International Women’s Day, held on March 8, is celebrated worldwide for women’s rights and achievement. The first National Woman’s Day took place on February 28, 1909, when female garment workers in New York protested labor conditions. From 1975, the event became more global, with the United Nations using the day to celebrate women’s achievements, empower women and focus greater attention on women’s rights and gender equality. In China, brands, retailers and online platforms treat the event as another shopping festival in the calendar. Companies—and especially e-commerce platforms—began using International Women’s Day to promote and market their products in 2013. E-commerce platforms outside of China in Southeast Asian countries followed suit and have promoted the event since 2015. We discuss how the retail industry is capitalizing on International Women’s Day this year, with a focus on online promotional activities in China. This year, the coronavirus outbreak, which has restricted in-store shopping in many areas of China, has made digital channels including social media more important to many retailers’ marketing strategies. Early Start to 3.8 International Women’s Day Shopping Festival for E-Commerce Platforms  Tmall kicked off its 3.8 shopping festival this year with a presales period from February 25 to March 4, during which customers can reserve products by paying a small deposit and completing the purchase at a later date.  March 5–8 is the formal 3.8 sales period The e-commerce platform has individual landing pages for the 3.8 shopping festival, with each one featuring a specific category of products, such as beauty and fashion and parent-and-baby categories. [caption id="attachment_104455" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Promotional page for beauty and fashion products (left) and parent-and-baby products (right)
Source: Tmall[/caption] Tmall also has dedicated sections on each landing page for well-known brands, such as Aptamil and Pampers on the parent-and-baby landing page. These pages also list the top-selling items in that category, showcasing Stuart Weitzman’s boots and golden bracelets from Hong Kong based Jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook on the beauty and fashion page, for example. [caption id="attachment_104456" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Promotional sections for well-known brands (left) and top-selling products (right)
Source: Tmall[/caption] JD.com’s 3.8 campaign comprises three phases. The first—from February 24 to 29—was described by the company as “a gift guide for 3.8,” which aimed to recommend to consumers products they could gift for International Women’s Day. The e-commerce platform is currently operating the second phase of its 3.8 shopping festival strategy—March 1–5—which features sales campaigns for different categories, including fashion and electronics. Finally, the time period March 6–8 is entitled “Goddess Is Here”: JD.com will offer further discounts to invite female consumers to shop on the platform. Similar to Tmall, JD.com is listing top-selling products, but has divided its categories into products for four types of female consumer: working elites, full-time mothers, fashionable goddesses and lifestyle gurus. For example, under the category of “Fashionable Goddess,” JD.com is featuring popular beauty accessories from Swarovski (such as the Latisha Flower Necklace) and Philips (e.g., Prestige Auto Curler). [caption id="attachment_104457" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Promotional page on JD.com (left) and top-selling products under Fashionable Goddess category (right)
Source: JD.com[/caption] Innovative Promotional Strategies Implemented in the Beauty Sector  In the lead-up to International Women’s Day 2020, we are seeing beauty brands use innovative marketing and sales tactics, such as creating product bundles and offering installment payment options. Beauty brand L’Oréal Paris adopted the bundle strategy to provide excitement for its customers. The brand has grouped toner, lotion and eye cream together to sell as a set on Tmall, pricing the bundle at ¥970 (around $137.80). L’Oréal Paris released the set in a limited volume of 10,000 units, in order to encourage consumers to shop quickly to avoid missing out. [caption id="attachment_104458" align="aligncenter" width="450"] L’Oréal Paris’ promotional bundle
Source: Tmall[/caption] New York-based natural beauty brand Elvis Elvin is encouraging consumers to pay small deposits towards the cost of an item in order to secure the purchase and receive bonus benefits, rather than paying the full amount up front. For example, a deposit of ¥30 (around $4.30) is required to place an order for the brand’s Grape face masks. Shoppers can pay the deposit between February 25 and March 4, and having done so, they earn a ¥15 ($2.10) brand voucher. Customers are then required to complete the payment between March 5 and March 8.  [caption id="attachment_104459" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Elvis Elvin’s Grape face masks
Source: Tmall[/caption] Marketing Campaigns Launched across Different Social Media Platforms  Brands and retailers have launched marketing campaigns on high-traffic social media platforms such as Little Red Book and WeChat. Little Red Book has 72.9 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of September 2019, according to data firm QuestMobile. WeChat boasted an MAU count of 1.13 billion, as of June 2019. Chinese beauty brand Perfect Diary invited key opinion consumers (KOCs) to help promote its products on Little Red Book. A KOC called Strawberry—who has 6,777 followers as of February 26, 2020—shared Perfect Diary’s 3.8 promotional activities on her page. The post gained 199 likes and 68 comments within three days. Although KOCs typically garner fewer followers and likes for their posts than key opinion leaders, a higher quality of interaction between KOCs and their followers can be seen—for example, 68 comments with only 199 likes demonstrates more qualitative value and possibly higher conversion rates to purchases than the reach of key opinion leaders, who may achieve thousands of likes but with little valuable engagement. In the comments area of her page, the KOC is engaging with followers and directing them to shop the brand’s products on Taobao. [caption id="attachment_104460" align="aligncenter" width="300"] KOC Strawberry’s post about Perfect Diary for International Women’s Day on Little Red Book
Source: Little Red Book[/caption] Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, there is an increasing consumer preference for e-commerce over visiting physical stores. We have therefore seen some supermarkets launch their promotional campaigns on Chinese super app WeChat to more effectively engage with shoppers.  Chinese supermarket chain Zhenhua is advertising its products on its WeChat Official Account and has started to sell daily necessities online. Customers can scan a QR code beneath a post on WeChat, which redirects them to delivery platform Meituan’s mini program to place orders for delivery. Zhenhua’s products include cooking oil, noodles and tissues, etc.  [caption id="attachment_104461" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Zhenhua’s 3.8 campaign (left) and a QR code that connects to Meituan (right)
Source: WeChat Official Account[/caption] Key Insights International Women’s Day presents an opportunity for brands, retailers and e-commerce companies to launch innovative promotional campaigns. Chinese e-commerce platforms have adopted this event as a shopping festival, which this year began early—at the end of February—to drive more consumer traffic. Brands and retailers have adopted various strategies to encourage shoppers to make purchases, such as selling products in bundles and offering favorable payment options. Social media platforms continue to play an important role for companies in product marketing, and this year—with the coronavirus outbreak restricting in-store shopping—these digital channels have gained more traction with retailers and shoppers.