Want to attract Chinese tourists in 2023?  Chinese tourists were the biggest spenders in 2019 were eager travelers, especially in popular destinations outside of Asia such as the France, Italy, UK and Germany. Leisure travel was the biggest driver of China’s outbound travel, representing 65 percent of travelers in 2019. But what changed after the travel restriction of pandemic were lifted?

15 ways to attract Chinese tourists in 2023:

1. Understanding Chinese Tourists’ culture 
2. Chinese Holiday Calendar 
3. Localising your business essential elements: menu, price lists, product descriptions 
4. China-friendly online payments 
5. List your business on Chinese Social Media 
6. All about Dazhong Dianping and how to list your business on it 
7. WeChat official account for your business 
8. Chinese KOL and Influencers 
9. Safety information and assurance for Chinese tourists 
10. Chinese Search Engine Optimisation 
11. O2O tactics for attracting Chinese tourists 
12. Embedded marketing tricks for Chinese tourists 
13. Involve local Chinese customers 
14. Create local trends for Chinese tourists 
15. Prepare your staff for Chinese tourists 

China’s outbound travel

As from the travel restriction were lifted in China on January 8th 2023,  Chinese travelers are coming back to International destinations. Yet, their tastes are not completely same as in the past! Nowadays they prefer to stay “around” choosing Korea, Japan, South East Asia and Australia, New Zealand. Less people would like to travel to the EU, and this is a desired destination only by the wealthiest population, according to Mckinsey.

Case study 1: Success on Chinese Social Media Marketing by a British restaurant

In pre pandemic times, an English restaurant found itself in the headlines.

Many British news outlets, including The Guardian told the story of a fish and chip restaurant near York successfully taking advantage of the digital age and Chinese Social Media Channels to boost their business.

By simply translating their menu into Chinese and publishing it on their Official WeChat account along with a few other articles about local tourist attractions, an “about us” page, opening times and contact information (all in Chinese), they have been able to pull in coachloads of hungry Chinese tourists visiting England’s famous landmarks.

Promoting the restaurant on Weibo (China’s twitter equivalent) has also added to its success.

As a result, the famous dish, whose popularity had been dwindling among England’s younger diners, is now booming again thanks to Chinese social media, and buoyed of course by President Xi Jinping’s visit to the UK in 2015, when he sampled the famous dish with then Prime Minister David Cameron. 

To find out more, the Weibo account for Scotts fish and chip restaurant can be found here.

This example shows how even small businesses in Europe can get ahead when it comes to attracting tour groups from China traveling around by coach.

This is a near perfect scenario for roadside restaurants.

However, attracting tourists traveling in large groups may not be the main goal if you run a top-end luxury goods business or exclusive hotel, as it is no secret that the wealthiest people do not travel in large groups on coaches, and prefer to travel independently.

They also often prefer to make their purchases privately away from large crowds.

There are several ways to attract free independent tourists (FITs) from China, which we will talk about in detail in this article.

But! Before you try to attract all (or even a tiny number) of these visitors to your store/hotel/other business, it is important to find out a little more about their lifestyles and habits in order to understand their expectations and cultural differences, and make them realize that not only do you exist, but you also have something to offer them.

So, what do you need to be aware of when catering for Chinese tourists in Europe/France?

Here are a few actions for you to consider taking to make your restaurant, store or hotel a big hit with Chinese tourists.

How to target Chinese tourists

1.   Attract Chinese tourists while understanding their behaviours

To attract Chinese tourists one needs to understand their behaviour. Chinese tourists are the most digital savvy in the world. While being restricted to travel, as well as facing Covid pandemic difficulties  Chinese people spent more and more time online.

When choosing a destination for a leisure travel, Chinese tourists would get inspiration in some very popular forms of advertising – short videos SM (Douyin/Red/Wechat Channel).

When traveling, they refer to their own “review and advice tools”, the king of which is Dazhong Dianping.

Featuring similar functions to Yelp, it lists local retailers, restaurants, bars, cinemas etc. in China and abroad and it is the go-to tool for Chinese tourists.

