ASOEX and the Chinese Pinduoduo platform promote cherries from Chile
As part of the new initiatives of the campaign to promote Chilean cherries this season, the Association of Fruit Exporters of Chile AG (ASOEX) partnered this January to the Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo de China to promote cherries Chilean, during the Chinese New Year Shopping Festival of Pinduoduo.
Founded in 2015, Pinduoduo has quickly become the second largest e-commerce platform in China through its innovative group purchasing model, with 536.3 million active users and 3.6 million merchants. Fruits are one of the most popular products sold on the platform.
From Pinduodo they emphasize that so far in the 2019-2020 season, Chilean cherry sales have increased 230% compared to the same period last year, and expect that for the Chinese New Year Shopping Festival, the platform See more than 1 million orders for Chilean cherries.
Promotion and the Chinese consumer
During this year’s Chinese New Year Shopping Festival, “Group Purchase of 10,000 People” promotions will be continuously launched, which will significantly boost cherry consumption and with highly competitive prices. In addition, Pinduoduo will use a “RMB 10 Billion Rebate” program for purchases such as Chilean cherries, which will allow more consumers to enjoy high quality imported fruit at reasonable prices.
According to Pinduoduo data, orders for Chilean cherries this year continue to be concentrated in rich coastal areas such as Shanghai, Beijing, Canton and the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas. However, the growth rate of consumption in third level cities or less is higher than that of first and second level cities, which represents a reduction in the traditionally large consumption gap between urban and rural areas.
This Chinese e-commerce company also commented that some of its merchants have begun to accelerate their supply chain through direct purchases. After being harvested and packed in Chile, shipped to Hong Kong and cleared by customs in Shenzhen, Chilean cherries are sent directly to a facility in Foshan for sorting and repacking, omitting traditional wholesale markets. As a result, Chilean cherries can reach the consumer’s door in just three days after customs pass.
Pinduoduo orders show that consumers in Chinese markets with greater growth potential prefer to buy cherries in units of 2 to 4 kilograms. This finding has led Pinduoduo to propose to ASOEX the possibility of changing the large packaging units of exported cherries to smaller consumer containers. This could allow direct delivery to consumers of cherries in their original packaging, without repackaging in China.
