WeChat, a popular social networking-cum-instant messaging mobile application in China, is gradually becoming an online sales platform as several users and businesses tap into the app’s potential capacity to provide avenue for buy-and-sell opportunities.
As reported by the Shanghai-based China Business News, a viral message implying such possibility has been circulating among WeChat users.
The message reads, "For the people who have been selling clothes, face masks, shampoo, watches, shoes, bags, sweets and fruit through Moments, the end of the year has come and it's time to pay the rent."
Moments, a WeChat feature, is akin to Facebook's Timeline which allows users to see up-to-date activities and status messages posted by their friends.
Currently, 10 million WeChat users are estimated to use Moments as an online venue for selling.
The prices of the products sold via the messaging app ranges from 200 to 300 yuan ($32-$48), half of which is directed at the user selling the goods as his or her profit.
According to industry insiders, the sales approach involved in WeChat transactions can be classified as franchising, pyramid sales and direct selling, the China Business News further reported.
Though these began as individual operations, business players have also joined the virtual sales phenomenon. For instance, a franchise manager of a face mask product revealed that a number of his branded goods are now making profits via WeChat.
According to him, he recruits around a hundred WeChat users, who also gather sellers of their own, to sell their products through the mobile app. The franchise manager told the news that he makes monthly revenue amounting to 10 million yuan ($1.6 million).
Industry analyst Feng Jianjun said that as more businesses are investing on this kind of sales strategy, a tougher, head-to-head competition can be expected in the near future.
Although such sales approach via the virtual world is on the rise, some still prefer the traditional face-to-face manner of buying and selling products, saying that personal interactions and encounters are still inevitable advantages in the sales industry.