Apple has opened a store on WeChat, China’s dominant messaging app. This marks an expansion of Apple’s retail channels in the world’s second largest economy. Users of WeChat will now be able to buy Apple products, including Macs, iPhones, iPads, and more, from the store.
The move by Apple comes as Chinese consumers increasingly turn to social media platforms such as WeChat and ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to shop.
Besides its own stores and website, Apple already operates a shop on Alibaba Group’s Tmall online marketplace. Apple also tried marketing its products on a livestream in China for the first time in May with an hour-long show.
MacDailyNews Take: Sell where the shoppers are.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple continues to excel in China’s smartphone market, exhibiting an 8% YoY increase without facing any significant competition during the 618 sales period in 2023 (June 1-June 18), even as China’s smartphone sales fell 8% YoY, indicating weak customer demand for smartphones amid economic headwinds, according to a Counterpoint Research report released earlier this month.
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Kinda sounds like licking the plate for those last morsels.