For example if a restaurant has a seemingly never-ending list of raving reviews on Dianping, the Chinese will flock there in their droves without any hesitation.

On the flipside of course, a couple of bad reviews will put off many potential Chinese customers who will opt to dine somewhere with a higher rating.

In China it is not uncommon to see two restaurants side-by-side serving the same type of cuisine, where one is completely empty and the other has crowds of hungry diners queuing outside for up to 1 hour for a table. This is the Dianping effect in full play.

We will show you a step-by-step guide for this incredibly influential and powerful app and how it works in the next article.

We will also fill you in on how you can get your business listed on Dianping so that you don’t miss out, and also how you can post your first reviews on Dianping and other Chinese social media platforms.

Other Chinese tourism platforms include: Travel  (Qunar, Ctrip, Feizhu ) Lifestyle (Weibo, Red, Douyin), Friends and Family Recommendation (WeChat). Video sharing: Tencent video, Iqiyi, BiliBili etc.

2.   Know the key dates of the Chinese Holiday Calendar and prepare in advance

In this case – ignorance certainly isn’t bliss! Holidays are a very important part of life in any society, and in China it’s no different.

One very important thing to be aware of is that the Chinese holiday calendar has almost nothing in common with the European and American calendars.

As a non-Christian country, there are no Christmas holidays, Easter breaks, or those countless ‘ponts de mai’ the French are famous for. Instead, the main two holidays are ‘Golden week’, which follows China’s National day at the beginning of October, and the week during the Chinese New Year which falls between mid-January and mid-March.

This break is based on the Lunar calendar, which is why the dates will be different each year.

For many Chinese people, the two periods mentioned above are the only opportunities they will have to take a holiday during the whole year.

As a result, tourist spots inside China are completely overrun with visitors at these times, and more and more Chinese tourists are therefore looking beyond their borders for new and less crowded experiences.

Knowing your dates will make it easier to plan your campaigns and will attract Chinese tourists when they are nearby!

3.   Localize your business to make Chinese tourists feel like home

Making customers comfortable is one of the ultimate goals of any business. However here, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Chinese customers need to be served by one of their own (even though this could go a long way in some sectors).

Nevertheless it is certainly worth considering how you can ‘localize’ and adapt your services to suit your new target customers.

Your localization strategy may consist of translating your menu and door signs, adding a few cultural-friendly dishes to your menu, providing photo opportunities (for restaurants), installing Chinese TV channels, providing advice, warning signs, and other information written in Chinese, access to hot drinking water and familiar breakfast options, and providing your staff with cultural training (especially for hotels).

Paying attention to the details above and many others (such as being listed on Dianping of course), will greatly increase the chances of satisfying your Chinese customers, and is sure to do wonders for your popularity in the Chinese online world.

When users make a payment with either Alipay or WeChat Pay abroad (the two favourite Chinese social media platforms that introduce payment systems to Chinese people), the customer always pays in Chinese Yuan (RMB), while the stores receive the payment in their local currency.

This means that it is not necessary for non-Chinese businesses to deal with foreign exchange, as the revenue is sent to the business’s usual bank account.

Therefore, this is a great opportunity for retailers in Europe who provide mobile payment solutions to market themselves and attract Chinese tourists without making major adjustments to their payment systems.

4.    Install WeChat Pay and Alipay

In 2018, WeChat Pay, the online payment giant from China created by Tencent in 2011, started introducing its instant payment service in France through cooperation with French bank BNP Paribas.

Making it available to French retailers, to compete with its Chinese rival Alipay from the Alibaba Group, which already has a decent presence in France, meaning that French retailers are now able to target over 938 million monthly active WeChat users.

And we’re not just talking large department stores here.

Any shop, restaurant or bar can install WeChat’s QR code payment system, a favourite among Chinese shoppers, which, believe us, if you haven’t used yet is one of the most convenient things that has ever happened to humanity!

