhang, 2011). By 2020 the number of Chinese internet user is expected to grow, and these will play a key role in boosting online purchases and sales through digital media. Penetration of the tier one and two cities is vital for fashion designer since the population in these regions have a higher purchasing power. The use of digital media to establish their presence was a vital step.
References
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