Profitero has expanded its presence further into the Asia-Pacific region, launching an operation in Shanghai to bring Chinese eCommerce data and analytics to more global and local brands. This follows the firm’s launch into Japan earlier this year, and now extends Profitero’s footprint to include each of the world’s six biggest e-commerce markets – China, US, UK, Japan, Germany and France.
Profitero monitors what shoppers see and buy online, actively tracking more than 450 million products across 5,000 online stores in more than 50 eCommerce markets, enabling global consumer brands and retailers to grow online sales and market share.
To head its new China operation, Profitero has appointed Angela Lui as Director of Strategy & Insight for China. Angela brings nearly 20 years of research experience from previous positions at Nielsen, WPP, NPD Group and Huawei. She explains: “The eCommerce market in China is largely all mobile and is characterised by flash promotions. Brands need to understand exactly how to optimize their sales performance on mobile platforms, given 80% of Alibaba’s transactions are now via mobile. The Chinese eCommerce market is already the largest in the world but it still keeps growing at an unprecedented rate, with online sales expected to top $800 billion this year. The potential here for brands is enormous”.
Profitero is already monitoring the digital shelf in China for the world’s largest brands – providing a “big picture” of their overall global e-commerce performance, and nuanced insights specific to the local e-tail market. This includes the monitoring of more than 50 retailers in China and measuring the performance of best-selling products across key categories on Alibaba’s Tmall, China’s largest e-commerce marketplace.
On launching in China, Profitero CEO and co-founder Vol Pigrukh adds: “No two e-commerce markets are the same – that’s why our clients have asked us to open in China. They require in-depth insights specific to China that are in context with their APAC e-commerce performance as well as overall, global performance. China is now the leading driving force of the growth in e-commerce. By 2019, it is expected to account for more than half the entire global online retail market”.
At the same time, Profitero is expanding its successful alliance with global performance management company Nielsen to deliver e-commerce solutions to clients in China.
Profitero’s expansion now allows Nielsen to offer Profitero’s Digital Shelf 360 analytics suite to its global brand clients in China, helping them correlate online performance with actual sales data in the world’s biggest e-commerce market. Digital shelf data is critical for global companies seeking to enter or expand in the Chinese online market.
Nielsen China managing director Vishal Bali elaborates: “China is such an important e-commerce market now, making it critical for our clients to understand the many dynamics of online sales and activation. Our strategic alliance with Profitero allows us to offer our clients a greater breadth of tried-and-tested e-commerce solutions, and provides new insights into China’s e-commerce landscape to help them grow and succeed online.”
Contact us to learn how we’re helping global brands succeed in China.