By simply scanning your business’s QR code, your customers can pay in an instant using their mobile phones, and in their own currency. You then receive the payment to your business account in your own currency!

Having a “WeChat Pay/Alipay” door sign will undoubtedly help you to attract Chinese tourists passing by and elevate you from your neighbours who are either still sceptic or simply oblivious to the WeChat/Alipay revolution.

To help you through all the technical details of setting up this marvellous and business-changing solution, contact us right now!

Facts about Alipay, WeChat Pay, and Chinese tourism in France

5.   Attract Chinese tourists by listing your business on Chinese social media channels

Partnering with Chinese tour operators is one of the most logical things to do in order to bring in more traffic. However, to ensure your business is also noticed by individual Chinese travellers, you need to make your name as visible as possible on Chinese social media.

Having a listing on Dianping will of course help, but it’s not a ‘catch-all’ solution.

To start getting noticed from the other side of the world, we have a few tips for self-promotion.

For example, activating and feeding official accounts on Weibo (the Chinese social media platform equivalent of Facebook), and WeChat (similar to WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, but miles better), and using Chinese influencers might just be what you are looking for.

Chinese Influencers/KOL are developing faster than in the West, where most Chinese social media stars with more than 2 million real followers have already published books, created a brand or set up a few online stores.

Chinese Travel Influencer Leila has built up an audience of 4.5 million followers on Weibo.

She also published her first travel book in May 2018, speaking about her past travels and the role of women in modern society. Leila is an inspiring role model for young women.

She has been through the difficulties of divorce, rebuilt her life, and emerged a winner.

But in this booming KOL industry, it is not easy for someone new to the game to determine whether or not the followers of a KOL (Key Opinion Leader) are real, so it is recommended to consult a professional agency to avoid scams. Another issue of course is the language barrier.

Not many Chinese influencers speak English (even in the travel industry).

Agencies will also help you to determine which Chinese online platform is most suitable on which to promote your business. Want to learn more about KOL Marketing? Then click here!

6.   Learn About Dazhong Dianping in depth and let your visitors know you’re on it!

Knowing more about the people you are wishing to attract is one of the simplest routes to their hearts!

Even a simple “Thank you” in their language will make a good impression, not to mention being present on popular apps like WeChat, Dianping or Taobao (China’s biggest online shopping platform).

Having a Dianping sticker on a window of your restaurant/hotel will not hurt at all, and bringing it up during small talk is also recommended.

So here is some key information about Dazhong Dianping:

Translated literally as “public commenting and review network” Dianping was established in Shanghai in April 2003 and is one of the most popular Chinese social media tools today.

Dianping is China’s leading local lifestyle information and trading platform, and claims to be the world’s first independent third-party consumer review website.

Dianping not only provides information services such as user information, consumer reviews and commercial offers and discounts, but also provides O2O (Online To Offline) trading services such as group purchases, restaurant reservations, takeaway services and electronic membership cards.

Facts and Figures About Dianping

As of the first quarter of 2015, the number of active users of Dianping exceeded 200 million, including more than 14 million merchants, covering more than 2,500 cities across the country and nearly 100 popular tourist countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, and France.

In addition to the Shanghai headquarters, Dianping has established branches in more than 160 cities including Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Nanjing.

Dianping has more than 15 billion page views (websites and mobile devices), of which mobile browsers accounted for more than 85% of the total, and mobile clients accumulated more than 200 million unique users.

So far there are 750 Dianping registered restaurants and 1,000 hotels in Paris. Being listed here will definitely attract Chinese tourists from China and neighbouring destinations!

7. Attract Chinese tourists via an Official WeChat account

WeChat Pay is not the only thing that has made WeChat so popular, the App started as a messenger platform with the option to have an online profile – a space to share pictures and links to music etc. Right now, WeChat is one of the most useful mobile Apps/platforms in China in which Mini-Apps can be built that will work as Add-ons for your WeChat App.

So from checking the weather to making a doctor’s appointment, WeChat is here for you!

