China’s Top 11 Ecommerce Platforms

“Consolidation” is the name of the ecommerce game in China. The country’s top

platforms are growing so fast as to make smaller ones non-viable.

Takeaway:

11 Dang dang

Sales in 2013: $600m !YOY Growth: 46% !Daily Page Views: 2.3m !Members: 15.7m !Monthly Orders: 1.93m

What started out as primarily an online bookstore obviously branched out, into household merchandise, cosmetics, digital, appliances, and more. !Is it for you? Once strictly retail, Dang Dang is now offering vendors their own stores. With over 40% of China’s online shoppers having made a purchase on Dang Dang, the platform certainly has legs for brand-building, although not nearly the power of other platforms.

10 Vancl

Sales in 2013: $1.4b !YOY Growth: 50% !Daily Page Views: 598,500 !Members: 10m !Monthly Orders: .27m

Deftly cribbing the ‘real-folks’ branding of the Gap, and melding it with Zara’s devastating time to market with knock-offs of high fashion, Vancl is one of the few top ten ecommerce platforms in a definite niche. !Is it for you? No. Their brand, their clothes.

9 VIPSales in 2013: $1.75b !YOY Growth: 135% !Daily Page Views: 4.9m !Members: 50m !Monthly Orders: .28m

“Discount luxury” is the concept upon which VIP’s platform metastasizes. Flash sales, in which a Chinese shopper might save up to 90% on an ostensibly upscale handbag, keep the punters checking in daily. !Is it for you? Have you ever heard of Kisscat, pictured above? Nor we, admitted non-VIPs that we are. VIP uses its reputation to promote all manner of brands as the world’s most luxurious, with under-informed Chinese shoppers so far none-the-wiser. You can fool some of the people some of the time…

8 GOMESales in 2013: $9b !YOY Growth: 126% !Daily Page Views: 8.1m !Members: 100m !Monthly Orders: N/A

Gome (pronounced “gwoh – may”) was China’s reigning appliance/electronic big box chain, before the ecommerce revolution. Since then, Gome’s physical stores grow increasingly shuttered, as the company does a creditable job of repositioning. The sales and member figures above are for online/offline sales combined. !Is it for you? No. A relic of less competitive times, Gome will treat your brand as a state-owned-enterprise would, with brutal inefficiency.

7 Yihaodian (1Mall)Sales in 2013: $1.8b !YOY Growth: 68% !Daily Page Views: 2.9m !Members: 57m !Monthly Orders: .48m

1 Mall had a great thing going as China’s online food market of choice. Further to investment by Walmart, it seems to have an even better thing going. !Is it for you? 1 Mall also offers vendors their own stores within the ecosystem, but is primarily a retail platform. Walmart’s strategy most likely does not hinge around empowering private vendors to seamlessly promote and manage their own products.

6 YixunSales in 2013: $1.1b !YOY Growth: 90% !Daily Page Views: 1.02m !Members: over 10m !Monthly Orders: .36m

Yixun was the go-to site for electronics & electronic components, before deciding like its fellow top tenners that a super long tail was more lucrative. Actually, Yixun is still primarily thought of as a place for good deals on electronics. Motor oil, not so much. !Is it for you? Perhaps. Yixun is a retailer only recently experimenting with brand stores. If you’re a global electronics brand, you doubtless have quasi-sanctioned distributors using it as a channel, though.

5 AmazonSales in 2013: N/A !YOY Growth: 38% !Daily Page Views: 10.4m !Members: N/A !Monthly Orders: 2.4m

10 years in, and Amazon is still a distant third to the true giants of China B2C ecommerce, detailed below. !Is it for you? A familiar western platform is nice. Getting squeezed out by much more robust native giants, bad. It’s tough not to think of Google as a cautionary tale in this case, although that is a tad extreme, as Amazon’s about products, not information, a much more sensitive commodity.

4 XiaomiSales in 2013: $6b !YOY Growth: 135% !Daily Page Views: 2.8m !Members: N/A !Monthly Orders: N/A

You want Chinese innovation? Here it is, perhaps not in product but in concept and service. Founder Lei Jun fancies himself a Sino Jobs, flipping the script by letting external developers dictate new updates, and by only offering his products online. !Is it for you? Yes, as a lesson in the power of China’s Internet. Xiaomi has built its brand entirely online.

3 SuningSales in 2013: $17.5b !YOY Growth: 7% !Daily Page Views: 9.03m !Members: 20m (online) !Monthly Orders: N/A

Suning was Gome’s main competitor in the brick-and-mortar arena, and is clearly ahead in the ecommerce game, rapidly changing game though it is. !Is it for you? No, for the same reasons as Gome’s.

2 JDSales in 2013: $16.8b !YOY Growth: 83% !Daily Page Views: 15.25m !Members: 100m+ !Monthly Orders: 4.33m

360 Buy, Jingdong, and now JD, the platform changes names like a rapper trying for ever more cred-worthy personas. For a store that began in opticals, however, its 20% of China B2C market share is laudable. !Is it for you? Still primarily a retailer, but with offerings for branded stores, JD is a legitimate ecommerce channel consideration, especially for clearing up gray market, due to its size and reach.

1 Tmall

Sales in 2013: $57b !YOY Growth: 68% !Daily Page Views: 147m !Members: 500m+ !Monthly Orders: 19.5m

Quite simply the king (emperor?) of China ecommerce. Notice the layout familiar to all the other platforms mentioned save VIP’s and Amazon’s? Tmall pioneered it. With over 50% of China’s B2C ecommerce, Tmall is the online shopping hub.

1 Tmall

Is it for you? If you’re going to go with a 3rd party platform (click here if you’re considering), yes. Tmall has been about vendors managing their own brands from the get-go, and is always improving its suite of marketing/advertising services to help them. Every other big platform is mimicking its progress or trailing lamentably behind. Accept no substitute.

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