How AI and Partner Marketing Are Helping Chinese Brands Shed the Low-Price Label Overseas

Chinese Brands Transform Overseas Marketing with AI to Escape the "Low-Price" Trap

Recently, the iPX 2025 China Overseas Marketing Summit, hosted by impact.com in Shanghai, brought together over 600 industry professionals to explore how AI technology is reshaping Chinese brands' global marketing strategies. The event emphasized new approaches for Chinese brands to improve their international presence amid shifting market dynamics.

Over the last 20 years, Chinese brands have evolved significantly—from breakthroughs in AI and smart hardware innovation to establishing global brand recognition. Jennifer Zhang, Managing Director of impact.com Greater China, highlighted that partnerships are driving this shift. Traditional customer acquisition methods focused on traffic investment are losing effectiveness, while partner marketing offers clear benefits such as lower acquisition costs, longer customer lifecycles, stronger brand equity, and a more distinct brand identity.

For Generation Z and emerging consumer groups, community-driven and creator-led partner marketing is proving essential to gaining trust and entering targeted market segments.

AI Accelerates the Shift to Smarter Marketing

Companies like DeepSeek are pushing AI boundaries, and tools like ChatGPT are widely adopted across industries. These advances are helping brands respond to increasingly complex competition and diverse consumer needs. Min Yong, Chief Expert at SAP Greater China, pointed out that AI-powered refined user operations and direct-to-consumer (DTC) transformation enable brands to move from transaction-centered approaches to user-interaction-centered models. This shift helps create a "customer flywheel" that boosts repurchase rates and lifecycle value.

Impact.com's Platform Enhancements with AI and Automation

To support this trend, impact.com has upgraded its platform focusing on four key areas:

• Redesigned front-end interface: Offers a more intuitive user experience with clearer charts and navigation.
• "Ask Impact" intelligent assistant: Provides partner recommendations, industry insights, and data analysis through natural language processing, enhancing personalized content creation and search.
• Automated partner management: Uses an intelligent agent framework to handle repetitive tasks like partner recruitment and enriches creator management with sentiment analysis, geographic targeting, and AI-generated task sheets.
• "Product Boost" retail media solution: Extends partner marketing to retail platforms, enabling brands to promote specific products with commission incentives to unlock new growth opportunities.

Moving Beyond "Made in China" to "Created in China"

Speakers at the summit stressed that Chinese brands stand at a pivotal point. Shedding the "low-price" label requires focusing on innovation, design, and quality to reshape global perception. In mature markets like the United States, where consumer decision-making is multifaceted, brands must build diverse partner networks and engage in culturally relevant communication to integrate effectively.

For marketing professionals aiming to leverage AI and strategic partnerships in brand growth, exploring AI-driven tools and partner marketing strategies is increasingly essential. Resources such as Complete AI Training’s latest AI courses can provide practical knowledge on applying AI in marketing.