WeCommerce comes of age

Feeling bored by the first year of his job as a consultant at a Beijing education agency, Gao Ming decided to go home to Hohhot and open a restaurant on the campus of his alma mater, Inner Mongolia University.

"I saw that people around me were all enthusiastic about using [mobile text and voice messaging service] WeChat. I wanted to take advantage of this popular platform. As a computer networking major, I also felt passionate about starting a business," said Gao, 27.

His restaurant is a hole-in-the-wall venue able to accommodate no more than 10 diners, but he receives around 150 orders daily, accounting for a monthly turnover of about 150,000 yuan ($24,579).

"I aimed to take delivery orders through WeChat from the start. When we distributed our menus with quick response (QR) codes to dorms, students would immediately scan them. They just love doing it," Gao said, crediting the matrix barcodes for making his business "cool."

With a total of 800 subscribers following the restaurant's official account, Gao sends photos and descriptions of new dishes as well as advertisements to recruit part-time employees.

These posts appear under the "official accounts" tab on customers' WeChat menu, which is separate from the "discover" tab as it's known in English that is for friends only.

"People who actually order dishes through WeChat account for 20 percent of total customers. After all, ordering over the phone is quicker and more direct. But [WeChat] is a good platform for us to showcase our dishes, share information and interact with students," Gao said.

Business at customers' fingertips

The number of WeChat users in China surpassed 400 million in the first half of this year, the People's Daily reported in July. This huge user base has encouraged a growing number of people to do business under official accounts on the platform.

Fu Liang, an independent telecommunication media and technology analyst, sees great potential for WeChat to become a more important business tool due to its unique advantages.

"Unlike [online retail platform] Taobao or [microblogging service] Weibo, which are open to all people, WeChat offers a more enclosed circle that attracts a relatively smaller crowd. However, the crowd it attracts is more targeted and more likely to purchase particular goods or services," said Fu. "Additionally, it is a relatively trustworthy platform because people register with their real identity."

Fu also noted that the intimacy of WeChat means businesses can develop a friend-like relationship with customers, rather than a strictly commercial one. Users who receive messages sent by businesses are more likely to be treated with respect as customers, limiting the flow of junk mail or spam that can cause users to delete or block businesses.

"When you select the right posts and send them at the right time to foster a loyal customer base, these efforts eventually pay off. People are more likely to trust you as a business and continue following you," Fu said.

Discovering new potential

As an avid WeChat user who follows several businesses' official accounts, Liu Jianfeng realized the service's commercial opportunities for himself in April.

Liu, who works as a programmer, said the convenience and popularity of WeChat along with his dissatisfaction at ordering products as an office worker, had inspired him to develop ordering software compatible with the app.

"I often feel that takeaway restaurants aren't very user-friendly. Every time we call restaurants, we have to explain our address every time. They don't have a record of our details at their restaurant," Liu said. "Since prices are always rising, menus have to be changed sporadically. If we can just change it online, it would be more convenient and save lots of paper for menus."

Liu spent 5,000 yuan and worked for two months with four other programmers on their software, Wode Mengxiangxiu (My Dream Show). Now, it is used by more than 200 restaurants and retailers, with each on average receiving around 30 orders daily through it on WeChat.

The software costs 1,888 yuan for the first year, with businesses required to pay 800 yuan the second year to upgrade it.

The software is selling well, although many businesses are still trying it for free.

"I feel there is great potential to develop in the future because nearly everyone has WeChat on their smartphone. Most white-collar workers prefer ordering online," Liu said.

Liu admitted that competition is fierce in his field, with similar software already developed by more than 10 competitors in China. He plans in future to release customized versions of his software to cater more specifically to the needs of businesses.

Pros and cons

Zhang Xiaochen, 24, runs a four-square-meter cosmetics store at Dongfang Tianzuo, Haidian district. She never considered giving her business a presence on WeChat until regular customers encouraged her to do so to more effectively stay in touch.

"Some of my customers went back to their home provinces or moved to other places in Beijing, but they still wanted to keep buying things from me. They advised me to open a WeChat account, so we could still stay in touch," Zhang said.

Her business soon connected on WeChat with more than 1,000 people, including those recommended by loyal customers. Zhang now sells about half a million yuan worth of goods every month, with 40 percent of orders made through WeChat. From 7 am to 2 pm, her WeChat buzzes virtually non-stop with notifications from customers consulting with her on skincare products and prices.

Despite all the extra work, Zhang said she enjoys doing business in this new e-commerce era.

"Not everyone can visit your shop every day. WeChat can help customers get the things they want more conveniently. I also post recommendations and photos several times a week to maintain people's interest," she said.

"WeChat is a more convenient, pure environment for business. If you communicate with customers online through a website that anyone can view, you risk attracting unwanted attention from people, such as rival sellers, who might bid lower than your set prices or leave annoying comments. But this rarely happens on WeChat."

Zhang said WeChat was more about quality than quantity. Customers more likely to do business prefer to connect via WeChat, she said.

"People who add me trust me. If you add 10 people [on WeChat], six of them might do business with you. On Weibo or Taobao, you might have 10,000 followers or visitors, yet only a small proportion will actually buy anything," Zhang said.

But there are some drawbacks for businesses using WeChat, too.

Chen Haining, an Internet technology columnist, said that compared with Taobao and Weibo, it can initially be harder to build a customer base on WeChat.

"It would be very difficult to run a business on WeChat if you're starting from the scratch. But if you have been in business for some time with an established customer base, it can be profitable," said Chen, citing payment as another stumbling block for WeChat.

"There is no third-party supervisor of payment process, like Alipay, for WeChat, so credibility is another problem."