Digital marketing professionals in China are more prepared to embrace direct responsibility for e-commerce functions, as these two teams already work closely.
In fact, one-third of Chinese digital marketers say that e-commerce is already part of their remit.
This is according to a recent Forrester survey of 47 digital marketers in China.
Forrester sees this trend developing in China as well as in Western markets. For example, in the US, Gap redesigned its global CMO roles to merge e-commerce and digital marketing in a new executive position earlier this year.
However, as Forrester analyst Xiaofeng Wang explains in the research, the fusion of digital marketing and e-commerce teams is happening more extensively in China because of three reasons:
* Social and commerce are more closely intertwined in China than anywhere else;
* E-commerce is the latest addition to a very new digital marketing team; and
* Digital marketing mastery is essential for e-commerce to succeed in China.