Huawei Technologies is now using Chinese messaging app WeChat as their marketing tool to sell smartphones.

The company introduced the marketing strategy during the last week of May when WeChat integrated a virtual shop of JD.com, an online retailer and second-largest e-commerce in China next to Alibaba group.

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According to JD, its WeChat store have received 550,000 Honor 6 pre-orders from customers. Also, portions of the orders were attributed the sales campaign the company launched before the handset was released on Tuesday.

The JD-WeChat tandem is the first time the two have teamed-up for the with the smartphone manufacturer.

Huawei’s marketing campaign shows that WeChat is already a mainstream online shopping channel popular among Chinese consumers.

Tencent, WeChat’s developer, announced last March their deal of purchasing a 15 percent stake in JD that eventually led to a business partnership.

In May, Huawei and JD inaugurated a promotional event that gave WeChat users the chance to win a free Honor 6 smartphone. The objective of the event was to encourage users determine the price of the new smartphone before it gets released into the Chinese market. WeChat also runs ads for the Honor 6.

Huawei’s Honor 6 smartphone features a 5-inch screen, Huawei’s own chip unit of mobile processor and a 13-megapixel camera. Honor 6 went on sale this week for CYN 1, 999 yuan (US$322) in China.

Tencent and JD successfully marketed Huawei’s latest smartphone and it was also designed to attract more Chinese consumers to use WeChat as an online shopping portal.

WeChat has 400 million monthly active users and the majority of them are from mainland China.

TagsHuawei, Honor 6, JD Store