Thankfully, most B2C brands incorporate online selling (eCommerce) into their business model in 2022. Additionally, social media is free for brands to connect with buyers online in a meaningful way. Whether brands realize it or not, they have a community of customers, followers, employees, and partners who love them. Brand communities become the foundational building blocks to launch a Community Commerce strategy.

Beijing's crackdown on its tech giants is fueling a noticeable phenomenon: it's opened the spending floodgates. China's largest internet corporations are digging deep into their pockets to open up new avenues of growth as Beijing curtails their most lucrative businesses from fintech to e-commerce. Tencent Holdings Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Meituan have all warned investors in recent weeks they're prepared to open their coffers to expand in areas such as cloud computing, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence. The coming deluge promises to transform the internet landscape by funneling capital into fundamental technology and infrastructure -- not coincidentally priority areas for the Communist Party. Of the three, Beijing-based Meituan was the earliest to throw caution to the wind and also the one most accustomed to sacrificing profits.