What is Vipshop & Should Brands Use This Ecommerce Platform To Sell in China

With the increasing numbers of online shoppers in China, many businesses are now relying on eCommerce platforms to help them grow and prosper. There are several e-commerce websites in China, each with its own set of advantages for businesses. However, there is one eCommerce platform that is gaining traction and making a big difference. It is one of the most popular trends in the e-commerce industry. This platform is called Vipshop and it is growing in popularity with international brands looking at additional channels to sell their goods in China.

What Is Vipshop?

Vipshop is quickly becoming one of the most well-known online discount businesses in China. Ya Shen and Xiao Bo Hong founded the corporation with headquarters in Guangzhou, China, on August 22, 2008. Since its debut in 2008, they’ve rapidly expanded its customer base and brand partners.

With its rapid growth and success, Vipshop has established an e-commerce platform that has shown to be incredibly profitable and highly scalable in place of traditional online marketplaces or huge multi-category internet sites.

Vipshop Business Model

VIP Shop is now the world’s largest flash sales website and has a market share of over 38% in China’s online discount market. It has ties to both domestic and international brand agents and manufacturers. The platform’s products are very affordable in comparison to other leading eCommerce platforms and competitors such as Tmall and JD.com.

Vipshop sells high-quality, well-known branded products to Chinese customers at a significant reduction from retail prices. They specialize in:

• High-end, fashionable clothes
• Cosmetics and beauty products
• Home furnishings
• Luxury goods
• Gifts
• Miscellaneous

Customers and brand partners regard the company as an expert and leader in the online discount retail model in China as a result of exclusive offers and huge discounts on branded products.

Two Types of VIP Shop

With warehouses all around China and the world, there are two types of VIP Shop: VIP.com and VIP International. 

VIP.com

Vip.com is an online store of Vipshop Holdings, Ltd that sells products all across China. Its net revenues from eCommerce are nearly completely generated in Greater China. 

In terms of product selection, vip.com is a one-stop-shop for everything, with a variety of categories to choose from, including:

• Fashion
• Toys
• Hobby & DIY
• Food
• Personal Care
• Many more

Buyers’ demographic of VIP.com

• VP.com has been used by over 300 million Chinese people
• Buyers that are very brand conscious and price-conscious.
• Buyers are mostly urban and educated Chinese people looking for lifestyle enhancements
• Both male and female shops at VIP.com

VIP International

In 2014, Vipshop decided to launch VIP International, a website dedicated to international sales. The website differs from Vip.com in that all of the products are from other countries. China has a problem with fake products and a lack of authenticity. One of the government’s most recent core themes has been directed at ensuring that products aren’t faked on e-Commerce websites and service providers. 

VIP International has established multiple buyer groups in a dozen countries, to ensure that Chinese customers acquire authentic products. Not only are shipping timeframes almost identical to those of domestically purchased products, but VIP International often covers freight charges as well as allows buyers to return things within seven days.

VIP International products are specializing under the following categories:

• Beauty
• Cosmetics
• Apparel
• Jewelry
• And more

NB: Cross-border is an incredibly fast-growing segment of the Chinese e-commerce market. Online marketplace with a cross-border offer such as VIP shop china is multiplying in the country and giving brands that are not yet registered in China and opportunities to try the water as well as competitive advantages when it comes to taxes and logistics for instance.

Buyers’ demographic of VIP International:

• Females make up about 80% of the buyers.
• Female buyers were born between the 1980s and the 1990s.
• Buyers reside in smaller cities known as third- and fourth-tier cities.
• Buyers that are looking for authentic products.

Should Brands Consider Vipshop as an Ecommerce Platform To Sell Products in China?

With Vipshop quickly growing in the eCommerce business and millions of online buyers in China, brands could undoubtedly offer their products through Vipshop and capitalize on the platform’s scaling trend. 

Though Vipshop is still relatively small in comparison to Tmall and JD, which dominate the national and international E-Commerce markets, Vipshop is the favored online flash sales channel in China for well-known domestic and international brands. Vipshop revenue and sales are increasing, assisting many brands, large and small, to earn revenue and sell products quickly.

Benefits of Selling on Vipshop for Brands in China

As China’s third-largest e-commerce company specializing in the online fashion sector, Vipshop provides numerous benefits to brands that sell their products on the platform.

1. Consumers’ desire to buy is accelerated by flash deals.

Vipshop, China’s most well-known online discount website, can transform consumers’ purchasing needs to the highest level by delivering flash deals and large discounts. Their sales approach allows smaller and not-so-famous brands to enter the Chinese market and create revenue while potentially becoming massive and famous. As a brand owner, whether large or little company, your products can be sold rapidly and become well-known in China and around the world.

2. Inventory Management Solution

Vipshop assists brands in monetizing high volumes of inventory in a short amount of time, increasing consumer awareness of brands and items, reaching new customers across China, and meeting their desire for customer data analysis and inventory management.

3. Customer Identification

Vipshop provides an effective marketing tool for brands to raise consumer awareness across China. Vipshop assists brands in expanding their addressable market of potential customers by delivering products at a price that persuades new consumers to try a brand’s products that they might not have tried or been able to afford otherwise. 

