Watch & listen to this episode to explore how to sell products through WeChat mini-programs:
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Hi, I’m Jason Shen. I’m the creative director of Mobile Now Group. We help brands with their digital strategies and lately, we have worked a lot with creating WeChat mini-programs for brands.
How much more effort does it take to create a WeChat mini-program which can function as an e-commerce platform as opposed to a WeChat mini-program that is for interacting with a brand?
Jason Shen: There are hardly any limits to what a WeChat mini-program can do. Some non e-commerce WeChat mini-programs will be more expensive to make than those that have a purchasing platform and some will be cheaper to make. For most brands, selling products through WeChat mini-programs shouldn’t be much more expensive than not having a purchasing platform. However, selling products through WeChat mini-programs also requires your brand to develop its courier network to make sure the user gets the product in as timely a manner as they would if they had purchased it on another e-commerce platform.
Does WeChat take a commission, if so, how much? What are the other costs involved in setting up a WeChat mini-program e-commerce shop?
Jason Shen: Sometimes it is just a flat fee at the start and no commissions, and sometimes there can be commission fees because the service/ solution provider is obliged to continually update the platform.
How is shipping and handling normally handled for orders through the WeChat mini-programs?
Jason Shen: Some clients will have their own in-house warehouse tool, sometimes they will outsource these jobs to businesses that will take care of these issues.
Can you show us a brand that is selling products through WeChat mini-programs?
Jason Shen: Sephora is selling products through WeChat mini-programs. During covid, between Feb and May, offline retail was dead so what Sephora did was focused on livestreaming with KOLs live demo-ing products and it worked so well that it’s now become a feature of their WeChat mini-program and there will be a new one every few days and users can interact with the KOI..