Knowing that more than 900 million monthly active users are constantly searching for information, brands are creating their own Official WeChat accounts to ensure their brand’s voice is heard and recognized in Chinese social media.

Brands update their visitors on news and promotions, and even create extra benefits such as WeChat membership cards and lucky draws.

With all this in mind it would certainly be worthwhile to step into the WeChat game – even if you don’t plan on publishing that often. WeChat is one of go-to tools when one wants to attract Chinese tourists.

8. Use Chinese KOL for video content

To attract Chinese tourists please consider new Chinese social media tactics. 2019 has so far been a year of video content. The technology now available supports many types of video, and recent studies have shown that video has an engagement rate at least twice that of photos. When it comes to the Chinese market, investing in video content can be done in various ways. There are a range of popular video apps and platforms that people visit to have fun, such as a unicorn DouYin ( a chinese version of app TikTok), which won the hearts of 1 billion users in just over one year.

• Douyin let content creator pin down the address of the destination!
• Offline destinations can create pages with basin business information

For a brand, one of the fastest routes to the top is by teaming up with a popular account which has a few million people following them already.

Secondly, keeping in mind that most other social media platforms have released video options – one may consider cooperating with “more mature” KOL from Weibo, WeChat, Red, and some of the other platforms we talk about in this article.

Most Chinese KOL do not speak English, and they work in different ways in relation to their Western colleagues, so we would recommend handing this task to a professional.

But KOL/influencer marketing is a proven way to attract Chinese tourists to your destination!

Case study 2: MK challenge on Douyin

9. Provide safety information in Chinese (for Hotels)

One of the biggest concerns among Chinese tourists during the past few years in France has been safety. Due to a spate of robberies, thefts and muggings, Chinese tourism decreased in 2015 and 2016.

Even though the official authorities have taken serious action to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future, and despite the fact that things seem to be returning to less alarming levels, it is important to reassure visitors as much as possible by providing them with safety information, especially if your neighbourhood can be dangerous at times.

In order to attract Chinese tourists, many hotels have already taken such measures. But do keep in mind that your English version may not be sufficient for your Chinese guests. This information can also be uploaded to your Chinese social media page, such as Weibo, WeChat account etc.

10. Make sure your brand can be found on Chinese Search Engines

If you do retail, having basic information about your brand on Chinese Search Engines is essential. Creating trust and managing your online reputation is a way to assure Chinese tourists will choose your brand over a competitor. Having a lite version of your website translated to Chinese will also show people that your business welcomes Chinese tourists.

Listing your business on popular wiki sites, travel forums and niche blogs will help your brand name to come up first when people will search for it in Baidu or Sogou (WeChat’s search engine).

11. Using O2O tactics to attract Chinese tourists to offline location

Many businesses are creating brand experience with the help of the latest technologies, including the Online to Offline and Offline to Online tactics. Creating a promotion or membership online that can be redeemed at your offline location, stimulating the social media coverage by incentivising UCG (user generated content) made at your offline location, keeping Chinese reviews platforms in check and so on.

Or being even more creative by rewarding every positive comment by a small giveaway. You will definitely need to keep that information in Chinese!

Make sure that Wifi is easily accessible and is supported in English!

12. Embedded Marketing: making it a surprise rather than a disturbance

Attracting, selecting and recruiting the best foreign students remains a challenge for business and engineering schools and also universities.

Nevertheless, offering them a 6-month or 1-year university exchange in partnership with their home school is no longer enough to determine the level of attractiveness and global influence of a school. Indeed, instead of the number of traditional exchange students, it is now the number of foreign students following programs over their entire duration (4 to 5 years) that constitutes how attractive an institution is.

To better understand how this attractiveness and is measured, let’s take the example of a Chinese student who chooses to go on an exchange for a semester or a year on one of the partner campuses of his own Chinese university. The approach is different for the student who chooses to complete his or her entire study  in a school in France.

Thus, recruiting foreign students is, above all, a matter of attraction and ‘seduction’. You must therefore make your school attractive, with international programs in English and opportunities to study on several international campuses.

