Small businesses cashing in on soccer carnival

Although China's soccer team did not qualify for the World Cup tournament in Brazil, Chinese businessmen still have a chance to benefit from the overwhelming spectacle and excitement of the tournament.

In addition to the large enterprises which have poured money on sponsorships and advertisements during the World Cup, other companies including e-commerce platforms and small businesses have all joined the soccer carnival by providing products and services designed for local soccer fans.

Snacks for the night

Snacks and drinks bring more pleasure to soccer fans while watching the games. The World Cup has boosted sales this summer as expected.

As early as in May, snack sales, especially in Shanghai, have been increasing because people were stocking up for the upcoming World Cup, according to a statement e-mailed to the Global Times Wednesday by Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce giant who owns online shopping platforms tmall.com and taobao.com.

Crawfish is one of the most popular snacks favored by locals for summer nights in China. From June 13 when the World Cup began to June 16, more than 17.5 tons of crawfish were sold on taobao.com.

From June 10 to June 17, the number of searches for snacks on the two e-commerce platforms jumped 117 percent from the previous week, Alibaba's data showed.

During the same period, searches for beer saw a 270 percent year-on-year growth and more than 17 million cans of beer were sold on taobao.com and tmall.com, according to the data.

In addition to beer, plum syrup and Chinese herbal tea also saw sales volume growth of 93 percent and 53 percent respectively in the first half of June from the second half of May, according to statistics from taobao.com.

In a bid to ensure soccer fans can enjoy snacks while watching games in the middle of the night, from June 29, when the World Cup enters the quarterfinal stage, some snack sellers on taobao.com will start delivering freshly ordered food right to customers' homes in several first-tier cities an hour before the games begin, according to Alibaba's e-mailed statement.

Shops on Weibo and WeChat

With the growing popularity of Weibo and WeChat as social media platforms, many businessmen have expanded their online shops from e-commerce platforms such as taobao.com to Weibo and WeChat.

Feichangxia, which means "unusual crawfish" in Chinese, is an online crawfish shop which only accepts orders through phone calls and messages on Weibo and WeChat.

The shop sells crawfish of different flavors and cooked seafood including crab, abalone and clam, a menu on its Weibo account shows.

In a bid to ensure customers receive fresh seafood, the shop starts cooking after receiving orders and about 2 or 3 hours later, it will deliver the ordered food right to customers' doors, according to the shop's instructions.

"I have run off-line [physical] shops in Wuhan and Guangzhou, and this online shop in Beijing just opened in the beginning of this year," the owner of the crawfish shop, surnamed Zhao, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Zhao did not reveal the sales volume but said sales have been great and improved recently due to the World Cup.

During the World Cup, the crawfish shop also launched some promotions to attract more soccer fans such as giving away beer for free to customers, Zhao said.

"Before the World Cup we accepted orders from 12 pm to 12 am, but we have now expanded the order time to 3 am so customers can receive fresh food when they enjoy the game," Zhao said, noting it means the deliveryman may work at 6 am to finish the orders.

"I will open an off-line shop in Beijing soon this year," Zhao said with confidence in the business.

Other than shops like Feichangxia which cook and sell food, some shops only focus on food delivery.

Aixianfeng, a food delivery shop on Weibo, delivers a variety of foods and beverages to customers in Beijing, including crisps, ice cream, instant noodles and even Starbucks coffee.

Customers can make orders by scanning the shop's quick response code (QR code) with their smartphones and can also pay for the orders with Sina Weibo app's payment service, which was jointly launched by Sina Weibo and Alibaba in January.

During the World Cup, the shop has even come up with food deals offering "a comfort gift for your girlfriend during the World Cup," including snacks that girls usually like, such as strawberries, blueberries and yogurt.

The more, the merrier

Businessmen are making every effort to meet people's needs during the soccer tournament. There are about 42 stores on taobao.com providing game call service.

Due to Brazil and China being in different time zones, all World Cup games are being broadcasted live in China from midnight until dawn. The game call service is a call made right before the game starts to remind customers, with different prices ranging from 1 ($0.16) to 30 yuan.

But it seems an alarm clock is enough for soccer fans. Only 19 customers have bought the game call service by press time, according to the sales record on taobao.com.

It is always hard for Chinese soccer fans to find a balance between watching the games and going to work during the once-in-four-years World Cup. Before the tournament started, there was even a picture of a "fake doctor's note for sick leave available on taobao.com" that was widely spread on Weibo.

However, this might have just been a joke because when you search "note for sick leave" on taobao.com, the webpage will tell you "related items cannot be showed according to laws and regulations."

If you are not a soccer fan, you can still join in other forms of related entertainment, such as soccer lottery.

Since the World Cup started, everyday more than 2 million people buy soccer lottery tickets on taobao.com, according to statistics on the Weibo account of taobao.com.

Wu Hui, a 25-year-old Hangzhou resident, started buying soccer lottery tickets since the very first match of the World Cup. "I am not a soccer fan but I can also have fun during the World Cup," she told the Global Times Thursday.

Wu won about 100 yuan from three games consecutively before she bet on Spain and England over the weekend.