SELL PRODUCTS IN CHINA

SELL PRODUCTS IN CHINA 2020

T-mall store
General:
Tmall is China’s most visited B2C retail website and is the jewel of the Taobao marketplace crown of B2C and C2C retail platforms. To join Tmall Classic, brands must have their product or stock already in China (or at least present in China through a physical retail space). Tmall uses algorithms to personalize a consumer’s page based on his previous shopping choices, while also comparing promotions and calculating the best discount prices.

What type of products?

Selling Licensed brands, such as Apple, Nike, Addidas, Samsung etc.

Who is the target audience?

People that wants to buy directly from the official store, with all the paperwork and safety that it includes.

Interesting fact: 70% of T-mall customers are between 24 and 32 and have an increasing purchasing power with a taste for imported products.

Requirements

Tmall Classic - Brands must have a business entity in China and products already in China.

Tmall Global - Brands with a license in their own country of origin angst stock outside of China.

There must be a business entity located in Mainland China holding a Chinese retail business license.
The product should also be located within Mainland China to quickly fulfill and ship orders when placed.

Payment

Alipay and bank card

Cost

Registration requires a $25,000 USD security deposit and, depending on the industry, there can be additional annual fees ranging from $5,000-$10,000. For example, sellers who provide health food products and supplements are charged $5,000, while those selling children’s clothing are charged $10,000. 

Pros
High trafic volume
Legitimate marketplace
Among other big brands

On t-mall as a seller you’ll have the option:
To manage your own store and while it may feel troublesome you also have the possibility to personalized your storefront as you would like to.
To work as a wholesaler, meaning that your product will be displayed by Tmall Store and have high visibility.


Cons
High maintenance and marketing cost

Taobao
Consumer-to-consumer

Taobao is the biggest e-commerce platform based in China
is owned by Alibaba and was launched in May 2003.
The Taobao Marketplace is China’s largest C2C shopping destination.
they are more than 10 million of them merchant that sell on Taobao

You can find anything in a Taobao store
You can get clothes, accessories, gadgets, computer hardware at very low prices, you can even buy pets and second hands stuff.
There is around 800 Million products listed

Unfortunately, if you do not understand or read Chinese then opening a Taobao store can be complicated because it is only available in Chinese.
You should work with Chinese partners to help you navigate through the set-up process.
Another choice for you is to sell through other Chinese sellers.

What type of products?

Any type of products, from The cheapest copy to high end furniture. No ”official” stores though

Who is the target audience?

Everyone

Requirements

No, you cannot open a Taobao.com store being a non-Chinese company.
However, you can open a Taobao store, in some product categories, if you register a company in China.

The requirements to setup a company in China follow below:
Business license application
Office rental contract
Passport copies
You will not be able to setup a postbox company, using a virtual office to be able to sell on Taobao.

You need to actually rent an office, meaning that you must pay a deposit and a few months rent, before you can even apply for the business license.

You will also need to open a bank account in Mainland China, that you later link to your Taobao.com store.

As you can see, setting up a company in China to sell on Taobao.com is, therefore, a major commitment – long before you see your first sale.

Most agencies charge around RMB 20,000 to 30,000 to help you register your business in China, and the application can easily take up to 6 months. I CAN DO IT FOR YOU!

Besides, Chinese consumers who are looking for foreign products would generally prefer other platforms such as Tmall or JD… instead of Taobao.
 
Taobao is perceived as more a domestic e-commerce site for domestically made products.
 
If you are a merchant or a trader, you can team up with local partners to test how your products sell in China market through Taobao as it doesn’t require a lot of initial investment as well as a rigorous application process like other platforms.’

Payment

Alipay

Cost

No initial cost more than setting up the company and arranging with banks etc.

Pros

Starting a business on Taobao includes no inventory pressure, space limitation or management risk.

Cons

Very high competition.
There are requirements for how much you have to sell, and a lot of stores sell ”fake volume” to rank higher. Just keep that in mind.