In an media announcement entitled “eBay China Warehousing Deal Benefits All”, eBay Inc. reveals a new deal that they say will help Chinese sellers export to consumers in the US, UK, Germany and Australia.
eBay says the deal with Winit Corporation will “enable Chinese sellers more opportunity to reach overseas markets, providing much wanted inventory to consumers in destination markets like the US, UK, Germany and Australia. It also seeks to provide our sellers more business opportunities in categories such as Home & Garden, Parts & Accessories and for other large and heavy products, while improving the overall retail shopping experience for the customer.”
You can read the full release here.
Apparently the partnership will offer Chinese sellers:
– A one-stop, cross-border supply chain solution, supported by overseas warehousing
– Full-package services ranging from international shipping to overseas warehouse management
– An end-to-end transparent tracking system and business consulting services including inventory management and business expansion.
eBay obviously wants more Chinese sellers exporting to markets such as the UK because the MD of eBay Greater China John Lin says: “We continue to invest in enhancing our China CBT (cross border trade) retail export business and this new partnership helps us bring even more CBT sellers to the market.”
I’m sure some of you will have something to say about this development. Chinese sellers have recently been in the news in the UK with regards to their VAT liabilities.
27 Responses
I give up.
The news broke a while back. Anyone close to Coalville can do a drive by to monitor activity:
https://goo.gl/Sal87t
Will ebay be making the country of origin of the seller clear by putting a nationality flag at the top of each listing? And have seller nationality as part of item specifics?
Will this stop Chinese sellers marking items sold the UK as “Gifts”?
So If I understand this correctly, Chinese sellers will send a shipping container full of stock to this UK warehouse, and when one of their super cheap items sells, it will be packaged and sent from the UK? They likely will evade VAT, Tax, and most other associated business costs which they seem to like doing so much, and essentially turn eBay UK into Ebay China!?
The only edge we have as a UK seller is that our stock is in the UK and can be with our customers within 1 working day. If the Chinese sellers are going to offer the same product for half the price, and can send it next working day, we might aswell pack up business now!
I hope I have read this wrong!
LJ
The Chinese already post stock from the UK while evading VAT and they do this openly with eBay allowing this fraud to continue without repercussions.
All this will do is accelerate the process for many smaller sellers who don’t have fulfillment options in the UK.
My advice would be to get out of any generic chinese made stuff now while you still can – that area will be totally dominated by them and eBay will probably give them preferences in their search engine (and lower fvf fees).
Focus on goods that don’t come from China to survive
To make it clear this is a partnership between ebay China and Winit Corporation.
ebay UK do not appear to be involved.
Winit will no doubt be charging Chinese sellers a fulfilment fee and they will also have to pay UK postage rates which as we know are far higher than China airmail rates. And of course ebay charge fees on postage. And I doubt that Chinese sellers using this service will gain special favour ebay UK fee wise. As far as ebay are concerned it is just another seller.
All this has to be built in to price goods are offered for sale at so it is not all doom and gloom!
The VAT thing is probably of more concern to the UK sellers than this Winit fulfilment thing.
Today’s New York Times:
’Consumer prices fell in the eurozone for the first time since 2009, according to official data released on Wednesday, putting further pressure on the European Central Bank to act to prevent a downward price spiral that could further damage the fragile banking sector and undermine growth for years to come.’
Obviously EBay are seeking to suck profit from the huge export potential offered to Chinese exporters selling their goods in the UK and to ‘control’ this operation to their own particular advantage via postal and warehousing facilities. It will also continue to ‘monopolise’ all sales to their advantage through the EBay sites. Another nail in the coffin of SMEs. It would be interesting to know how much (percentage wise) EBay will be charging these Chinese exporters.
The economic effect of the lowered consumer prices that will certainly follow will effect almost all consumer goods sales and will plunge the UK and other Western markets into an even deeper recession.
Is this destined for the new UK ebay warehouse:-
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11330264/Worlds-largest-container-ship-set-to-arrive-at-the-Port-of-Felixstowe.html
Get with the program guys.
China is here to stay and you have to compete with them.
Please stop this “its so unfair” crap. This is online. Embrace, adapt, compete, and succeed. Competition is a good thing and cheapest usually wins.
If you can’t compete then get out and change your occupation.
Long live the Revolution!! 🙂
Its not luck.
There are many things I don’t like but I prefer to get on with what I can control and do what I need to do to be sucessful instead of whigning and wasting energy on something I have no control over and can not change.
China? Rahh, Rahh, Rahh… So what? Loads of buyers know its better to pay more and order from a reputable supplier. Buyer beware. Increasingly China is losing more and more because of thier shoddy “cheap” products, very long delivery times, and terrible “we don’t give a shit” type of customer service. Their bubble will burst, and then we can all start whinging about the next problem.
I plug that gap and thrive. I suggest you all do the same. Focus on selling product and stop worrying about something you have no control over.
Long live The Revolution!! 🙂
The real trick is finding something WITHOUT competition, or at least very little competition.
I have a nich area. For the first 5 years I was the market leader and kept prices VERY high. By buying agressivly and purchasing all random stock I ensured that I was the only place you could get these items unless you either took a chance on an auction, waited for a random seller to clear his clutter, or paid a premium buying new. Then two assholes saw me making money and decided to try and mussle in. It became a Dutch Auction but I made sure that I was ALWAYS the cheapest. I took the view that I would sell at a loss just to stop them making sales, and even though I may lose money on one item, many customers will buy something else at the same time and I will make a profit on that. Then there is the also benefit/value of a customer gained who is likely to come back in the future or recommend us to his friends. I knew if my competition was only making penny’s then it would only be a matter of time before they would eventually fall.
Combined with great customer service this approach worked and last year my “competitors” went under, mainly because they both had retail shops with an annual overhead of a least 50 or 60k. I am only mail order and work from home and I would have to sell a shit load to make £60k! They tried but could not compete against me. They were stupid trying. One is now a bankrupt, and the other is up to his ears in debt.
I feel nothing for them, frankly they deserved it by trying to capitalise on something someone else has created. They were that sad type of people who can’t figure anything for themselves and feed of the backs of others. They deserve their demise and now they are gone I have zero real competition so I have whacked up my prices and business is on the up.
Long live The Revolution!! 🙂