Since WeChat mini programs arrived, many farsighted business owners have joined the movement early and taken the lead in the trend. In the WeChat mini program index published by Aladdin, the offline retail industry holds first place, followed by dining and travel services. E-commerce, dining and new retail have the shortest and clearest paths to revenue in today’s WeChat ecosystem, which also shows how well mini programs fit offline scenarios.
Some businesses still hesitate, so it is worth setting out why mini programs matter in daily life and why physical stores in particular should build one.
1. Why mini programs are at the centre of the trend. In the mobile internet era WeChat has become the largest user base after QQ, and both its user numbers and time spent are beyond dispute. Checking Moments, liking, sharing and following before getting up and before going to sleep has become a daily routine, and WeChat Pay is part of ordinary life. Users and merchants active in Moments, group chats and official accounts are all looking for ways to make money inside this ecosystem, and mini programs have created another such opportunity.
When official accounts were first launched many people were sceptical, yet they went on to great success. Mini programs are an innovation built on top of them: after launch, the official account increasingly serves simply as an entry point to the program. With mini programs defined as connecting every offline scenario, attention keeps rising and more merchants are joining.
2. Scenarios fit closely. Since launch the functions have been updated continuously, with something new almost every week. The nearby mini programs feature lets users discover merchants around them and check products and offers in one tap, connecting online promotion with offline sales and bringing stores more footfall.
For users, finding what they want becomes easier. A traveller looking for a hotel can search Meituan or the hotel name inside a mini program and get straight to the store, saving time and getting what they need. Mini programs also have a natural advantage offline: payment can be completed in the store without queuing, and a mini program takes no phone storage and does not push notifications the way an app does.
For merchants, being quickly found leads to purchases, and WeChat’s social spread lets customers share the store mini program with friends, producing a second round of conversion. That means more new customers, free promotion and greater brand awareness all at once. It also saves a great deal of advertising spend and brings more precise customers.
So how do you build your own? As with app development, team, experience and service all matter. XZS Tech has ten years of outsourcing experience and has delivered mini programs and apps to hundreds of enterprise clients.
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