Interview

Where does a standalone webshop stand in China eCommerce?

For many western brands, China could be one of the only few markets that brings about very strong mixed feelings. On the one hand, you can effortlessly find on pretty much all the major news outlets jaw-dropping stories about how some Western brands are making millions, if not billions, in China’s online world. On the other hand, just the thought of opening up a webpage filled with Chinese characters or speaking to a rude and sometimes unprofessional Account Manager from one of the large eCommerce companies may already give you a headache. And I have not even started with the censorship. However, China is also no mystery. Just like doing business in all other emerging markets, you just need to figure out what is the magic button.

When thinking of China eCommerce, the first thing that pops into your mind might as well be Alibaba or Jack Ma. Indeed, Alibaba keeps surprising the world with its strong capacities to engage Chinese e-shoppers and to monetize their shopping sprees. On the 2017 edition of Singles’ Day, it only took Nike 59 seconds to achieve a gross merchandise value of 100 million CNY or 13 million EUR. As a result, such B2C marketplaces are still the top choice for market entry to China’s ever-evolving eCommerce world as they account for majority of Chinese consumers’ online shopping activities.

Over time, Chinese millennials, or the post-80s/90s generations, are taking over as the main force that drives China’s consumer market forward. They are well-educated, demanding, and suspicious. It takes more than product reviews or a simple KOL live streaming show to convince them that your brand is worth their attention. What they ask for, probably without realizing it themselves, is a complete and topnotch online touching point experience. Many Western brands, larger or smaller, are racing to deploy a multichannel online experience.

In a consumer study by iResearch, stand-alone brand websites come in 3^rd, right after eCommerce marketplaces and offline stores, as the most often used information channels for Chinese e-shoppers.

So to launch a standalone brand website would be a crucial part of a winning China eCommerce strategy. There can be many benefits of having an official brand website, with or without shopping functionalities— among which are greater exposure opportunities, positive associations, higher retention rates, and diversified investment portfolios. Yet, the most important benefit of having a standalone website would be the ability to test, experiment, validate all your hypotheses. It may sound like a “moo point” to you but please keep in mind that the marketplaces, like JD, Tmall, and Suning, all have very strict rules on your webshop layout, UX model, product offerings, and so on; all of which means very little room to be creative and flexible.

How the crocodiles do it?

Below are a few cases in which Western brands are making use of their websites for something otherwise either taboo or simply impossible on Tmall or JD.

Adidas. Adidas has launched the customization services, Miadidas, on their standalone website. It’s rather unimaginable that a Chinese marketplace could break their own rules to allow companies offering such services.

Lancôme. The French luxury giant integrates their e-Magazine on their official eCommerce website, as an additional benefit. The customers can still have almost the same shopping experience with the brand store on Tmall/JD.

IKEA. IKEA integrates their own membership system with what looks like a pilot eCommerce website as they can only ship to customers in Shanghai, for now. By joining the membership online, one can shop with the member-only price both online and offline.

Again, these benefits may seem trivial on the Western standards. When it comes to China eCommerce, the tradeoff between channel adoption – what a marketplace can GUARANTEE –, and freedom to CUSTOMIZE, – benefit of having a standalone website-, has always been a pickle for eCommerce Managers accustomed to Western landscapes.

Since the past few years, we have seen an increasing number of brands utilizing both eCommerce channels. It seems that more Chinese consumers are accepting standalone websites as a credible sales channel—both Adidas and Lancôme have achieved a month onsite traffic higher than 2 million already. Indeed, why not to become a front runner and have both—a well-operated listed Tmall store and a well-crafted standalone website?

Powering through your project in baby steps

Then, the question becomes how? Well, launching a website in China can be a bit different from the Western norms. They are usually seven steps before you can start directing traffic and improve engagement intensity on your website:

Step 1. Getting the right legal documents

The Chinese government requires all companies hosting a website in China to have the Internet Content Provider certificate. To acquire this certificate, a Chinese Business License is required.

