Newegg have just announced that they will be launching a standalone China Marketplace later this year, which will be the first of a few new Market entries in 2017. They have ambitions to launch in 20 new countries in the course of the next year.
Newegg are a retailer without physical stores, but alongside their own products they enable third party merchants to list inventory and sell to their customers.
The 20 new Newegg marketplaces
The new marketplaces will allow US and European manufacturers and retailers to sell products to consumers in other countries. Existing marketplace sellers will be able to list products on foreign marketplaces through Newegg’s Seller Portal system, which allows sellers to target listings and prices by region.
Newegg currently allows customers from eight English-speaking countries to shop from Newegg’s US and European marketplace merchants online. The countries Newegg is expanding this year will either have access to purchasing goods from Newegg’s current marketplace or a separate site translated into local languages.
Newegg in China
However, Newegg sees its biggest opportunity in China, although this is a tough territory to crack with Alibaba’s marketplaces accounting for about 80% of the Chinese e-retail market. The Newegg Chinese marketplace will incorporate local payment options, including mobile and social payment methods. Newegg also will have a mobile app just for Chinese consumers, as the majority of consumers in the country shop using smartphones.
Newegg’s competitive advantages for sellers over dominant Chinese marketplaces is their relationship with its existing US and European seller base and the ability to address the challenges of selling into China, such as cross-border fulfillment. Chinese consumers have voracious appetites for genuine US and European branded goods and are sometimes wary of purchasing from Chinese retailers in case the goods are counterfeit.
Newegg has a Chinese website, Newegg.cn, where Newegg sells merchandise it owns. The new Chinese site will soon list products from marketplace sellers. When it launches it will sell goods from US and European merchants, but it may allow Chinese retailers to sell on the marketplace if the interest is there.
What’s in it for UK, EU and US retailers?
China has traditionally been a tough market, not just for familiar marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon, but also for retailers who want to list for example on Alibaba’s TMall. With $100k bonds required, local support, shipping, returns, the language barrier and different customer service and support expectations, the Chinese consumer can be quite demanding in Western terms.
Newegg will remove many of the traditional obstacles of selling into China – they’re a retailer who already knows the country and partnering with them could become a key entry point to target Chinese consumers. Plus of course this is just one of 20 new territories that Newegg will open up to third party retailers this year.
