The speed at which Chinese innovation is becoming ingrained in user behaviour in China provides us in the west with a window of opportunity to not only watch and learn, but to also start to test ideas for ourselves.

What we can see from a social platforms perspective is that western rivals like FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, and even Microsoft have either started to develop copycat versions of many features within both TikTok and WeChat, or as in both Microsoft and Twitter's case even trying to buy them.

And now Facebook is starting to catch up with innovations that have been going on in China for a few years.

What if you could see this season’s latest trends modeled in real time, ask questions about how they fit, select your size and buy, all from the comfort of your home? 

"Live Shopping on Facebook combines the fun of live video with the convenience of online shopping. And this summer, we’re bringing some of the biggest brands together for a showcase of products, tips, demos and more through Live Shopping Fridays."

Starting every Friday through July 16, enjoy shoppapable live videos from beauty and fashion brands. 

For shoppers, this means you can discover the latest products from your favorite brands and ask questions about size, fit and tips in real time. 

And for brands, Live Shopping offers a chance to build relationships with customers, provide new entertaining content, answer questions and streamline the purchase process through convenient checkout with Shops. 

For sometime I've been talking about 'employee advocacy' in order brands and retailers can develop and authentic relationship in a 'social' way with potential consumers.

For some retail companies this has been translated into getting employees to 'put stuff about us out there' which rather defeats the point of the strategic exercise for me, and yet another symptom of a 20th Century retail mindset.

For retail to not only get through this pandemic and come through the other side requires them to address the key issues that have held them back; which is the failure to address key changes in consumer behaviour. 

In particular the significant take up and use of free to use and free to access social platforms. 

Katrine Olsen works in ALDI supermarket in Denmark and made a post about that she has been told that she should network on LinkedIn but finds it difficult to share anything interesting about her job here - and concludes that the only thing she might be able to share is how she is scanning items...

The reply comes from Per Bank, who is the CEO of Salling group (and former CEO of Tesco btw) - the largest retailer in Denmark with several supermarket chains who tells her that 

"she can share her experiences with customers - something he believes he and everyone else could learn a lot from."

Jonas goes on to say

This drives home the point that social media is the most frictionless way of communicating - that it's relevant for everyone.

Makes you think - I hope?