Do you want to know how to sell to China online? Here are the most popular Chinese e-commerce platforms you should consider. The most used online shopping stores in China. If you’re a foreign company then it’s time for you to sell products to China market right now.
Table of contents
- 7 Most Popular Chinese E-Commerce Platforms In China
- Why You Should Consider Selling to China Market
- Tmall (B2C)
- JD.com (B2C)
- PinDuoDuo (C2C)
- Taobao (C2C)
- Interest E-commerce
7 Most Popular Chinese e-commerce platforms In China
- Tmall
- JD.com
- Pinduoduo
- Taobao
- Douyin
- Xiaohongshu
- Kuaishou
NOTE: If the foreign company want to sell products to China. You shouldn’t make decision according to the rank only. Tmall, JD.COM, Douyin store, Xiaohongshu is what you should consider. Others may not fit your business at all (or you should avoid).
Why You Should Consider selling to China market
China is the world’s second-largest economy with a population of 1.4 billion. It is also the second-largest consumer market in the world. That’s why the richest man, Elon Musk set up Tesla factory in China.
• Big online shopping market
The data from China Internet Network Information Center 2022 (CNNIC) shows that, China had 1 billion netizens, the user size of online shopping in China was 841 million and the user size of online payment in China had reached 904 million.
• Second-large Consumer market
China is the second-richest country in the world with household wealth 121 trillion RMB. Almost every international brand enter China market. It all because China is the second-richest in the world with strong consuming power.
If you’re from other countries, you may not familiar with Chinese market. But if you’re from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan. You must know the purchasing power of Chinese.
• High demand for foreign-brand products
Chinese love to buy foreign brand products. There are two main reasons: One is that we think using foreign-brand products is an honor. The other one is that we think foreign-brand products has better quality. (We were poor decades ago, so we still have that feeling, even though made-in-China products have good quality).
The most effective way and easy way to dive into China market is opening a online store on Chinese e-commerce platform.
Tmall (B2C)
Tmall (天猫) is a B2C (Business to Customer) online Chinese e-commerce platform, operated by Alibaba Group.
NOTE: Generally speaking, Chinese use only one account to login to Taobao and Tmall. And download Taobao App to purchase products from Tmall.
Tmall is one of the biggest and trusted online shopping retail platform for B2C e-commerce business. It was officially released in 2012 (spun off from Taobao).
Quick Snapshot
Launched: Apr 2008
Owned by: Alibaba Group
Founder: Jack Ma
Language: Chinese
Brands: over 320,000
GMV: 4,034.5 billion RMB (2021)
Tmall Single Day (Double-eleven) Milestones
In China, November 11 is called Single Day. Let’s look at the milestones of Tmall sales on that day.
| Years | Single Day | Sales(RMB) |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Nov 11 | 10 billion (in 13 hours) |
| 2013 | Nov 11 | 12.1 billion |
| 2014 | Nov 11 | 57.1 billion |
| 2015 | Nov 11 | 91.2 billion |
| 2016 | Nov 11 | 120.7 billion |
| 2017 | Nov 11 | 168.2 billion |
| 2018 | Nov 11 | 213.5 billion |
| 2019 | Nov 11 | 268.4 billion |
| 2020 | Nov 11 | 498.2 billion |
| 2021 | Nov 11 | 540.3 billion |
First of all, you need to know Tmall sales full-category products, made in China or foreign brands products can be found on Tmall.
Second, Generally speaking, Tmall earn more trust compared to Taobao, Pinduoduo. Tmall requires company license to launch store. And Providing better service to customers.
Beyond that, there’s a sub-channel for foreign company to launch store. That is, Tmall Global (天猫国际). Tmall Global only accepts foreign company to sell foreign-brand products. So if you’re considering how to sell to China. Tmall is your first choice, or you should consider JD.com.
Tmall Global serves as the premier platform through which overseas brands and retailers reach consumers in China, build brand awareness and gain valuable consumer insights in forming their overall China strategies, without the need for physical operations in China. We believe Tmall Global was a leading import e-commerce platform in China in terms of GMV in the twelve months ended March 31, 2022.
Can foreigners sell on Tmall
Yes, overseas company can sell on Tmall, but individual not able to sell on Tmall.
