Find genius and creative products in China

       As anyone who has recently ridden public transport or watched local television can surely attest to, advertising in China can often be far from subtle. With few established local brands and consumers unsure of what they truly want, advertisements often consists of ad nauseum in-your-face touting of a given product’s many fantastic features. However, with so many distributors vying to sell almost identical products and low brand loyalty, this strategy can be of limited efficacy. Thus, for countless vendors of consumer goods, this leaves but one lower common denominator on which to compete: price.

       And compete they do, offering all types of unfathomable discounts surely rendering them unable to cover marginal costs. Advertisements bear such titles as “Charge 100, refund 100.” Lucky drawings and free gifts have become de rigueur in the retail sector. Consumer electronics outlets Suning and Gome have been at the forefront, offering some 3.8 billion RMB in discounts to consumers. 360buy.com has been particularly aggressive, offering all types of red-hot, limited time offers. Heavy discounting of this variety has precipitated a race to the bottom among retailers of all stripes.

       The recently-concluded Shanghai Shopping Festival is a case in point.