'Aunties' just wanna have fun and frolic

Dancers perform in Shenyang, Liaoning province. More than 310,000 people took part in a national square dancing gala in May in six cities, which created a Guinness World Record. [Photo by Wang Huan/For China Daily]

Middle-aged Chinese women just wanna have fun ... and dance in colorful floral-print skirts or wool-blended dresses trimmed with sequins and tassels.

And e-commerce players are thrilled to bits selling all that dance gear.

Women love the idea of online shopping, too. Saves time compared with visiting different stores or malls. Click/tap, buy, dance away. What fun!

Meeting their demand are niche-minded sellers such as Zhen Xiaofang. In 2010, Zhen quit her job as a dance teacher at a college in Hefei, Anhui province, in 2011 and started selling dance gowns, skirts and such items on Tmall, a business-to-consumer marketplace from the Alibaba stable.

Innovative styles and designs distinguish her popular products, which are made exclusively by a garments factory and sold under the brand name Fangzhiwu on the flagship online store.

In 2015, Fangzhiwu, which also runs a digital store on JD, another major e-commerce platform, netted sales revenue of more than 10 million yuan ($1.44 million).

"We offer more than 150 kinds of dance costumes and shoes. A set of dance costumes costs less than 100 yuan on average," said Zhen.

"Actually, 80 percent of our sales come from women aged 50 and above. Compared with their younger peers, they are more energetic and have more spare time to dance."

To serve as many of themas possible, Fangzhiwu expanded from online space into offline channels, developing a nationwide network of more than 200 distributors, including a large group of famous square dance teachers.

Such teachers are prized by e-commerce firms. It's not difficult to understand why if you hear Wang Shaobin, 64, vice-president of a local dance association in Huanggang, Hubei province.

Wang is a dance impresario whose 80-member team of dancers stage impressive shows at public squares on most evenings.

"We prefer to shop online for dance clothes as stuff is priced reasonably there. For example, a suit or a costume will cost around 100 yuan. We also rent dresses or buy customized clothes for special performances."

According to a report released by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and CBN Data, a commercial data provider affiliated to Alibaba, typically, a middle-aged woman dancer, endearingly called a Dancing Aunty, will spend 437 yuan annually on her square dance "gear".

Not surprisingly, competition has become fierce among online players for every single yuan spent by Dancing Aunties.

Fangzhiwu, which has been among the top three dance gear sellers on Alibaba's online marketplaces, is feeling the heat.

"We lost some customers to other e-commerce platforms and off-line shops in 2016 due to fierce competition and saturation of the market," said Zhen.

She is not the one to give up easily though. "I'm optimistic about the future. What we need to do is prepare better for the competition ahead."

Toward this end, Fangzhiwu has signed agreements with public dancing video apps such as Tangdou Square Dance and 99 Square Dance. To burnish its brand, it will offer free costumes to dance teachers registered on such apps.

Zhen has also increased the range of products sold on Fangzhiwu. Things like eye masks now vie with dance gear for Dancing Aunties' attention.