Competitive Analysis of the Top Three Chinese Social Commerce Applications

Introduction

Ness Goods China wanted to release a social commerce application in Mainland China. They asked me to complete a competitive analysis of the top three social commerce apps - PinDuoDuo, Xianhongshu and Yanxuan.

The Challenge

By understanding the competitors to Ness Goods’ social commerce app, I could help them determine product selection as well as how to market and launch.

How I Helped

I created a competitive analysis that looked at the basics of the competitors - from finding monthly active users (MAUs), average order size and spend to strengths and weaknesses. I also knew it would be important to understand their marketing strategies as the use of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)/Influencers would be critical to their success. I also had to present strengths and weaknesses of the customer experience (CX) so Ness Goods has something to  compare their first version screens to.

The Results

In the end, we learned very quickly that the marketing spend needed would require either more personal investment from the leadership team or outside of the organization. We also discovered that the work required to create an app at the beginning of the over saturation of the social commerce app market would require one to one and a half years of development.