Having troubles with applying for the Chinese Business License? Hosting in Hong Kong can be a quick-and-easy solution. Alternatively, you can look up webshopinchina.

Step 2. Confirming your objectives

It is advisable to start this step by reviewing your internal resources—Marketing, Merchandising, Fulfillment, IT and Customer Care, to name a few. Then, project scoping is of utmost importance—you would need to make sure all your objectives are mirrored by the corresponding designs or features and all the redundant ones are left out. After all, missing out important features will render the whole project valueless, while being a scope creep would cause otherwise avoidable delays. In addition, doing competitive analysis, conducting user research, and planning marketing/sales efforts in this step is also highly recommendable, if not absolutely necessary.

If you are still new to China, then a website alone may NOT offer the greatest sales prospects at first. Instead, it’s advisable to focus on rolling out compelling contents—nice stories, videos, and/or interactive campaigns made with HTML5 webpages—that can faster gain trust from your consumers. You might also want to ensure that Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, are all replaced with Weibo, WeChat, Tencent Video and/or Douban.

It’s also advisable to work with a Chinese partner just to ensure that you are putting the “correct” priorities in your wish list. Before diving into the development process, have your IT staff and partner to work on a list of toolkits that have Western equivalents and are available in the country. The ones you have possibly taken for granted for might not be accessible from China.

Please also keep in mind that Chinese consumers can be a bit more difficult to impress than you were expecting. Stereotypes such as the Chinese prefers more text, screaming designs, and tacky visuals should be put to a non-recyclable trash bin forever. At this point, it’s better to have your Chinese partner or Chinese speaking staff to perform a competitor analysis summarizing a UX model that your top 5 competitors are seem to using.

Step 3. Development

Next, registering domains, visual designs, and backend development will be main deliverables. Closely communicating with your IT vendor and monitoring the project rollout is an important task. Plus, you should definitely spend time maintaining, updating and circulating all documents created in the previous step. All stakeholders, internal and external, should stay on the same page at all time.

As over 80% of online transactions in China take place on mobile devices now, you would also need to make sure that your partner will make the site fully responsive to mobile devices.

Step 4. Pre-launch

You don’t have to launch your website after everything is done to perfection. In fact, it’s recommendable to launch a semi-finial version and let your audience tell you if the current version is a keeper or not. But needless to say, SEO proofing, User Acceptance Tests, and other QA measures should be performed whether you are going lean or sticking to the classic way.

Before (lean) launch, you might also want to consider using some of the UX applications to monitor user interactions and elicit visitor insights.

Step 5. Maintenance, Optimization, & Integration

Post-launch maintenance should not be neglected in any way. It’s one thing to protect your website from virus, hackers, and breaches. It’s another to make sure your product offerings, contents, and designs are up to date and everything in the backend is working properly.

Make sure your Chinese partner has registered your website at Baidu, Sogo, and/or 360 and start building your e-reputation by crafting a Baidu Knows page, starting a stream on Zhihu, the Chinese Quora, or planning Baidu PPC campaigns.

You should also have your Marketing staff or your Chinese partner report to you weekly how the website is performing. It’s advisable to use Baidu Analytics but Google Analytics may also do the job, if you insist. One or two times of (micro) optimization is recommended every one to three months. It cannot be overemphasized how important it’s to keep your site not just nice and shining but also relevant.

That will be all for now. Hope you have a better idea about how to get a well-functioning standalone website in China!

Want to know more about Chine eCommerce? Leave your email address below and I will send you our practical guidebook of setting up an online store or a standalone webshop in China today.

Not for publication: the contents above, including text and banners, are not for commercial publication. Full copyrights of the above contents, including text and banners, belong to WebshopinChina BV. For inquiries on media partnership, please contact the writer Zi Wang at zi@webshopinchina.com.

Zi is an eCommerce Specialist at WebshopinChina.com.

It’s said that 80 percent of new businesses fail within two years. Launching a company in a foreign culture makes the challenge even more difficult. But if you do your homework and cultivate your patience and will power, you can start a successful business in a strong market such as China.

