WalkTheChat

How to select the right trade partner for Tmall and WeChat in China?

With a completely unique ecosystem of social networks and e-commerce platforms such as WeChat and Tmall, China can be a challenging ecosystem to launch your brand.

Choosing the right partner can be the most determining factor between success and failure. Here are some guidelines to pick the right company to launch your brand in China.

Overview of the Chinese Digital Ecosystem

The Chinese digital space is still dominated by two companies: Tencent and Alibaba. Tencent owns the messaging & social Apps WeChat and QQ, while Alibaba owns the payment App Alipay, the e-commerce App Taobao and the video platform Youku.

Most companies would, therefore, look first into launching on WeChat and Taobao (or its B2C equivalent Tmall) when getting started in China.

We will look into the best strategies to pick a partner for Tmall and WeChat.

Finding the right Tmall Partner (TP)

What is Tmall?

Tmall is the largest B2C e-commerce platform in China, owned by Alibaba. Alibaba recorded 711 million Annual Active Customers as of December 2019. During the 11th of November 2019 (Alibaba’s annual “Single’s Day” sales festival – the Chinese black Friday), the platform recorded 38.4 billion USD of sales within 24 hours.

The home page of Tmall (12th of May 2020)

What is a Tmall Partner?

In order to operate on Tmall, brands are required to use the service of a Tmall Partner (especially so if they are selling cross-border through Tmall Global).

A Tmall Partner covers the following scope of work:

How to select a Tmall Partner (TP)?

There are several ways for your brand to select a Tmall partner:

How to assess the quality of a TP?

There are several ways to assess the quality of a Tmall Partner:

A list of clients from Baozun, one of the leading Chinese TPs

How much do Tmall Partners charge their clients?

Tmall partners usually charge three types of fees to their clients:

These fees might vary based on the client, the industry, the expected sales volume, and the TP.

Below is a table of fees quoted by 4 different Tmall Partners to the same client.

NameCommissionSet-up fee (USD)Monthly fees (USD)
TP 110%21,00023,000
TP 27%8,5008,500
TP 310%10,000
TP 45%18,00025,000

Although pricing remains in the same ballpark, there are stark differences between TPs. Larger TPs tend to price higher, leveraging the synergies between their different clients as a selling point.

On top of these fees, clients should expect to spend around 25% of their target GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) for the first year in advertising.

Taking into account these fees and the set-up fees charged by Tmall, a brand trying to net 1 million USD of revenue during their first year on Tmall might have to spend 1 million USD in Tmall Partner and marketing fees.

Other marketplaces: JD, Suning, etc.

Tmall has a clear dominating position among Chinese B2C marketplaces. It controls 61.5% of the B2C retail e-commerce market.

Some other platforms might however be relevant, depending on your category:

Most companies would use the same TP for both Tmall, JD and other platforms (JD.com uses the same acronym “TP”, meaning in this case “Technical Partner”).

Launching on multiple platforms will usually multiply the investment without necessarily multiplying sales (because of the dominant position of Tmall). Most brands would start with Tmall and then extend to other platforms such as JD.com once they succeeded in Alibaba’s ecosystem.

Beyond marketplaces: WeChat trade partners

What is WeChat?

With over 1.15 billion monthly active users (MAUs), WeChat is dominating the social media and messaging space in China.

WeChat is a combination of Facebook, Messenger, and Paypal. The App contains three main sections:

The App has impressive engagement rates with users spending 82 minutes per day on average on WeChat.

WeChat stores are e-commerce experiences embedded within WeChat. A brand can make their products available through WeChat by creating a WeChat store.

What is a WeChat Trader Partner?

A WeChat Trade Partner can help you set-up your brand on WeChat and generate sales on the platform.

A WeChat Trade Partner usually covers the following scope of work:

What is the cost of a WeChat trade partner?

Unlike Tmall Partners, most WeChat trade partners would charge fixed fees for operation.

Typical fees would include:

Overall, the total investment for a WeChat launch can be as low as $100,000 USD for the first year of operation, 1/10th of the required amount for a Tmall launch.

How to pick a WeChat trade partner?

Identify brands WeChat Mini-program developers

Unlike Tmall, there is no official listing of partners from WeChat.

One simple way to identify relevant WeChat partners is to look for WeChat Mini Programs from brands you know are doing well in China.

You can do so by opening the Mini-program of the brand and clicking on the “More info” panel. Look into the “Service and data provided by:” section to find out who developed the Mini-program.

Identify brands with a lot of mentions on WeChat or Little Red Book

Brands who are using a high-performing WeChat Trade Partner should also have a lot of mentions on WeChat, Little Red Book, and Chinese other social networks.

You can use the search feature inside WeChat in order to check the number and frequency of mentions from each brand. You will have to scroll to the bottom of each article in order to see the view number for each article.

Ensure the specific scope of the WeChat trade partner

As for Tmall, be aware that brands might use different providers for different aspects of their WeChat operation (WeChat store, design, influencer campaigns, etc.) so be careful to ask each WeChat Trade Partner with their exact scope of work with each client.

Pick a partner with a strong integration capability

If you are using an existing e-commerce solution such as Shopify, try to select a WeChat trader partner with an integration with your current webstore.

E-commerce integration enables you to manage your WeChat store products, inventory and orders directly from Shopify.

 In the case of Shopify, WalktheChat already developed a sales channel which is the first WeChat channel to be published on the platform’s App store:
https://apps.shopify.com/walkthechat-wechat-connector

Look into Shopify experts

If you are a Shopify merchant, Shopify has put together a list of vetted providers who can help with various operations of Shopify operations, including WeChat operations.

WalktheChat is part of the WeChat experts certified by Shopify:
https://experts.shopify.com/walkthechat

Conclusion

Picking the right partner to launch on WeChat and Tmall is essential to your success in China.

A lot of data is available online to assess how brands managed by specific Tmall or WeChat partners are performing. By carefully reviewing this data, you can ensure picking a high-performing partner to launch your brand in Mainland China.