Category: Other Marketplaces

How to Sell on Tokopedia: The Ultimate Guide

Posted on by Marcus Sohlberg — Leave a comment

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Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

Indonesia’s E-Commerce market will be one of the best performers in Asia in the coming decade.

With a low internet and mobile penetration, a quickly growing middle class and a huge population, there’s still plenty of room for expansion.

Strangely, many foreign companies haven’t even heard of its biggest E-Commerce giant – Tokopedia.

Today, I’ll tell you what Tokopedia is all about, if it’s open to foreign companies and how the future of Indonesia’s E-Commerce market looks like.

In this article, you’ll learn the following:

Continue reading How to Sell on Tokopedia: The Ultimate Guide

How to Sell on Shopee: A Complete Guide for Cross-Border Sellers

Posted on by Marcus Sohlberg — 6 Comments

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Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

The Southeast Asian E-Commerce market has transformed completely in the past years and will continue to grow in the coming decade. Previously, Lazada used to dominate most of the E-Commerce markets, but we’ve seen more contenders popping up over the years.

One of the biggest and fastest growing marketplaces is undoubtedly Shopee. Selling here is comparably easy and there are a number of benefits that follow.

Therefore, I’ve written this article where you’ll learn the following:

  • What is Shopee?
  • Shopee market share
  • In which countries is Shopee available?
  • Why should I sell on Shopee?
  • Cash on delivery (COD) and other payment options
  • Shopee seller fees
  • Order fulfillment options

Continue reading How to Sell on Shopee: A Complete Guide for Cross-Border Sellers

Selling on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) in China: The Ultimate Guide

Posted on by Marcus Sohlberg — Leave a comment

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

China’s E-Commerce market is exploding and will lead the way for Asia Pacific to become the biggest until 2025.

We see a fierce competition between Tmall and JD, at the same time as smaller websites capture more ground, thanks to other lucrative sales models.

One of the hottest websites is Xiaohongshu, which can be directly translated to “Little Red Book” in English. A number of large companies have invested millions of dollars in the website and it will be interesting to see how it performs in the coming years.

Still, there’s little information out there that explains how it works when selling on Xiaohongshu. In this article, I explain what Xiaohongshu is, how you can start selling there, how much it costs, and much more.

What is Xiaohongshu?

Xiaohongshu (小红书) started out in 2013 and is one of the fastest growing E-commerce websites in China, currently having around 100 million users.

Continue reading Selling on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) in China: The Ultimate Guide

Selling on Yangmatou (YMatou) in China: The Definitive Guide

Posted on by Marcus Sohlberg — Leave a comment

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

China’s E-commerce market has become highly competitive as companies like Alibaba, NetEase, and Tencent, try to grasp as many market shares as possible.

Still, you have a number of smaller Chinese websites that primarily focus on cross border E-Commerce and see great success in pre-purchasing products directly from overseas. Two of these companies are Yangmatou and Vipshop.

Yangmatou is similar to Vipshop as it primarily focuses on a handful of product types, catering a small customer segment. Selling on these kind of websites can be lucrative as setup fees and running costs are generally lower compared to other platforms.

In this article, I explain about what Yangmatou is, what kind of products they sell, how you can become a merchant, and more.

What is Yangmatou?

Yangmatou (洋码头) started out in 2009 and is a comparably small cross border E-Commerce website. It’s not strange, as you’ll find a limited amount of product types listed.

Continue reading Selling on Yangmatou (YMatou) in China: The Definitive Guide

Selling on Vipshop and VIP International in China: The Ultimate Guide

Posted on by Marcus Sohlberg — Leave a comment

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

The Chinese E-Commerce market growths immensely and will lead the way for other Asian countries in the coming years.

On the contrary to countries like the US, where you can choose between Ebay and Amazon, China has a dozen of E-Commerce websites that all bring different benefits.

When I talk with foreign companies, they’ve rarely heard about Vipshop, and maybe more importantly, VIP International. The latter one has grown hundred folds since it was established in 2014 and is currently one of the biggest marketplaces for cross border E-commerce.

In this article, you’ll learn what differentiate VIP International from other marketplaces and whether you should sell on these websites or not.

Vipshop.com and VIP International explained

Vipshop started out as early as 2008. Still, many foreigners aren’t familiar with this giant marketplace.

Previously being the highest valued E-Commerce website in China, its cross border sub-platform VIP International is currently the third biggest in terms of cross border sales.

So, what makes Vipshop and VIP International different from other big players like Tmall and JD?

Continue reading Selling on Vipshop and VIP International in China: The Ultimate Guide

How to Sell on Kaola.com: The Ultimate Guide

Posted on by Marcus Sohlberg — Leave a comment

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

Many things have changed since the cross border e-commerce industry started out in China some years ago. Companies like JD, Tmall and Kaola started out as late as 2014-2016, I think we can both agree that cross border e-commerce is still in an infant stage.

One of the most popular marketplaces is definitely Kaola, which has seen a massive growth the past years.

It’s not that easy to find summarized information about Kaola, what options you have when selling on the website, how much you need to pay, and more.

Therefore, I’ve written this article where I explain the crucial details you need to know, before you start selling on this rapidly growing marketplace.

What is Kaola?

Kaola was established by NetEase in 2015, which is one of China’s biggest IT companies.

The name Kaola literally means Koala in Chinese (考拉), as the website’s first goal was to target Australian companies, who wished to sell their products in China. I assume the name and the logo of the company might give you some hints.