Do Your Research

One of the first things you should do is become familiar with the five-year plan published by the Chinese government. Among other things, it outlines the type of businesses they welcome. This makes it easier if your industry falls into these categories.

Outsiders have been trying to grab a share of China’s booming business climate for decades. There are people all over the world who might share stories of successes and failures that can serve to guide your decisions.

One of the best ways to meet these people is to attend of China’s five major trade shows:

• Beijing Auto Show
• Shanghai Import and Export Commodity Fair
• Canton Fair
• Yiwu Trade Fair
• Bauma Fair

What takes place at these shows is growing in influence as Chinese technology and the Chinese economy continue to improve.

Hire a Local Consultant

China’s economic growth in 2016 was 6.7 percent, exceeding expectations, and its disposable income grew accordingly. While the Chinese business markets continue to improve, there are still many challenges facing entrepreneurs who wish to establish a presence in China.

One step in ensuring a smoother process is to have someone with experience to advise you on registering a company there. A Chinese business consultant can help with filing the correct paperwork and act as your agent when you’re away. However, it’s up to you to do your diligence in finding an experienced consultant to work with.

Decide on a Type of Business Entity

In general, there are three business legal entities that entrepreneurs choose for operating a company in China.

Representative Offices

This is just what it sounds like, and not a separate legal entity from a parent company. As a result, there are certain limitations in China, particularly not being able to accept payment directly from Chinese clients. This is appropriate for something like a marketing or informational office. However, the Chinese government still expects you to pay taxes on any income that’s generated.

Joint Venture

A joint venture is a company controlled in a partnership between foreigners and Chinese business people. It’s usually associated with tech startups. Given the ongoing problems with protecting intellectual property in China, this could be risky. However, if your product falls into a specific category, such as a software release whether on or offline, you may be “restricted” so that a joint venture is your only option.

Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise

This is any company in China that’s wholly owned by foreign investors. It commonly takes the form of an LLC, or limited liability company, where each partner’s share is proportional to the amount of their investment. Depending on the nature of the company and the province where it’s located, you might also be required to register a bank deposit to ensure the payment of dividends. There’s also a complex legal process should you later decide to sell the company.

Work More. Work Fast.

In the U.S., it’s customary for employees to work a 40-hour week, eight hours a day. Chinese workers are used to 12-hour shifts, including Saturdays. Even if you want to call in your team for a Sunday meeting, it seldom raises complaints.

This additional labor time means you can carry out more projects and complete them more quickly.

However, it’s not unusual for a change in business strategy to happen after hours, depending on the situation, when you’re already home for the night. It’s even more important to implement efficient operational processes. Employees in the U.S. should be able to communicate, share data, and coordinate their efforts with their Chinese counterparts at any time in the course of project development.

Hiring in China

The employment scenario in China is rather different than American executives are used to, so it might be a good idea to work with a hiring agency or consultant in China. An alternative is to hire someone in the U.S. who’s experienced with Chinese business practices and instruct them in your company mission and values before sending them ahead to start recruiting on your behalf.

Ideally, this person should be fluent in Chinese, but that’s secondary to the need for real business acumen. This is vital, because they’ll essentially be building your company from the ground up on Chinese soil.

With a trusted manager in place, you can start developing your workforce to encompass the skills and talents you need. You should also stress the importance of signing contracts and publishing employee handbooks or codes of conduct that cover disciplinary actions such as firings. If you don’t, you could find it difficult to fire anyone without facing a lawsuit in the Chinese courts.

To sum it up, China’s booming economy and technology pose a significant opportunity for foreign business leaders. To succeed, however, it’s essential that you’re familiar with Chinese laws, as well as conditions in China regarding labor practices, and able to communicate effectively. Whether you hire consultants or work out the details yourself, there’s potentially a huge market there for Western goods and services.