With more than 300,000 students welcomed each year, France continues to be the fourth largest host country. But, its numbers falling by 8.1% between 2010 and 2015.

This is why measures to increase the attractiveness of higher education institutions have been proposed by the major conferences of French higher education and the Campus France Forum.

Here are the six main areas of development:

– Strengthening of host scholarships.

It’s worth noting that foreign students in France generate more than 4.6 million Euros per year.

– Creation of global communication campaigns.

Deployment of a strong marketing strategy to promote French schools.

– Improvement and promotion of support provided by institutions to foreign students.

Which means reinforcement of policies relating to housing, integration, cultural activities, etc.

– Simplification of application processes.

New digital processes at grandes écoles and universities, and online application procedures must be promoted, as well as greater autonomy in recruitment.

– Simplification of the student’s stay – in particular the reduction of administrative formalities.

– Development of outgoing mobility of French students.

Presence of students abroad contributes just as much to enhancing the image of education and the dynamism of the country.

Thus, the processes of simplifying the policy for obtaining visas are all part of a new strategy undertaken by France.

The objective is to welcome 500,000 international students by 2027, compared to 324,000 at present.

As part of this dynamic, the government would like to launch the “welcome to France” label.

The diversity of nationalities of international students remains practically identical to that of the previous year. On the other hand, “the ranking order has changed slightly,” says Campus France. After Morocco (1st), it is Algeria that has moved up to second place, ahead of China (3rd), while Italy has moved up one place (4th) at the expense of Tunisia (5th).

The Chinese are the foreign students that French universities attract the most!

Finally, everyone sees this voluntary exile as an opportunity to discover another culture, develop their skills, and become more mature.

HOW TO ATTRACT CHINESE STUDENTS

It is important to ask yourself several questions to understand your needs in terms of student recruitment.

– How can you meet the needs of Chinese students?

– What distinguishes you as an institution hosting international students?

Chinese student mobility remains the highest in the world and has increased by 40% in the last 5 years.

According to 2017 figures from the Chinese Ministry of Education, out of 4.6 million international students worldwide, more than 600,000 are Chinese. This is an increase of 11.74% compared to 2016.

Thus, knowing the expectations and characteristics of these students is an essential aspect to take into account.

Like the Chinese population, these students are hyper-connected and very well informed. They decide where they want to study after finding out about world rankings and reputation of the schools.

In China, education is the number one expense for families. The government provides about 2,500 scholarships per year for France (according to the Chinese Ministry of Education) and more than 90% of studies are paid for by families.

For the majority of them, France is their first exchange country abroad. Arriving in a new place for the first time can be a real culture shock. The first few months represent a phase of adaptation. They are getting used to the new environment, learning or practicing the French language. They also are familiarizing with new social behaviors, and socializing inside and outside the campus. For some, this adaptation can be complicated and can lead to feelings of loneliness or even depression.

How to attract this Chinese audience in an increasingly competitive environment ?

In the context of open competition, the choice of France as a destination and the educational offer will be challenged. You must therefore make every effort to maintain and strengthen your attractiveness. Thus, schools will have to consolidate their offer: personalised welcome, quality of courses, attractiveness of the destination.

1. CREATE A BRAND IMAGE – THE IMPORTANCE OF REPUTATION.

“Branding” is not a term generally associated with education. However, in China, branding is the key to any reputation. In fact, the Chinese are above all looking for a strong and internationally recognized image.

There are also many forums concerning education that should be taken into account. They make it possible to interact and discuss the various schools and courses available abroad. It is important to create positive feedback from Chinese users as this is 5 times more effective for the current generation of students.

2. PRESENCE ON SEARCH ENGINE

Baidu, the most widely used search engine in China, is considered as the Chinese Google. The Chinese use it for more than 70% of their searches. Therefore, to be as visible as possible, it is important to have good natural referencing – (Natural referencing or SEO refers to all the techniques that consist in favorably positioning a site or a set of pages of a site on the first page(s) of natural results of search engines (Google what) corresponding to the queries / keywords entered by Internet users). – in order to appear in the first search results of Baidu. This will allow you to reach and target these potential students.

