Here’s what you should know:
1. Alibaba and Tencent similarly launch campaigns to wins over cashless customers
As Chinese’s adoption for cashless society grow, the competition heats up between the two leading mobile payment giants, Tencent’s WeChat Pay and Alipay by Alibaba.
Both company have pushed out marketing campaigns to promote their respective payment apps. Alipay named the week beginning August 1 “Cashless Week”; on the same day, WeChat Pay (under Tencent Holdings) picked one day—August 8—and declared it “Cashless Day,” and also nicknamed the entire month “Cashless Month.”
During the campaign period, both apps provide consumers with real-money incentives to reward them for going cashless shopping with their apps.
So far, Alipay still dominates the market as 80% of Chinese consumers are using Alipay as the primary mobile payment app in China. WeChat Pay’s adoption rate is 25%.
Read the full story here.
2. Uniqlo launches vending machines for its clothes
The company are launching vending machines called Uniqlo To Go for its items of functional clothes.
The first venue chosen for the machine is the Oakland International Airport in California, and Uniqlo will roll out nine more at airports and shopping malls around the US, this month.
The machines can also give Uniqlo insight on US consumers, which Uniqlo has been trying to reach—not always successfully—for years. Currently Uniqlo is the third largest brand, behind H&M and Zara.
Read the full story here.
3. Tmall wants to bring ‘car vending machines’ to China
Car-shopping in China might be getting easier as Tmall is looking to bring ecommerce experience of buying cars to the next level with the “Automotive Vending Machine.”
According to Yu Wei, general manager of Tmall’s automotive division, the company hopes to launch the first such vending machine in China later this year. There is currently one operated by another company in Singapore.
Customers could also pay it in installments through Alipay if they have over 750 points on Sesame Credit, Alibaba’s credit-scoring system for consumers.
Read the full story here.