Jen McKenzie is a self-employed author hailing from New York, NY. She writes extensively on business, education and human resource topics. When Jennifer is not at her desk working, you can usually find her hiking or taking a road trip with her two dogs. You can reach Jennifer @jenmcknzie

If you’re planning an upcoming move to China from the U.S., you’ll likely be importing a good portion of your household items (including your car). You may not know where to start, and what regulations, forms, taxes and duties are involved. Educating yourself on the process is important, as Chinese customs is quite strict and you’ll need to have all of your paperwork in place. If you fail to do so – high penalties, fines, added fees and even demurrage may be levied.

Documentation and Paperwork.

Acquiring an Import Permit.

Having the appropriate paperwork submitted to the proper authorities is vital, and you aren’t even allowed to import your items until you obtain an Import Permit. In order to do so, you’ll first have to apply for a visa at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. This visa will allow you to enter China (not as a tourist), and once inside the country you can apply for the required Health Certificate. Once you receive your Health Certificate, you then need to apply for a Work Permit from the Department of Labor in China.

With your Work Permit in hand, you must then apply for a Resident Permit from the Foreign Affairs Office. Once your Resident Permit is approved, you can then submit your application for an Import Permit to the customs office. Attempting to bring in your household goods without this Import Permit is not allowed, and will result in your shipment being impounded by customs (1).

Additional Regulations.

Chinese customs requires that you are already present when your shipment arrives, and you’re only allowed a maximum of one ocean and one air shipment per Residence Permit. Be aware that air shipment duty rates are usually 30% more than for ocean shipments – so a single ocean shipment is the most economical option. Also, if your Work and Residence Permits are shorter than 12 months in duration, you won’t receive any duty exemptions on your shipments (2).

In addition, you must provide packing and inventory lists – and it’s vital that these documents match. Otherwise, your shipment will take significantly more time to clear customs, and you may be hit with considerable fees. It’s even possible that your shipment will be denied entry altogether, at which point it will either be returned to the origin country or even destroyed. Therefore, take extra care to ensure that your packing and inventory lists match and are fully in order. Ask an international mover if they can provide you with templates for these lists, as it will save you some time.

This is not an exhaustive list of the various forms and documents you’ll need, which can be found here.

Duties and Taxes.

Import Exemption Doesn’t Cover All Items.

While you’ll receive some relief from import duties when you have a Residence and Work Permit good for more than one year, some items will still incur duties. These include major electronics such as televisions, computers, air conditioners, refrigerators, washers and dryers, printers, stereos and so on.

All of your personal furniture is also subject to import duty, and this includes pianos. Customs requires that items which are subject to duties or have restrictions on quantity be clearly marked on your inventory list. These items must also be packed last, so they can be readily inspected by customs officials without difficulty (4).

Keep in mind that multiples of large appliances like tv’s or refrigerators, may lead the customs official to decide that your shipment contains commercial goods. You should avoid this at all costs, as this designation could make clearing customs quite challenging (5).

Duty Rates.

Though a portion of your shipment may be duty-free (items like clothing and kitchenware fall into this category), the items covered above aren’t exempted. In addition, alcohol, tobacco, motorcycles and motor vehicles, and even your personal effects are all subject to import taxes and duties.

You can expect to pay between 10 – 30% of the assessed value (determined by customs), to cover all of the import tax and duties. One source has this figure at approximately 17% for motor vehicles, though the exact percentage is subject to change (7). In addition, you’ll also need these documents when planning to import your personal motor vehicle.

As you can see, the process of moving all of your belongings to China from America is quite elaborate. Due to the complexities involved and the potentially large cost for any errors, it is highly recommended that you employ a qualified international moving company. They’ll be knowledgeable about the intricacies that come with importing shipments into China (including your personal vehicle), and can be an invaluable resource for you to rely upon.

Either way, when you take care to inform yourself about all of the steps necessary to bring your household with you – your move into China can be completed in a streamlined and problem-free manner.

