A six-step strategy to find Blue Ocean for eCommerce in China
In previous years, this type of products was very easy to find, and it was relatively easy to set up a new product line. However nowadays, eCommerce is becoming more and more popular in China. Thus, it is more and more difficult to find Blue Ocean products without extensive data mining. Now, let’s look at a six-step strategy to find Blue Ocean for eCommerce in China.
Start preparing all your 2018 Tmall shopping festivals NOW
Here we highlight 6 key festivals in 2018 on Tmall that your brands cannot miss, because they contribute to the growth of the platform, and also the merchants.
Cross-border on Chinese eCommerce Platforms
More than 14,500 foreign brands from 63 countries are selling on Chinese eCommerce platforms, and more than half of these brands have their presence on Tmall International platform. Two major reasons for this emergence of foreign brands on Chinese eCommerce platforms are: growing demand of foreign products, and relaxed policies on consumers purchasing personal items from foreign website.
A New Retail Era Is Coming to China
In an survey conducted by JD.com, about 90% of participants are willing to increase their spending on high-end products by at least 5%, with nearly 60% of them willing to increase their spending by more than 10%. Data shows that non-necessities products page views increased significantly higher than daily necessities products.
New round of import tariff cuts is favorable for China cross-border e-commerce
Since 2015, in only 2 years this is the forth time that China carries out the tariff reduction policy on consumer goods. It follows the China’s national strategy to boost domestic consumption and upgrade from manufacturing country to consumption one. In the other hand, from the external point of view, it also helps to shorten the global trade gap to remove the trade barrier.
Olive oil from Spain directly sold and shipped to China consumers (Tmall Global)
After the grand opening of Correos cross-border shop on Tmall global in June, our team did a purchase and tested the shopping experience. Here, we will share what is it like to purchase in Correos cross-border shop:
First of all, the brands sold in Correos shop are mainly famous local Spanish brands and have not registered in China yet. Therefore, these brands joined together and sell to Chinese customers in this novel model.
After searching in this shop for a while, we decided to purchase a box of olive oil as Spanish olive oil is known with high quality and good taste.
Then, we started chatting with the customer service to ask for more details of this product. The shop sales replied us immediately. He told us the Correos cross-border shop has a local office in Hangzhou, China, however, all the products are in Spain and will be shipped directly from Spain to China. He also told us that lead time is within 3 days and the delivery time is around 7-14 days depending on various factors such as weather, traffic etc.
After all, we still decided to purchase this product and decided to pay and check out. There is personal cross-border purchase quota. We advise you to check it in here http://ceb2pub.chinaport.gov.cn/limit/outIndex before you make any purchases. Then, the buyer required us to submit a scanned copy of our ID, which will be used in the customs to clear the goods at the border.
Due to the long shipping distance, the shop does not take return merchandise. For testing, we finished payment and received a tracking number, which we can use to track our package online. For our order, we found out that the lead time is 2 days. After more than one week’s waiting, we finally received our olive oil 10 days after departure. Compared to our previous shopping experience on Tmall domestic, it feels slow but still within the time range they promised.
Unfortunately, our products exterior package is a little bit deformed probably due to the cushion put inside the package box is not enough. We sent a complaint to the customer service of Correos cross-border shop immediately.They were also sorry for this and decided to compensate 20 RMB to us.
In general, we have a very satisfying purchase experience on Correos shop on Tmall global except for the relatively long waiting time.
The Spanish postal service, Correos, launched its Tmall global shop
Recently, Spanish post office Correo launched its oversea flag shop on Tmall global(an online B2C platform under China Alibaba Group) and started the trial operation. All the products sold in this flag shop come from major local brands in Spain and will be directly sent from the Spanish local brands’ warehouse to China.
Last year, Alibaba’s Cainiao network announced the strategic collaboration with the Spanish post office Correos which significantly push forward the cross-border business and logistics services. After the flag shop is established, the delivery will be very convenient and fast. A staff working in Correos said “All the brands shown up in our flag shop are selected through deliberate consideration.” Since Correos has major advantage of its domestic logistics service in Spain, it only takes 7 to 14 days for Correos to deliver the products from the warehouse, transfer them to EMS and finally arrive at buyers’ designated address. Buyers can track the information on both Correos and EMS websites.
The brands in the Correos flag shop include:
- Oleocampo: a high-end olive oil made in Spain
- Colnatur: a protein powder brand with protein powder products suitable for both sports fitness people and middle aged people.
- ART: a Spanish fast fashion shoe brand
- Neosens: one of the high-end shoe brand from La Rioja, Spain
- Marques de Grinon: one of the high end Spanish wine brand
- Correos: main products are stamps and commemorative coin collection
However, Correos is not the first foreign country’s postal service company that launches Tmall global shop. UK’s Royal Mail, Australia Post and Northern Europe’s Post Nord have already had their Tmall global shop online.