Vipshop also offers brands important data to assist them to fine-tune their product development, sales, and marketing strategies. These customer’s shopping activities and data include:

• Behavior
• Habits
• Shopping trends
• Transactions

4. Reliable Customer Service

In addition to flash discounts and fantastic offers, Vipshop can reliably and efficiently execute customer orders. Vipshop is well-known for providing a great customer experience, delivering products in a timely and dependable manner, and providing quick return services. Vipshop is the industry leader in inventory management, merchandise delivery, and customer service.

5. IT Support

Vipshop has built an IT infrastructure to handle the influx of visitors to its website during the peak hours of daily flash sales. Vipshop’s efficient operation and management systems, combined with a strong IT infrastructure, provide a solid foundation for our continued expansion. 

IT Support include: 

• Warehouse and Logistics Management
• ERP System
• Customer Service System
• Product Information Management.

6. Vipshop Is Available In WeChat Wallet

According to Business of Apps, WeChat is the only app in China with more than one billion active users, and one of just five apps in the world to have done so. Now, Vipshop is available in the WeChat wallet. 

WeChat users will be able to directly access the Vipshop page via the “My Wallet-Third Party Services” portal, choose, and order the things they desire. As a result, consumers might enjoy unexpected benefits while also achieving a higher degree of efficiency while shopping online.

Who Can Become a Merchant on Vipshop and What Are the Requirements?

Vipshop specializes in fashion-related products such as beauty, cosmetics, apparel, and jewelry. If you want to sell your products on Vip Shop China, you must first build your online presence, as Vipshop requires and primarily accept brands that are well-known among Chinese consumers. 

Brands should be legally run companies. Even if your brand is little, as long as it has some recognition, it is welcome at Vipshop.

When submitting an inquiry to Vipshop, the following information is required:

• Company Name
• Email
• Contact Number
• Company’s description
• Website of the company
• Product classification

How Much Does It Cost To Become a Vipshop Merchant?

As a brand selling products on the Vipshop website, you are not subject to any membership fees, commissions, deposits, or listing costs. The reason for that is that VIPs pre-purchase your goods. The downside of this model (just like on Kaoloa) is that small brands/brands with low awareness on the market can rarely make it on the app.

Can You Sell Cross-border on Vipshop?

Foreign merchants are permitted to sell cross-border on Vipshop via their overseas businesses. VIP International is VIP Shop China’s cross-border division, accounting for 10% of the cross-border eCommerce market. All products on VIP International are sourced and purchased directly from overseas, whereas Chinese products are sold on VIP.com.

Vipshop Summary

Vipshop is becoming increasingly popular as a wonderful eCommerce site for selling products in China, notably in the fashion industry. With Vipshop as your partner, they will handle all of the challenging aspects of online selling, such as IT support, delivering exceptional customer service, inventory management, and more. Not only will your brand sell swiftly as a result of their flash sales and great deals, but your brand could also potentially blow up in the Chinese market and around the world.

To go Further: eCommerce in China is unavoidable

The number of online shoppers in China has been steadily expanding, from under 34 million in 2006 to over 466 million a decade later, allowing the country’s e-commerce business to explode. In China, the penetration rate of digital buyers was close to 57% in 2021. In 2019, China’s gross merchandise volume of online shopping reached rmb9.9 trillion in 2020.

Additionally, the number of mobile e-commerce users in China from 2016 to 2020 states that China’s population of online buyers using mobile devices reached 788 million in 2020, up from 713 million in 2019. Out of the predicted 985.8 million mobile internet users, the number of mobile online shoppers was reached 842 million in 2021.

When doing e-commerce in china, don’t neglect branding

However, china’s huge online shopper user base does not mean you’ll succeed on the market. One can not just open a store and expect to sell right away. Any brand serious about the market will have to put the work in through:

• Chinese Social Media Marketing: best way to build your brand awareness and engage with your target audiance. There are many chinese social media out there, and we would generally recommend brand to at least look at Wechat & Weibo. Wechat because its too big to ignore and not having an official account on it will be harmfill (aka if you are not on wechat you are not a real brand) and weibo because of the many marketing tools it offers brands and its viral (à la twitter) potential.
• KOL/ KOC & Live streaming marketing: Chinese consumers are heavily infuenced by word of mouth and products recommendations. Traditionnaly, this would happens within the social circle of a consumer but with the developpement of online technology, this phenomena extented to online celebrities of all size.
• Baidu SEO & PPC: This one is crucial for visibility and credibility. Baidu is the 1st step in chinese consumers buying process. With no presence on Baidu, a brand can’t expect to gain the trust of its customers base. Just like anyone in the west would be wary of a brand non existent on Google, chinese consumers are wary of brand that can’t be found on their search engine of choice.
• Undercover marketing through forums and q&a: this one comes as a support in the context of a 360°c marketing strategy and is excellent to help you with ORM (online reputation management)

A presence on each of these poles will not only open you the doors of any Chinese online marketplaces (and potentially Chinese distributors) but also get you the trust of consumers while increasing your visibility. In the long term, meaning a reduced acquisition scot paired with a better conversion rate.

Want to have your products listed on VIPShop?

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