In addition, your website must be optimized for local search engines, meaning that it should be hosted on a Chinese server to ensure it loads quickly in China, and have .cn domain name. It is advisable to use a local website for better loading speed rather than creating a translated multilingual version of your original website. The site should be optimized for Mandarin Chinese characters and should include QR codes leading to your official WeChat account page.

As digital is an important part of Chinese people’s daily life, a targeted strategy on these channels will be necessary to reach your target and objectives.

Thus, there is a real angle of attack and prospection for these universities. Having a real strategy on Chinese social networks is the key to target Chinese students. It is therefore necessary for each school or university which has an exchange program with China or is looking to attract Chinese students, to create its own official page on social networks such as WeChat or Weibo. It is important to adopt different, more localized and specialized marketing strategies, given the difference of Chinese social networks compared to Western social networks.

HI-COM is here to help you in this process thanks to our digital marketing experts.

3.PRESENCE ON CHINESE SOCIAL MEDIA

Being present on the main Chinese social media channels is an important step in the prospection of potential students. In a country where more than a billion people use new technologies as a source of information and a means of communication, online visibility is a crucial point for all institutions.

WeChat is a social network with more than one billion active users every month. It is a platform in its own right, where most Chinese people search for information and news. The application is generally called WeChat Moments because a multitude of information is available. Everyone can post and share their feelings and experiences.

To gain visibility, you will need to create an official account, an identity, through which will be able to reach your target market and interact with prospective students and their parents on a daily basis in order to maximize your results.

In a nutshell:

– Build a presence and a positive image on Chinese search engines

– Create informative and quality content for your publications on WeChat and Weibo (similar to WeChat, often referred to as the Chinese Twitter).

– Open an official account to act as a microsite for your services.

HI-COM can assist you in all the steps for creating and maintaining your page on Chinese networks. From account creation, content creation and planning, our experts can help you on WeChat/Weibo and KOL/Influencers.

How is France an attractive host country for these students?

According to a study published this Wednesday, 20% of Chinese parents who want to send their child abroad consider France as a destination. This is also the case for 15% of Americans.

While many argue that speaking Chinese, English and French is an undeniable asset for their professional future, it is first and foremost the culture that fascinates the students and that has encouraged them to apply for the bilingual class. Indeed, they find the language “so elegant” and “so precise” and generally see France as “so romantic”.

Their choice was also motivated by the reputation of French engineering schools and the fact that France is, in their opinion, a country with a strong industry.

Finally, they all see this voluntary exile as an opportunity to discover another culture, to develop their skills and to become more mature.

The study indicates that French parents report spending an average of 8,800 Euros on a child’s university education. This is almost three times less than in the United States (29,000 Euros) and well below the world average (17,000 Euros). Finally, studies in France are less expensive than in the Anglo-Saxon world (between 4,000 and 8,000 Euros per year for ESIGELEC and about 600 Euros for INSA, which is a public school).

The low cost of higher education in France could also explain another phenomenon: while more than a third of parents in the world go into debt to finance their children’s studies, only 10% do so in France. The study points out that France is “the country where borrowing is least frequent when it comes to financing one’s studies”.

To illustrate the importance of all principles, we have summarized an interesting case study on Accedmia del Lusso and its success in China.

Case Study : ACCADEMIA DEL LUSSO

ACADEMIA DEL LUSSO: A GREAT SUCCESS IN CHINA

Accademia Del Lusso was invisible to Chinese students when it first started in China. Therefore, the school decided to create a digital campaign to develop its reputation and visibility on Baidu.

The renowned fashion and design school in Milan wanted to attract students to its Italian city and attract more Chinese students.

As mentioned earlier in the article, Chinese students tend to search for information on their own search engines and social networks. However, due to the different digital environment in China, they had little presence and visibility in the Chinese market. After winning the Lifetime Achievement and Leading Fashion School awards in 2007, their reputation continued to grow worldwide.