China is a home to 1.3 billion people. It is rich in resources and has become one of the leading world powers in defense and energy sector. I would be lying to everyone if I state that Chinese people just made themselves great in this century. The whole world knows this nation is destined to rule the globe one day. Chinese are known to do magic with their work. We have a present example of The Great Wall of China to back our statement. Over the Centuries, China has not only made The Great Wall, but also some other Wonders of the World; such as The Forbidden City, Terra Cotta Army, Shi Bao Zhai Temple and more. Today, China is in continuous development and if you visit this Land of Wonders, you may come across many other Modern Wonders of the World and other Engineering Marvels you haven’t heard about yet.

A structural Wonder is first developed and designed as a building with an ambition to make it special. Chinese engineers and architects are ruthless and determined to the core. Designing and building an engineering marvel is a norm for them. Tourists travel to China from all over the world, to see Chinese engineering geniuses and wonders. If you want to visit China in the near future, you can book your cheap airline tickets with UK Travel Agency flights. Although you may know many of their modern man-made wonders, you may not have heard about the following 7 Chinese Engineering Marvels. So read this article and know more about them. We recommend you to include them on your to-do list in China.

1. Three Gorges Dam

When we talk about Dams, the first thing comes to our mind is a huge water reservoir which we have seen in our local country and admired. But when we talk about Three Gorges Dam, nothing even comes near when we compare it with any other Dam, especially not the one you have seen; as it is in a league of its own. The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam. It is also the world’s biggest concrete structure and the total cost to build it was 56 billion USD. It became fully functional in 2012 and is capable of producing 22 gigawatts of power.

You can go there when you visit China and we guarantee you will be left in the state of awe. It is located in Yangtze region and is one of the best spots for cruise ships. We recommend you to take a Yangtze River cruise to see the full might of this dam.

2. Bullet Train

We have bullet trains in France, Spain, Japan and other countries but none of them compares with Chinese Grandest Bullet Train System. It is considered a modern engineering wonder of China and is about 22,000 kilometers long. This state of the art bullet train is also one of the best and cheapest way to travel in China. It is convenient and comfortable and can get you anywhere in China in a jiffy.

3. The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge

The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is the world’s longest bridge. China has some longest bridges in the world and they are all high speed. This bridge is 164.8 Km long and it was completed in 2011. If you plan to visit China, you should also plan to cross this bridge once.

This bridge is a part of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, and it bisects low lying terrain in the Yangtze Delta, river, lakes, and rice paddies.

4. The Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge

The Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge is the longest glass bridge in the world. It is also the highest glass bridge ever made. This bridge is an example of creativity and passion towards inventiveness. Don’t just plan to visit it, walk over it for an extra adrenaline rush.

5. The Shanghai Tower

Speaking of Chinese Engineering Marvels, one cannot ignore the second highest standing man-made structure in the world. The Shanghai Tower is a 632-meter, 128 stories mega-tall Skyscraper. It also offers the view of changing colors at the horizon from its highest observation deck. This building is equipped with the fastest elevators in the world and is one of the modern wonders of the world. Every aspect of this building is a record of some sort, so don’t miss the chance to visit it.

6. Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Apart from state of the art bullet trains, China is also home to the world’s highest train service which also includes the highest train station and highest railway tunnel. It is one of the greatest engineering feats in modern world’s history.

With the completion of this railway track, China has made it easy for people to travel to Tibet, which was not easy to access before.

7. China National Highway 314 – Karakorum Highway

China National Highway 314, or more commonly known as Karakorum highway, is one of the highest paved roads. This road connects China to Pakistan through the highland and mountains of Xinjiang Uyghur region; and is of very much strategic importance. This highway was made with amazing Chinese engineering and labor hard work. There are many tunnels and one can enjoy a comfortable car or a bus ride through it into the mountains. You can see amazing mountains that are 7000 meters high, along with Yellow River and other beautiful lakes.

My name is Kazim Raza and I am a professional blogger & work as a digital marketing expert at flights to Copenhagen travel agency. If want to work with smart minded people and their payroll doesn’t matter for them then you are capable to afford me. I love to do branding because I’ve nine-year-old affair with it.

My aim is to work with all those people who want to do business with their business names only. They have vision and they are mature enough to play smartly.

