Bustling marriage markets, extravagant weddings and honeymoons, love online – what springs to mind when you think of romance in China? China’s love and dating ‘market’ is a powerful entity with strong connections spanning areas as diverse as retail, fashion, jewellery, tourism and real estate. Scratch the surface of China’s relationship and love trends, and many valuable insights into Chinese consumer culture can be gleaned. So read on to learn how to win over both Chinese consumers’ hearts and minds!

Health has been one of the most talked about trends in China in recent years. Consumers are spending up a storm to proactively keep well, creating a boon for sectors such as meds, infant well-being and healthy food.

There are 640 million are women consumers in China. Their average contribution to household income jumped from 20% in 1980 to 50% in 2013 and they now have a louder voice in financial decisions from everyday purchasing of daily goods to big ticket items such as finances, electronics and even automobiles. It’s not only China’s female consumers shaping the world, but also the women behind the scenes. According to Grant Thornton International Business Report released in 2014 38% of senior management roles in China are held by women – one of the highest rates in the world. Some of the shining stars from that group were recognised on Monday night.

There’s no shortage of research and analysis emphasising the pulling power that digital channels have over Chinese consumers. Most of these studies focus on ecommerce and social media, whereas good old-fashioned websites typically don’t get due credit.

Single’s Day has transformed a traditionally quite period in China’s shopping calendar into the world’s biggest day of online shopping. No event represents the rise of China’s consumer class and their reverence to all things online better than 11-11. It’s the stuff of legends.

Family forms the foundation of China’s society and is therefore a great place to start when seeking to understand Chinese consumers. From the One Child Policy, to the “Granny State,” to the 4-2-1 Generation, the Chinese family unit is characterised by its complexity and is constantly evolving to keep pace with the country’s social and demographic changes, rapid economic growth, and the challenges and opportunities they present. So if you’re seeking to make an impact in the Chinese consumer market, understanding the Chinese family is a great place to start!

It is upon us! Anyone travelling in China over the next seven days, and at many tourist spots abroad, will know that this is no ordinary week.

Reactions to China’s 2009 and 2012 first-place scores in the OECD’s PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test revealed the diversity of international perceptions of education in China. Responses ranged from foul play, bias and derision to awe and admiration – British politicians and educators even suggested importing Shanghai’s teachers to boost Britain’s ailing maths scores.

If you were selling iron ore or aluminium to China right now, or hoping to flog Swiss watches, Prada bags or Audis, you probably wouldn't be overly optimistic about Chinese growth prospects in the short term.  Anyone viewing this year's slowing 7% GDP growth in the first half of this year could be subdued as well.  Yet taking a broad-brush approach to the current market conditions in China doesn't quite tell the full story.

While all of us have enjoyed the results of Chinese inventions from paper, printing, tea and porcelain, to the less-cited toilet paper, pasta, ice cream and football, it’s likely we’re going to benefit from many more in our lifetimes, particularly in the technology category.

The digital economy has completely revolutionized retail business, especially in China, where offline-online transitions have been adopted particularly swiftly. China’s ecommerce spending craze growth is slowing, but still clocked an impressive 26.8% growth in the first half of 2015, when Ecommerce consumers in China spent US$253 billions about 10% of total retail sales in the nation. The following buzzwords will help you understand the latest ecommerce dynamics and the popular digital means of payments used in China.

Although China’s stock markets have been hogging the headlines of late, it is real estate that has long been the focus for most Chinese investors. Unfortunately China’s residential property hasn’t had a great run over the past year and a half, but there are signs of things improving.

In 2012, less than 5% of China’s online shopping was done on a mobile. Nowadays, more than half of all sales in China’s massive ecommerce market are made though a smartphone. China’s shift to smartphones has taken online shopping by storm – and all aspects of the Internet, with 89% of China’s 668 million internet users accessing through a smartphone.

2014 was the first year in decades that China’s luxury sales declined – a gloomy -1%. It was in stark contrast to the 12% growth in retail spending overall.

Despite slowing GDP growth in China, continued income growth is seeing more Mainlanders reaching the necessary standards of living to engage in travel. In 2012, Mainland China surpassed both Germany and the U.S. to become the largest spenders on international tourism. The United Nations World Tourism Organization released a report on Chinese traveller habits counting more than 83.2 million Chinese citizens travelling abroad, a 395.7% increase since 2002. The following buzzwords will help you understand the changes and massive influx of Chinese travellers, their habits and the latest trends going on in China’s travel market.

There has been a slew of recent coverage about Chinese FMCG brands outsmarting foreign players with faster growth rates.  Local brands often better understand customer needs and meet them with nimble product development and marketing.  They also have strong distribution networks in Tier-3 and lower cities, which boasted 8% growth last year, versus 2% in Tier 1 and 2 cities.

Adapting your brand for China is often talked about and for good reason. For China's unique and diverse market, a solid strategy is required for a chance at success in one of the world's most competitive markets. Long gone are the days when a brand could enter China and take off due to fact that it was foreign; today a China-specific strategy is needed. Chinese consumer preferences can shift on a dime and understanding what Chinese like about your products, destination or service is vital to understanding how you can better meet the needs of Chinese consumers.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) gets together as a full committee twice a year for its plenary session. These meetings are called 两会 (Lianghui) and are the most watched political events in China. During the meetings, China’s premier leads the discussion of the main economic, social and political topics of the year, sets important targets and releases an annual report containing the main statistics, figures and economic indicators regarding growth and development. If you did not have the chance to follow this year's March Lianghui, the following list of buzzwords is a great opportunity to catch up!