Juhuasuan on Monday rolled out its third Super Country Day, with a 24-hour flash sale matching Canada’s premier pet-food brands with pet-loving, bargain-hunting Chinese consumers.

Based on consumption patterns, the Alibaba Group sales and digital marketing platform identified premium imported pet food as a popular category for a targeted campaign. The category grew 400% YoY on Tmall Global in January.

Launched last December, Juhuasuan’s Super Country Day campaign focuses on premium, imported goods and is part of the platform’s long-term efforts to connect consumers with specialty products directly from their original sources. The Juhuasuan team looks at consumer data and identifies some of the fastest growing import categories to see if there are patterns in terms of their places of origin. It then works closely with Tmall Global, Alibaba’s largest B2C cross-border online marketplace, to select a handful of brands in these popular categories. International brands who participate in the resulting campaign can tap into group-buying and flash-sale features to encourage large orders and attract new customers. The platform also provides subsidies that allow brands to introduce their products to Chinese consumers at extremely competitive prices.

Turning Pet Peeves into Profits

For its latest Super Country Day, the team at Juhuasuan saw a rising demand for pet food from Canada. According to Canada’s Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the country exported $566.9 million in pet food in 2019, 14% of which went to China.

North American pet-food brands are particularly popular among Chinese consumers because of their reputations for quality. Many companies also offer products that are eco-friendly, internationally certified and diverse enough to fulfill special dietary needs – qualities that are particularly attractive to China’s budding segment of doting “pet parents.”

“Many Canadians consider pets to be part of their family and are invested in their pets’ health and wellbeing,” said Dave Murphy, the consul general of Canada in Shanghai. He added that, because of the country’s love for animals, its pet-product brands are able to provide diversified and high-quality goods to consumers worldwide.

WATCH: Dave Murphy on how Canada can support China’s pet owners

Juhuasuan’s Super Country Day offered a perfect opportunity to connect these Canadian brands, such as Orijen, Acana, Petcurean and 1^st Choice, with Chinese consumers who are hungry to feed their pets the very best.

Aside from offering great deals to consumers, the campaign used personalized recommendations to connect pet lovers with the right products. This resulted in substantial traffic and conversions for participating brands, with some enjoying more than 10 times the amount of their average offline traffic, said Juhuasuan.

“The Juhuasuan Super Country Day campaign has been a very effective way to achieve greater market penetration and consumer awareness in China,” said Carmine De Somma, General Manager of PLB International Inc., which owns the 1^st Choice product line.

The brand launched its Tmall Global store in March and leveraged Juhuasuan’s campaign right away to debut two brand new products. According Somma, 1^st Choice plans to continue moving aggressively to embrace e-commerce in China. Not only will it launch a jointly designed gift box with Tmall Global, it also plans to experiment with livestreaming to widen consumer education in upcoming months.

Building Brand Trust and Loyalty

For both Juhuasuan and the participating brands, the Super Country Day campaign was not just about conversions but was also a way to build meaningful connections with pet-loving consumers. As part of the campaign, Juhuasuan built a luxury shelter in Beijing to house and feed a growing number of homeless cats during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, halfway across the world, Canadian pet-food manufacturer Petcurean donated 500 pounds of cat meals to support the Regional Animal Protection Society in Richmond, BC.

WATCH: Juhuasuan builds a shelter for homeless cats

“This campaign is beyond quick brand introduction and sales. We pay special attention to how well these international brands resonate with Chinese consumers. It is a window of opportunity for our partners to tell their stories and to introduce new lifestyles to savvy shoppers in China,” said Su Yu, head of marketing at Juhuasuan.

Juhuasuan is expected to organize 20 more Super Country Day campaigns this year to spotlight nations such Japan, Thailand and France.

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