Continue reading How to Sell on Kaola.com: The Ultimate Guide

Top China E-Commerce Platforms: Cross Border Seller Edition

Posted on by Fredrik Gronkvist — 1 Comment

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

Looking to sell cross border into Mainland China from Hong Kong or overseas? In this article, we list some of China’s leading ecommerce platforms – and explain which ones you should focus on if your business is located in Europe, Australia or the United States.

Taobao.com

Taobao.com was launched by Alibaba Group in the early 00s, and is the original Chinese ecommerce platform. Taobao.com is still the number 1 ecommerce marketplace in Mainland China, and the given choice for low to medium priced goods.

Taobao.com is mainly about products made in China, for the domestic market. You will need to setup a Mainland Chinese company before you can start selling on Taobao.com.

In other words, it’s not for cross border sellers.

Tmall.com

Tmall, which started out as ‘Taobao Mall’ was launched by Alibaba.com as the more ‘premium’ focused cousin of Taobao.com.

That’s also what Tmall.com eventually became. Today, Tmall.com is almost as big as Taobao.com – which make up more than 50% of the Chinese B2C ecommerce market.

Many international brands set up stores on Tmall.com. However, the goods sold on Tmall.com must be delivered from within China, which excludes cross border sellers.

Tmall Global (Tmall.hk)

Tmall Global may not be an entirely independent ecommerce platform. However, it’s the first one in this list that’s truly interesting to ecommerce companies in other countries.

Tmall.hk is specifically for products delivered from ‘overseas’, which also includes Hong Kong S.A.R. In other words, you can start selling online via Tmall Global, using a company and bank account setup in Australia, Europe, the US or elsewhere.

This is still ‘work in progress’, but truly revolutionary, as Tmall.hk brings down the costs significantly for small businesses looking to test the Chinese market.

Before, you had to register a company, set up an office and hire local employees before you even sold your first product.

That said, Tmall.hk is aware of its unique ‘gatekeeper’ position to the Chinese market, and require that sellers meet the following requirements:

  • Trademark in Hong Kong required
  • US$25,000 deposit paid up front
  • US$10,000 in a yearly product category fee

Still, Tmall.hk makes it relatively affordable to test your products on the Chinese market. Until Tmall Global, you could easily have added another zero to these figures.

It’s therefore no surprise that most companies that comes to us at Export2Asia.com want to get their products listed on Tmall Global, before any other platform.

In addition, Tmall Global is also where Chinese buyers go to look specifically for ‘cross border products’ – be it watches, leather belts or baby powder. Continue reading Top China E-Commerce Platforms: Cross Border Seller Edition

Selling on WeChat For Foreign Companies: A Complete Guide

Posted on by Fredrik Gronkvist — Leave a comment

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

What’s interesting about WeChat stores is that they are not actually hosted on WeChat, but independent websites – accessed through WeChat’s built in internet browser.

This gives everyone, domestic and cross border sellers alike, a lot of interesting options to consider before opening a ‘WeChat store’.

It may also be a cheaper and easier option to test new products in Mainland China, compared to Tmall Global – which can be quite complicated to get into.

WeChat store options

1. Weidian

Until recently I, like many others, believed that Weidian was a Tencent operated platform within WeChat itself. It’s not.

Weidian is essentially a third party CMS, that works really well with the built in WeChat browser. Think of it like Shopify with a WeChat them and UX.

From a user experience, the transition from WeChat to a Weidian store is almost seamless. This is probably why so many believe that it’s part of the same platform.

Weidian is often used by individuals or small businesses, selling everything from imported cosmetics to handicrafts. It’s also free to start using, which is part of the reason why Weidian is almost synonymous with the idea of a WeChat store.

However, Weidian is as of today not available to foreign companies, including those in Hong Kong. You need a Mainland China business license and bank account to setup a Weidian. Continue reading Selling on WeChat For Foreign Companies: A Complete Guide

Payment Methods When Selling Online in China: WeChat & AliPay

Posted on by Fredrik Gronkvist — Leave a comment

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

China has its own walled off ecosystem of payment gateways, which has made it harder for foreign companies to start selling B2C to consumers in Mainland China.

But things are changing, and these days, you can accept payments from WeChat Pay, AliPay or UnionPay without setting up a business in China.

In other words, you can integrate Chinese payment gateways on your existing online store, or on a .hk domain, and start selling right away.

But first, let’s take a look into the main payment gateways in China, including two international options. Continue reading Payment Methods When Selling Online in China: WeChat & AliPay

Selling on JD.com in China: A Complete Guide

Posted on by Fredrik Gronkvist — 2 Comments

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

Get help selling online in China & Southeast Asia here

JD.com is the second largest B2C ecommerce marketplace in China. While Tmall Global is getting a lot of attention from cross border ecommerce companies, few are aware of JDs own cross border program – JD Worldwide.

In this article, you will learn why JD Worldwide could be the next sales channel for your business, and the requirements you must meet before you can start selling.

What is JD.com?

JD.com, which stands for Jing Dong (京东), is China’s second largest ecommerce marketplace. It’s only second to Taobao.com, which also includes Tmall.com.

While Taobao.com and Tmall.com are open platforms, allowing anyone (at least in China), to set up a store and start selling – JD.com is more focused on direct sales.

They have more of a hybrid model today, that I will get into in a bit, but JD.com is still sourcing products and selling directly to end customers.

Thus, JD.com operates more like a traditional online store. Continue reading Selling on JD.com in China: A Complete Guide