HI-COM ASIA is the ideal partner!

Contact us now!

Since Dazhong Dianping spread its business worldwide, it now covers more than 200 countries around the world. Being on Dianping is one of the best strategic moves a foreign business can make in order to attract Chinese travelers both in China and beyond.

Many hospitality related businesses looking to attract Chinese customers are eager to join Chinese Social media platforms and APPs. It is of course a smart idea, and has the potential to bring in lots of curious visitors! The only problem is, the backoffice system of the most popular Chinese platform is still only available in Chinese.  In order to manage your account on a platform such as this, you may think you have no choice but to hire a Chinese speaker to help. But, is it actually necessary?

One of the most popular platforms (and APPs) amongst Chinese travelers is Meituan group’s Dazhong Dianping, which is similar to Yelp and Tripadvisor, providing reviews and suggestions. It also offers group purchase offers in the same way Groupon does.

Since Dazhong Dianping spread its business worldwide, it now covers more than 200 countries around the world. Being on Dianping is one of the best strategic moves a foreign business can make in order to attract Chinese travelers both in China and beyond.

Today we will show you what Dazhong Dianping can bring you in addition to a simple business listing, the type of ecosystem the company has created in terms of the businesses it lists, and most importantly, we will take a close look at its back office system and teach you how to use it, with an example of one of our partners – an education business account!

Once logged into the platform, you have access to the Dianping Manager Dashboard.

All the main functions available are at your service.

The Dashboard give you tools to promote your business in various ways, and depends on a promotion plan you purchase when signing up for Dianping. For the education industry, the platform suggests your try Group buying, Workshops, Trainings, Trial classes, On-page improvements and so on!

So start your journey, try promoting your business with a flash discount or group deals. When enabling this function, the platform will automatically create a series of coupon numbers that will be automatically assign to your future customers. To learn more about it click on the price tag menu. Here you can verify your given coupons serial numbers, receive payment notes, refund customers and track your payment data.

To assure the coupon is authentic, the system provides a verification tool, that can be used either by scanning a QR code or inputting a 12 digit number into the system.

To manage your orders, click on the “Group order management” under “Group Buying” menu. All the details of your coming business are presented right here. The system’s ID numbers of your clients, the package they ordered, time of the promotion and so on. You can prepare your promotions and plans, release them, cancel them and track the upcoming ones.

If you have several locations, you may also browse them by the store names.

In order to set up your locations, business hours, phone number and other store details of your home page, go to “Store Management”.

On the menu set up on the left you can add a photo gallery.

If you would like to see what people are writing about you and interact with your customers, go to “Comment Management”. You can easily track the progress of your store or product ranking, see the comments on your product, service or project, and even have access to comment analysis.

Dazhong Dianping provides a set of promotion tools and other marketing related help for its customers and those functions can be discovered at “Marketing” menu.

Come here for Setting up your PPC campaigns, checking the analytics and more! To activate these options, you shall charge your account with a credit. These options are great when you are at the very beginning of your account management and want people to interact with your business as much as possible!

In order to find your Financial records and invoicing go to the submenu “Financial Management” in the Marketing menu’s Promotion advicer.

Next menu to explore on Dazhong Dianping back office is “Operation Consultation”.

This menu is quite similar to google analytics, plus it shows you a product consumption funnel. You can see analytics of almost all business relevant constituents: operation, products, customers, even competitors!

Dazhong Dianping is one of the most popular tools of Chinese business owners to promote and analyze their businesses in order to attract Chinese visitors, and there is no reason you shall not use such a tool as well! Of cause if the task is interesting but will take too much of your time, you may always find a partner who will do it for you! Email HI-COM to find out more about the functions of Dianping and ways to be listed in your region!

Interested in opening Chinese social media account for your business abroad? HI-COM can help!

Other relevant articles:

15 ways to attract Chinese Tourists in 2020

China’s Dazhong Dianping: English guide 2021 – HI-COM