You may need this: How to open Tmall Global Store
JD.com (B2C)
Quick Snapshot
Founded: 1998
Founder: Liu QiangDong
Headquarters: Beijing China
Active Customers: 588.3 million
Revenue: ¥ RMB951.592 billion (2021)
JD.com is China’s leading one-stop Chinese e-commerce platform (B2C), providing 588.3 million active customers with direct access to an unrivalled range of authentic, high-quality products, and helping leading local and international brands tap into China’s fast-growing e-commerce market.
JD Worldwide, our cross-border platform also enables brands from around the world to sell directly to Chinese consumers, even those that do not have a physical presence in China, meaning that JD.com customers can get high-quality products from around the globe delivered to their doorsteps at the push of a button.
• Trustiest e-commerce platform
Compared to other Chinese e-commerce platforms, JD provides the best service. It’s the trustiest platform where you can buy good quality(less fake products) from there.
If the quality is what you need, then Chinese consumer will go to JD.com first. Even though you can also buy it from Tmall, we still would like to buy from JD.com.
• Best products delivery service (In the world)
JD.com has their own logistics which allows delivery products fastest in China. You would never found any online shopping platform can provide delivery service like JD.COM has.
To make you easier to understand, let’s say, you pay finished the order today, you can receive the package tomorrow in general (No more than 3 days).
• Best return and refund policy
If some products vary based on the category and return reason, most new and unused items can be returned to JD within 7 days. I know it’s shorter than Amazon (within 30 days). But this is the standard return return policy in China. But if it’s electronic category product,
Let me tell you the return & replacement experience on JD. I bought an electric cooker from JD, one day it didn’t work (over 1 year used). So I filled out the form on JD to ask them to help me to fix it. The next day, JD logistics staff brought a new one to replace it for free!
I was shocked, I thought I need to pay for fixing it. I never expected they will replace a new one for free. From that day on, I do believe that JD is the best e-commerce platform in China.
Can foreigners sell on JD.COM
Yes. overseas company can sell on JD.COM, but individual not able to sell on JD.COM.
You may also need this: How to open store on JD.COM
PinDuoDuo (C2C)
Quick Snapshot
Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Shanghai, China
CEO: Lei Chen (Since 2020)
Founders: Colin Huang · Chen Lei
Pinduoduo is a C2C online Chinese e-commerce platform. And Pinduoduo is a cheap online shopping App, where you can buy cheap products. We all know that cheapest means poor quality. I mean generally speaking. If you need high quality products, you should avoid purchasing on Pinduoduo. but if you’re going to buy socks, clothes, phone charge cable, such thing doesn’t need to be high quality with low price. Then it’s where you should go.
As for why is Pinduoduo popular in China. One reason is it sold cheap products. The other one is its viral marketing, or I will say illegal viral marketing like a scam.
So, if you’re foreign company want to build brand awareness, you should be very careful of choosing Pinduoduo. However, it all depends on your products are cheap products or not. Needing to build a good brand awareness or not.
Can foreigners sell on Pinduoduo
Yes. overseas company can sell on Pinduoduo, but not recommend unless you has small business with low price products.
Taobao (C2C)
Taobao is a leading C2C Chinese e-commerce platform in China. Taobao owned by Alibaba Group. And Like I said, Tmall was spun off from Taobao. You can say that Taobao is the business that Alibaba started with.
Taobao facilitates consumer-to-consumer retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online stores that mainly cater to consumers in Chinese-speaking regions (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and abroad, which is made payable by online accounts. Its stores usually offer an express delivery service.
Although Tmall and Taobao has been split apart. But you can buy the products from Tmall on Tabao.com anyway. Actually the products from Tmall will rank top on Taobao, especially when you search for products on Taobao.
That said, Chinese may only install Taobao app rather than installing Taobao and Tmall App both. But it doesn’t make any difference. Customers can purchase products both from Taobao and Tmall.
Can foreigners sell on Taobao
Yes, foreigners (individuals) can sell on Taobao, but overseas company not able to sell on Taobao. Overseas company need to sell on Tmall instead.
If you’re individual from outside of mainland China (Not company), and want to sell products or services to China. I highly recommend you open a Taobao store.
Interest e-commerce
In addition to traditional e-commerce I listed above, there is a new forms of Chinese e-commerce boost in China. That’s interest e-commerce.
Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu are the typical interest e-commerce in China.
What is Interest e-commerce
Interest e-commerce is based on the content like, short-videos, livestream, images & text that users interested in. Tons of engaging, interactive and visual content feeds to keep users on the App. Meanwhile help to increase sales as well.
