China is experiencing a shift—or even a dilemma—in its bricks-and-mortar retail landscape. While high-end malls are seeing declines, non-standard commercial spaces are on the rise. Among these, Beijing’s THE BOX Youth Energy Center is redefining the offline retail experience by tapping into the spending power of the younger generation.

China Skinny recently attended the Asia Pacific Business Outlook conference in Los Angeles. As an agency servicing brands in both China and abroad, we find it valuable to hear perspectives about China from businesses who are both close to the market, and an ocean apart.

Alibaba's growth has been remarkable over the past few years, cementing its position the central pillar of China's ecommerce industry. With Tmall and Taobao, Alibaba is successfully furnishing the market needs in China by providing B2C and C2C platforms.

With 55.2% of its 549 million monthly active users opening WeChat at least 10 times a day, the app is China’s most popular social network. Being perceived as the “Chinese Whatsapp”, WeChat offers far more features and many opportunities for brands to interact with their target market. Besides the regular user accounts, businesses can register official brand accounts to promote their products. Additionally, there are a number of functions that effectively support marketing to Chinese consumers. If you want to know more about how to effectively leverage those services, be in touch.

520 – a special day in China and a special day for China Skinny. Attending the Global Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship hosted by Alibaba in Hangzhou, our team is part of the 800 participants. With 640 million female consumers in China, bringing female entrepreneurs together shows the importance of women’s power for China’s economy.

China Skinny wishes you a happy 2015; we hope you saw it in with a bang! The beginning of the year is often a time to plan ahead for the following 12-months. Whether you are already in China, or entering this year, here are a few points to keep in mind:

House prices in China are continuing their seemingly never-ending rise. Prices in 69 of China’s 70 main cities are up from last year. In most countries when house prices are on the up, consumers feel wealthier and spend more. Not so in China. Although slowing GDP growth is affecting confidence, climbing house prices aren’t helping things either. Just over one in four Chinese consumers plan to spend more this year, 29% less than last year. That in itself marks one of the biggest differences between Chinese and Western consumers.

Shanghai, Beijing and China’s other first tier cities probably spring to mind when you’re thinking about opportunities in China. Their consumers have more western tastes, buy more western goods and are generally easier to reach than consumers in China’s ‘smaller’ cities. The megapolies also have better networks, infrastructure and facilities for western businesses. However, China’s smaller cities, most you’ve probably never heard of yet, often hold much more opportunity for western businesses with Chinese aspirations, here’s why:

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. And what a week it is. With the process to determine the leaders of the world's two largest economies both beginning this week, the outcomes could have a bearing on all of us. There's been no shortage of talk about China in the lead up on both sides of the Pacific. With 46% of Americans believing that China's growth will have a negative impact on the US economy, there was a lot of anti-China hot air to win cheap votes. Fortunately, there were also some intelligent articles written about how Americans can benefit from the rise of China, which I have little doubt both Obama and Mitt are well aware of. See our first link below.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. Legend has it, about 1200 years ago, a goat herder in the Ethiopian Highlands noticed his animals getting frisky after eating berries from a coffee plant. Intrigued, the herder picked some fruit and took them to a nearby holy man, who wanted nothing of it, tossing the berries into a fire. But the sweet scent of the roasting coffee soon became irresistible, and the men raked up the embers, grounded and dissolved them in hot water, creating the first cup of coffee. By the 17th century, the good drink had spread up the Nile to north Africa and across to the Arabian Peninsula, before making it’s way to Europe and then much of the world. But not to China.

Sina Weibo's 368 million registered users represent the most educated and highest earning portion of China's population, and the consumers who are most likely to buy western exports. Given 95% of Chinese consumers trust a brand more if they've seen it on Weibo, it's a good idea to understand Weibo user demographics when marketing to them.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. Below you'll find a couple of articles about less mainstream and customizable products making headway in China. It's another signal that Chinese consumers are maturing and becoming increasingly adventurous, with a bigger appetite to deviate from the conformists. That's great news for niche products, especially online. It's still not easy, but it's getting easier for smaller businesses with unique products hoping to make inroads in China. Following are the usual insights into China's consumers and the Chinese market. Enjoy!

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. With most Chinese having returned from holiday and back to the normal routine, we're starting to see the data for one of China's most important periods. Golden September and Silver October are traditionally China’s strongest months for residential real estate, yet sales have been subdued so far this year. While the property folk may be grieving, the travel agents are thrilled – China’s consumers spent 44% more than last year on tourism during October’s Golden Week holiday, with a 41% increase in visitors to the nation’s top attractions. For those travelling overseas, transactions increased by 33% on Union Pay, China’s bank card payment system. Although the numbers were boosted by combining Mid-Autumn Festival and October National Day, it's not bad growth, even by China’s standards.

Welcome to this week's skinny on China. The holiday that started on Monday is one of the biggest of the year in China – the Mid-Autumn Festival and October National Day rolled into one long week. Unlike Chinese New Year when billions of trips are made as Chinese return home to their families, this week is often for pleasure travel. 660 million Chinese are picked to travel, up 8.8% from last year. So wherever you are, whether it's Shanghai or Sydney, it's likely you'll see more Chinese tourists than usual – including an increasing number of independent Chinese travellers. Hopefully those tourists are buying what you're selling. Enjoy this week's skinny…

There's been a lot of talk this week, and for many weeks now, about China's slowing economy and how it translates to doom and gloom for businesses exporting to China. While a number of brands have lowered sales forecasts in China, there are still many businesses seeing runaway growth in China.

Anti-Japanese sentiment has been all over China this week. The 81st anniversary of Japan’s invasion into China, coupled with the poorly-timed Japanese Government purchase of the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, has seen tempers flare on the mainland. Street protests in more than 80 Chinese cities, burning Japanese flags and the odd trashed car has seen many Japanese companies halt business in China and kept expats barricading themselves indoors.

This week Alibaba Group, who own China's leading eCommerce platforms Taobao, TMall and Alibaba, announced that it's online retail sales will hit 1 Trillion RMB ($158 billion USD) this year. That's big, much bigger than eBay's $60 billion last year, and further evidence that Chinese consumers love to shop online.

Every week China is abound with interesting going-ons, but what caught my eye this week was the activity around the new pair of ‘Pants’ towering over the city of Sozhou in Jiangsu Province. Weibo users have been making thousands of comments about Sozhou’s newest skyscraper, Gate of the Orient, a tower resembling a pair of trousers almost as tall as New York’s Chrysler Building.