If you can do work with that mentality then dare to contact me I would convert your coffee into a mindset which you should have for your business to bring it on next level.

 

Working as a digital nomad has become increasingly popular over the last few years, and choosing to become one has its advantages and drawbacks. Being able to travel and make money at the same time is a very appealing idea. If you think you’re disciplined enough to balance out business and pleasure on your trips, then you should definitely think about working while traveling. However, there are numerous things that could go wrong on such journeys, and here are a few tips on how to avoid them.

Always plan ahead

First of all, it’s absolutely crucial to have a detailed plan on how you’re going to organize your typical day. You’ll have to establish some routines. If you don’t do that, you might end up not being focused enough while working, while on the other hand not enjoying your free time because you know you’re behind schedule with your work.

Your plan will, naturally, depend on the type of job you do, amount of work you have, as well as what you intend to do on your trips and your general habits and routines. It’s vital that you don’t think about work during your free time and vice versa – if you don’t separate the two, you’ll get yourself into trouble and you’re not going to enjoy your stay. Also, have in mind you’ll always need a few days to adapt to a new place, especially if there’s jet lag. So try to design your plan in such a way that you don’t have to work too much in the first few days and that you don’t stay at new places for less than a week.

Break your tasks down

It’s often hard to focus when you know there’s a huge project ahead of you and you haven’t even started working on it. Just the thought of the amount of effort you need to put in might be discouraging, especially if you’re on the road. Therefore, it’s important to take baby steps. Break big tasks into little bits, and think only about completing the next stage. It will be easier for you to concentrate and start working, and the sense of accomplishment after every finished stage will continually push you through your next task.

Work space

One of the things you should seriously think about if you choose to work while traveling is your work space. Ideally, your hotel room or the flat you’re renting can serve as one. But if you’re the type of person that gets distracted a lot when working from home, then working from a hotel room might be even more difficult. In addition to your coy bed and cable TV, there’s a whole world of things out there to discover at this new place and it’s hard to resist to just go out and play. That’s why you should consider other options as well.

In places where there are a lot of freelancers and digital nomads, such as Australia for instance, it’s not difficult to find an inexpensive co-working space or office for rent. Serviced offices are also a reasonable option, because they are more affordable and available immediately or on a short notice. You can find them in buildings run by facility management companies that will provide you with support staff as well. It’s easy to contact them online, so if you’re traveling around places like Australia, renting a serviced office in Melbourne or Sydney is simple and quick.

Charging your devices

Sometimes, you won’t be able to plan everything ahead and you’ll have to carry your laptop around while sightseeing or exploring the city, because you have a scheduled conference call or some work that can’t be postponed. Get used to always having your chargers with you and get an external charger in case there’s no power supply. It’s necessary to carry these with you at all times, since for you they’re just as important as your wallet or documents. Getting a solar-powered charger is not a bad idea as well. It’s easy to use the lack of power supply as an excuse and you simply mustn’t do that.

Prepare for offline situations

There will be times on your trip when there’s simply no internet whatsoever, especially while on the plane or on the bus. A solution to this problem is to download everything you might need in advance, so that you can do some work while being offline as well. Copy-paste important emails, download your tasks, projects and even articles about your industry that you wanted to check out. If you planned ahead to dedicate a few hours to your work, it’s important not to waste them, no matter whether you’re online or not.

Everything said above can be summed up into four words – discipline is key. You’ll be constantly tempted to break established routines but avoid that at all costs. Once you break the deal you made with yourself for the first time, there’s a good chance it’ll be happening again and again. Being spontaneous and impulsive on your trip is appealing, but if this is how you’re going to do it, then you should just simply take some time off and travel around. If you want to work and travel at the same time, then you won’t be able to think and act like an ordinary tourist, and the sooner you realize that, the better.

Lauren Wiseman is marketing specialist, contributor to bizzmarkblog.com  and entrepreneur. She helps clients grow their personal and professional brands in a fast-changing and demanding market, strongly believing in a holistic approach to business.