• Product goes for consumer
Traditional e-commerce is consumer goes for product. You need to search for what you want to buy and choose the one you want to order. However, interest e-commerce is the product goes for consumer based on the platform Ai algorithm.
• Impulsive consumption
Searching for product indicates that it’s your full consideration of purchasing, while impulsive consumption on the contrary. Impulsive consumption is sudden and powerful urges that induce consumers to buy immediately without a lot of reflection about the long-term consequences of the purchases.
• Increase sales incredibly
Product going for you and impulsive consumption leads to increasing sales. There is no doubt about that. As China e-commerce platform He has proved that.
Now let’s look at the most popular interest e-commerce platforms in China.
Douyin store
You must familiar with Tiktok, right? Douyin (抖音) is the Chinese Tiktok. Both Tiktok and Douyin owned by ByteDance Group. Douyin e-commerce was released in 2020. And Douyin online supermarket launched in 2023.
Quick Snapshot
Founded: 2016
Founder: ZhangYiming
Headquarters: Beijing, China
MAUs: 680 million (2022)
Douyin is a Chinese social media and Chinese e-commerce (social media + e-commerce) platform holds over 680 million monthly active users (MAUs). We believe Douyin will be next super Chinese social media platform and super Chinese e-commerce platform in China. And of course, Douyin is the typical interest e-commerce platform.
- MAUs: 680 million
- Engaging, interactive UGC (User Generated Content)
- Livestream shopping
WeChat, QQ and Weibo are the old Chinese social medias. If you want to increase brand awareness and increase sales in China. You shouldn’t ignore Douyin.
Can foreigners sell on Douyin
Yes, overseas company can sell on Douyin.
You may also need this: How to open Douyin store
Xiaohongshu store
What are the best China social media marketing tool in 2023? It should be Xiaohongshu and Douyin. They are “social media” + “e-commerce” platform. Xiaohongshu is like a combination of Pinterest & Instagram.
Quick Snapshot
Founded: 2013
Founder: Miranda Qu Fang & Charlwin Mao Wenchao
Headquarters: Shanghai, China
Monthly active users (MAU): 20 million (end of 2021)
Users generation: Gen Y / Z (70%)
Users city: Tier-1 and Tier-2 city (50%)
You may wonder why Xiaohongshu is the best Chinese social media marketing tool in 2023? How come? There is no doubt that Douyin is the best social media marketing tool. But why Xiaohongshu is also a good marketing tool?
Xiaohongshu has only 20 million monthly active users, that far less than WeChat, Weibo. and Douyin.
First, fewer MAUs means less competition. Although China has over 14 population, but it is also a competitive market. fewer MAUs also means it’s the early stage of development. There are more opportunities for your business.
Second, Xiaohongshu is much different from other social media platform. It is a community e-commerce platform. What is the benefit of it?
- Targeted audiences
- High engagement
- Bored for products sharing
User-generated content (UGC) is focusing on product sharing or product reviews. That’s the core difference between Xiaohongshu and other social media platform.
Besides, Xiaohongshu’ s MAUs has over 70% young generations (Gen Y / Z ) and 50% are from Tier-1 and Tier-2 city. Which means the users from Xiaohongshu have strong consumption power and willingness to pay.
Can foreigners sell on Xiaohongshu
Yes, overseas company can sell on Xiaohongshu
As for how to sell on Xiaohongshu, you need to register Xiaohongshu account and then upgrade to Xiaohongshu business Pro account.
You may need: How to open Xiaohongshu store
Kuaishou store
Kuaishou is a short-video sharing, just like Douyin. So it is also a social media and Chinese e-commerce platform. The biggest difference between Douyin and Kuaishou is that the target audiences.
Douyin has more young and tier-1 and tier-2 city users. The content is more fashionable. But Kuaishou has more users from China rural, the content is more focusing on China rural.
Can foreigners sell on Kuaishou
Yes, overseas company can sell on Kuaishou, but basically we will choose Douyin if you only need one of them.
Conclusion
If the overseas company from outside of China wants to sell products to China market. You can choose Tmall, or JD. But if you also want increase brand awareness on Chinese social media. You should consider Douyin and Xiaohongshu. Of course, it all depends on your product category and budget.
We are the mainland China localization Chinese social media agency and China e-commerce operation agency. If you have any questions or help. I’m looking forward hearing from you.
