Will costly Gelato take the ice cream brand throne this summer following Chicecreams falling out of favour with consumers?

Gold has become the stylish accessory in China largely due to it's investment potential and popularity with youth from brand collabs such as Harry Potter, Disney and POPMART

Excitement was the prevailing feeling at Alibaba’s Gateway 17 conference. The big numbers, learning about the opportunities in China, hearing the success stories and talking to the attendees all contributed to a feeling of exuberance in Detroit last week. Yet after going back to the day-to-day reality of running a business, many are asking: now what? While entering China is exciting, it’s also hard work with many serious considerations and choices to take into account. To assist, China Skinny has three next steps to start to see if China is right for your brand.

Following part 1 of China Skinny’s Food & Beverage trends, we bring you part 2 which delves into premiumisation and packaging.

The China Skinny team was out and about this past week taking in the latest trends, innovations and happenings in China’s food & beverage and craft beer scene. Attending last week’s SIAL China and Craft Beer China gave us the opportunity to reflect on how the industry has developed since the 2016 editions. Through this three-part series we will share our observations and insights into the notable trends driving the market.

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.

This is part 2 of China Skinny’s observations at the SIAL Exhibition. Check out part 1 here.In addition to wafers, coconut products, nuts and inventive flavourings China Skinny observed a few more interesting trends at SIAL.

The act of shopping has spread across different countries in unique ways, and each market has adopted its own local habits, trends, influences and behaviours. China is a country where shopping plays a huge role in daily life, as consumers regard shopping a higher priority in their lives compared to other markets. The graphic below illustrates to what extent shopping shapes Chinese' lifestyles

Christmas is not a tradition normally associated with China. However, despite the seemingly irreconcilable contradictions between a highly commercialised Christian holiday and the world’s largest Atheist and Communist state, Christmas in China is growing to become big business. So can a Chinese Christmas be boiled down to a purely commercial phenomenon, or does the increased eagerness of Chinese consumers to celebrate Christmas indicate something deeper? Read on to get the festive skinny!

The Alibaba shopping-mania continued with this year’s Singles’ Day reaching a stunning $14.3 billion sales. It not only showcases the enormous reach of China’s biggest internet retailer, but also the pace Chinese spending power is increasing. Growing by 60% compared to last year, Singles’ Day has evolved to a global shopping festival. Below is the digest on Singles’ Day 2015 in China Skinny’s newest infograph.

The pressure is on. Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group, said it best in the lead up to Singles Day that “Over the past decade, Alibaba measured our impact and our success by how much we changed China. Going forward, we will be judged by how much we change the world.” This Single’s Day, all eyes will be on what steps the company makes to change the world.

As a lead up to the strike of midnight Alibaba aimed to keep China’s online shoppers awake and engaged. The Pre-Singles day gala put on by Alibaba and exclusively aired on Hunan TV engaged watchers and shoppers with a big night of entertainment. China Skinny was hosted by Alibaba to attend the big event and was able to soak up the buzz from the night. Below are some highlights from the Singles Day gala. Be sure to check back to find out more about the astonishing facts and figures from this years Singles Day.

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.

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.

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.

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.

China is famous worldwide for its unique consumer trends. From ‘Face-Kinis’, to the ‘Belly Button Challenge’, to weird and wacky fashion fads, Chinese consumer culture is always throwing up new ideas and products which can prove puzzling to the outside observer. But what can these unusual trends teach us about China’s rapidly evolving consumer dynamics? - It turns out a lot! Read on to learn more…

China’s smog gets a lot of airtime around the world, with footage like masked runners navigating the soupy air in the Beijing marathon, hordes of Zhengzhou residents lining up for bags of ‘fresh mountain air’, and kids playing at school under multi-million dollar domes. Given 99% of urban Chinese breathe air considered unsafe by EU standards, there’s plenty of opportunities for coverage.