Website look and feel for the Chinese market

Chinese companies and consumers want to see overseas websites that look and feel like their local country. They do not want to see a Chinese-looking site that will question the genuine source of products or services.

We recommend keeping your website's look and feel unchanged for the Chinese market, provided it has a responsive design and is displayed clearly on mobiles and tablets.

The credibility of information, products, services, etc., on the Internet has been an issue for many years. How do you know what you read is correct, or are you purchasing a genuine product?

You need to build trust in your website;

• Make sure your website can be opened in China
• Make sure your website can be seen in China
• Make sure you keep your business information up to date
• Make sure your and your business's contact details are updated to data and working.
• The e-commerce website, including shipping, must be tested end-to-end in China.

In China, it is difficult to tell if a product is a "copy" product. Keeping your website's “overseas” look and feel will help give you confidence that your products are genuine.

Look and feel of your business on the Chinese mobile and tablets

Most websites, social media, etc., in China are accessed using mobiles or tablets.

Shenma confirmed this many years ago. Shenma is the first major Chinese search engine written for mobile/tablet users only. Their market is consumer e-commerce. Being only available in a mobile/tablet format reduced the development and modification costs. Their success strengthens the view that Chinese consumers are mainly mobile/tablet users.

Shenma website:  https://m.sm.cn/

Today, the WeChat platform's default screen size is mobile/tablet format. Websites are often opened on the WeChat Platform using a browser, reinforcing the importance of mobile/tablet format for all businesses looking into the Chinese marketplace.

A dynamic website is when the presentation of your content changes with the size of the screen being used to view your data, multi-media, etc., a "responsive internet site design."

If you wish to test your website to see if it is mobile-friendly, Please follow this Google link:

https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly.

Historically, traditional Chinese internet sites are full of information and use all the space available on a desktop screen; for example, http://sina.com is a Chinese news website.

Chinese written words contain about 30% less text than English, and the Chinese do not use space as punctuation. One page of Chinese data contains 50% to 60% more information than the English page.

Chinese internet site design has undergone significant changes over the last ten years. These changes do not make the contents look "Western" in style.

Due to the worldwide use of mobiles and tablets, the overall design of website pages had to change. Mobile and tablet formats demand information in column(s) with links between the website pages.

Our recommendations

• Given that Chinese internet users are primarily mobile and tablet users, ensure that your websites are mobile and tablet friendly.
• Keeping your website in your local format will help keep a “genuine” look and feel of your brands, products, and services.
• Only put the minimum Chinese language on your website pages. If you entirely translate your website, it will be misunderstood as a Chinese agent.