About 9KaCha

9KaCha is China’s leading wine app. 

It is a multi-functional Mandarin app to connect the wine trade and consumers in China. Available through Apple and Android devices, 9KaCha assists regular users in China to discover and purchase wine through in app purchasers from 17 major retailers. 

9KaCha offers wineries a rare opportunity to connect with a young, digital first audience of high interest wine buyers whom wineries generally can not target through current distribution channels. This includes over 1.5 million regular users with an average age of 38, most of whom log in every day, and with women outnumbering men in the valuable under 40 age groups.

By using cutting-edge label recognition software combined with artificial intelligence, 9KaCha assists these primarily younger consumers to quickly identify, research and purchase wines to their taste. 

Marketing through 9KaCha offers premium winemakers the opportunity to target a highly engaged, young and valuable audience close to the start of their journey in the wine category, which most Australian wineries are not currently reaching.

The app is a rich source of wine information with an influential and loyal customer base that can build premium wine sales with videos, reviews and stories that help consumers to discover new brands, backed by culturally appropriate reviews and scores by Rob Geddes MW.

With connections to over 4,000 distributors in mainland China, major retailers and search engines, 9KaCha can be also used to assists brands with increasing their knowledge of the market and helping wineries to identify suitable new distribution partners across the country.

With Rob Geddes MW and Angus Hughson assisting as Australian agents, 9KaCha is now providing marketing services for wineries to help them to build their distribution base in China and engage with its high interest consumer base.

Mobile and online in China

The importance of mobile phone technology to the Chinese consumer cannot be overstated. 

Since the SARS epidemic, China has embraced online retailing and the Coronavirus will only increase acceptance and use of online over offline services with Nielsen reporting that 67% of Chinese retailers plan to expand online channels in the coming year, according to Wine Australia 31 March 2020.

China has one of the highest national Smartphone ownership rates in the world and leads in the proportion of consumers who have made an online purchase, made in-store payments or streamed television, all on their mobile phones through website browsers and mobile apps.

China’ is also setting the pace for digital wine sales with 25% of total retail value online which has experienced 24% growth in the last three years. 2019 Singles Day wine sales were 3 to 4 times the value seen in 2018, and Coronavirus will likely lead to significant growth to online away from traditional sales channels.

As the first and only app of its kind in China, 9KaCha is the most important starting point for wine brands to build their online brand and retail sales in China.

9KaCha’s ideal Australian winery customer

These can be divided into key groups:

• Wineries wanting to increase their visibility in the Chinese wine market
• Wineries wanting to sell more wine in China
• Wineries with an online sales platform looking to further build their eCommerce sales
• Wineries looking to expand their distribution network in China

The Offer – Increasing your digital footprint in China through a sophisticated digital platform

Visibility

Pay an annual subscription to display your winery’s background information in Mandarin to educate active consumers and distributors plus drive online sales through 9KaCha and the leading search engine Baidu. Annual fees start from $799.

Advanced Services

For an additional fee, 9KaCha can provide a wide range of options to build distribution and sales including providing third party reviews from Rob Geddes MW, enhanced listings in wine recommendations, editorial content in 9KaCha’s Official WeChat account, distribution partner recommendations plus access to up-to-date data on online search and sales in China.

5 Key reasons to use 9KCHA.

The 9KaCha China marketing service includes:

1. Communicating brand stories to increase brand visibility and value in the Chinese wine market

Currently the major method for Australian wineries to build online sales is through expensive promotions, generally costing $10,000 or more via Tmall and JD, which focus on wines under 100RMB with sales highly dependent on price. 9KaCha provides a very cost effective tool to tell winery brand stories and create sales without discounting using third party reviews from Rob Geddes MW, who was voted one of the Top 10 wine influencers in China last year.

The app is a rich source of wine information that can help to build premium wine sales with videos, reviews and stories that help consumers to discover new brands, backed by culturally appropriate reviews and scores by Rob Geddes MW. This content is then delivered to a large number of young, highly engaged wine consumers through 9KaCha and affiliate partners such as Baidu.

2. Driving increased online wine sales

China has the largest online wine market in the world. However, Australia still lags in this market, with the online sales value less than half the market leader, France, which provides an unrealised opportunity for Australian wine. With the growing use of digital tools due to the impact of Coronavirus this opportunity will only grow.

9KaCha can provide a range of solutions to assist in building your online sales through creation and targeted delivery of wine content to engaged wine buyers. For wineries that already have an existing online store, 9KaCha can provide an advertising and promotional tool to drive additional sales. Alternatively 9KaCha can direct consumer searches and sales enquiries to your distributors or agents for sales fulfilment.

3. Finding quality distribution partners

9KaCha has a database of over 4,000 verified distributors spread throughout China. We provide a service to match wineries with the contact details of up to 15 distributors that fit your requirements in terms of location, volume, range and price, that have expressed an interest in importing your wines. 

This provides significant cost savings for wineries by removing the uncertainty of identifying relevant contacts in this linguistically challenging and complex market. It avoids extensive travel around China until you have secured an understanding of your potential distribution partners and their capacity.

4.Providing data to enhance knowledge of the Chinese market and assist in strategy development

Accurate data on the Chinese market to assist with strategy formulation is difficult to source. 9KaCha, through its affiliate partners such as Baidu, JD and Tmall, has access to data on over 20 million wine searches per year and can provide up to date and geotargetted data in relation to wine sales and online search, which is available for purchase.

5. Increasing Cellar Door tourism

Over 1 million Chinese tourists have visited Australia per annum in recent years, and wine is an important attraction leading to many winery visits. 9KaCha can showcase your  wine brands and provide third party reviews so as to increase brand value and cellar door tourism.  Wine Australia 2019 Market Insights report that China is the largest source of winery visitors from any international market and this is destined only to increase in the future.

 

2020 H1 Update

The Australian dollar had fallen to a 17 year low according to Wine Australia 31 March 2020 which further increases the importance of Australia to Chinese wine buyers. It remains more than 10% down agains the RMB and wineries around Australia have already reported that Chinese importers are taking advantage of this with good order volumes.

So while The China Alcoholic Drinks Association has reported a 15.8% reduction in overall sales revenue for January and February, imports have fared better than domestic Chinese wine producers, who are down 40.8% with profits down 57.9%. Year-on-year imports for bottled wine are down 25% by volume and 22% by value. However Australia is out performing the market with better overall performance.

Local intelligence suggests that sales of premium Australian wine will remain strong because the wines generally offer better value against European competitors in the market place, especially due to exchange rate fluctuations. Shanghai is rapidly returning to normality with restaurants re-opening since April 1. A key date for the renewal of Chinese business activity was April 8 when China started to remove restrictions within Wuhan, the worst hit area by Coronavirus.