China on lockdown, what is happening to the retail market?

The Chinese contribution to the global GDP was in 2019 at 19.24 % which shows how important this market became for the global supply chain. The current Coronavirus outbreak has a potentially big effect on the interwoven production process and brings huge challenges to the retail sector with delays, shortage and unavailability of production staff in China.

Difficulties are clearly visible for the production and also the marketing of goods. During the production step following challenges retailers have to face:

• Factories are closed
• Photo studios are closed
• Therefore no or limited product samples are available to create marketing photos and campaigns
• Buyers cannot or are not allowed to travel to China
• Logistic companies are not working or cannot deliver samples as areas are in lock down

Less people buy products as they are restricted to travel

There are many reasons why online stores benefit from virtual product photography. Some of the most important ones are:

Retail companies have normally a diversified way to market their goods online and in shopping malls. The fact that airlines hold or cancel flights has an impact on the revenues of retailers to sell their goods in their physical stores and shopping malls. The U.S. economy overall could lose $10.3 billion in Chinese visitor spending due to the outbreak, according to estimates by the research firm Tourism Economics. Chinese represent 7% of all overseas visitors to the U.S., and they spent roughly $34 billion on travel and transportation services in 2019, including spending in the U.S. and on U.S. airlines.

• Chinese citizens cannot travel and visit shopping malls abroad
• Shopping malls in China are closed, less customers buy foreign products
• Retailers and eCommerce companies cannot advertise their products online
• Products which are already in warehouses have mediocre advertising photos

A recent article from The Wall Street Journal illustrates this very well especially for luxury retailers. www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-cuts-chinese-tourism-and-luxury-retailers-suffer-11581078102

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The solution for marketing products and to boost sales of products already in warehouses

Luckily retailers have a few options on hand to lower the financial impact and keep things rolling. The Chinese word for Crisis consists of two characters. Danger and Opportunity. 3D / CGI photography is definitely a great opportunity to tackle the dangers during the production phase and can help to shift the consumer focus to online sales if physical stores are closed or tourists cannot travel.

• Product samples are not needed
• Photo studios or photographers are not required
• People do not need to travel
• Time-to-market shorter, production costs lower
• Product details, colours, angles and backgrounds can be changed easily and quickly

To finalize needed marketing material to promote products online, product photos or videos created during the current lockdown can help to minimize the increased workload once the production gets back to normal. Also it can help to push sales of existing products which are already in distribution warehouses waiting to be delivered.

So how can this work? Quite simple. We built our 3D photo service with the vision of reducing travel costs, the carbon footprint and make the process of creating high-quality product photos more cost-efficient and faster. This concept comes in handy especially during the current time and retailers who shifted their focus to 3D photography will definitely benefit from that decision. Therefore using our innovative concept is already well tested and its effectiveness has been proven, especially during situations like now.

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Top 10 Reasons why you should consider 3D Rendering for your digital assets immediately:

The benefits of 3D modelling outbalance traditional photography by far, with almost no reason not to turn to 3D.

1. Indistinguishable Realism (hard to tell the difference to a real photo)
2. Forced Perspective (help the viewer to look at what is important)
3. 100% Accuracy and Proportion
4. Full Environment Control (change lighting, weather, location, background)
5. High Flexibility (angles, colours, textures, patterns, parts, focus point)
6. Turn Photos into Animations
7. Easy Revisions (fix damages, materials or design updated models)
8. No Product Shipments, No Travel Time (save precious time and money)
9. Faster Results and Lower Costs (up to 50% faster and cheaper than normal photography)
10. Multiple Applications and New Promotion Channels

If you have any pending projects, missing samples or mediocre photo material in use, we can definitely help you to sail your ship through the rough sea.