Small stores rely on new retail revolution

(Left) Logo of Huangtaiji in Chinese. (Right) He Chang, founder of Huangtaiji.

In the case of pancake-seller He Chang,whose business is called Huangtaiji, selling products at 9.5 yuan ($1.53) a packet, the power of Weibo is more than just a click or the odd extra follower.

Last August, the Harbin native opened his first eatery in the central business district of Beijing, with 13 seats, selling his hometown specialties — fried dough sticks wrapped in an omelet with spicy or sweet sauces — together with other Chinese traditional breakfast items such as soya milk and jellied bean curd.

He registered the outlet's business account on Weibo at the same time, and his marketing creativity so far has been impressive.

As well as responding to online orders, or posting mouth-watering pictures of meals at midnight, the account has been catching attention because of the pictures he has been posting showing himself delivering pancakes in his Mercedes or with his beautiful wife.

He claims that every one of the 70,000 comments left on the account so far have been sent a response.

"I am trying to sell Chinese traditional food in a fast-food chain way like McDonald's or Starbucks, in the social network era," said He, though he says it's impossible to calculate how many of his customers have been attracted to his place because of Weibo.

In an interview with Chinese business magazine Entrepreneur early in April, He disclosed that annual sales at his outlet are likely to reach 5 million yuan, and he estimates the business is now worth 40 million yuan.

He refuses to confirm the figures to China Daily, but he did suggest he had paid off his first round of financing.