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listing on china eBay
 

hi all,
i want to start sell on china eBay and i have a questione for all.
can i write in english my insertion? do i have to write in chinese?

thank's for the response

Claudio

Cant imagine what you want to sell to the Chinese.

They have everything and what they don't have they just ⊗⊗⊗⊗ anyway.

Good luck

Why list on china...

If you can make a good profit from China e/b, well then Sir I Salute You.:thumb:

In your shoes OP, I would put up BOTH English and Chinese (though there is no "such" language as "Chinese" - it's Mandarin, Cantonese, or any smaller dialect you wish to use) =)

Er... there is no China eB, there is a HK one, but not a China one... (yes HK is part of China, but not really...but that's a different story).

Also pretty much everyone who is on there is a seller, not a buyer.

Ask a Chinese person what eBay is and they will not have a clue. Or they will answer - oh that's that crappy american site that failed and sidled away with its tail between it's big fat bloated american arse.

There is a reason why eB left China - they can't compete with the local selling sites.

See here: How EBay Failed In China - Forbes

If you want to sell in China you want to head over to taobao.com that place is f*ing awesome.

Can't be used by foreigners though the last time I checked.

If you want to sell in China you need some contacts over here :noidea:

Wrong.
Mandarin refers to the spoken language.
Chinese refers to the written language.
Chinese refers to the language in general.

Chinese is also used to refer to the ethnicity and nationality, which does not have to be the same.
Someone can be ethnic Chinese but American.
We call them ABC - American Born Chinese (haha).

Dialects (not only Chinese dialects) are not recognized as an official language.
Dialects in general are only spoken and any written form of them are not seen as a written language in their right but a variation of the main language.

To the OP,
Chinese people would not read English if there is Chinese text.
But perhaps the English text would be useful for reaching expats in China.

But seriously, I don't see what you can sell to China.
They have everything at a much lower price than anywhere else in the World!

You can make a good business IN China, but not OUTSIDE of China selling to China.

Also, I don't think many people in China use eBay.
eBay is generally not popular at all in Asia.
Chinese people have all their own contraptions for online stuff.
They are like in another World from the rest of the World.
They do not use facebook and youtube.
Instead, they use renrenwang and youku.
Youku is as big as Youtube is, in China.
They do not use Skype or MSN, AOL, etc.; they use QQ.
Some young Chinese people may use facebook and skype if they have foreign friends.

The biggest online selling marketplace in China is called Taobao.
Practically everyone in China shops on Taobao (it's like China's eBay) and things are mostly cheaper on Taobao than eBay, since it's China.
If you want to sell to China, check out Taobao and see if your item is there.
99.99% chance that it is.
In fact, Taobao is getting bigger and they have global sites in other countries too.
Maybe one day, Taobao gets bigger than eBay and opens up in all the western countries in English.
Then I (and many) will have a good laugh at eBay.
And there are multitudes of cheap online shops in China.
I don't see how you can compete with them on price.
And price is a big purchasing factor in China.

Unless you are thinking of selling something very niche.
But not many Chinese are interested in those very niche stuff.
There are some things that China does not have, like saffron.
But if they don't have it, it means they don't need/ want it.
Unless you are thinking of selling to the expat market in China, but then many expats have opened up shops in China selling expat stuff and also cheap.

So........ I'm really wondering what you can sell to China.
I can only buy from China.
I cannot sell to China, even though I can speak and write Chinese.

Oh, there is only one type of product which I think foreigners can sell to China, and that's language teaching material.
But even this, I'm sure there's lots of cheap pirated copies selling in China for pennies, which the Chinese masses would rather buy.
:pop2:

I'm NOT AT ALL surprised that eBay failed in China.
They would never succeed in China in a million years.
What works in the west does not work in the east.
They have different sets of needs, wants and ATTRACTION FACTORS.
ALL the eBay sites in Asia are pretty much dead or dead.
First dead means pathetic sales.
Second dead means shut down.

It took eBay quite a number of years to figure this out, but (surprise surprise), they did!
Just a few years ago, eBay launched Gmarket in Japan, Korea and Singapore.
Gmarket is as successful in these countries as eBay is in US, UK, Europe, Australia, etc.
I do not know how Gmarket became successful but starting around last year, I seem to be hearing everyone shopping on Gmarket in Singapore.

Gmarket looks totally different and works totally differently from eBay.
It has many features and perks, etc.
It DOES NOT have a set of policies thicker than encyclopedia britannica unlike eBay.
There is much freedom for listing on Gmarket.
And, it DOES NOT have VERO (probably a big factor).
I have never heard of the term restriction or suspension on Gmarket.
I don't think there are listing restrictions too but I'm not 100% sure.
There is feedback but you are never penalized for bad feedback.
Oh, and you are NOT forced to link Paypal!
They have buyer protection but it is enforced in a different way and less sucky than Paypal.
There are MANY payment options.
It is a totally different beast from eBay though owned by eBay.
Unconceivable!

eBay's failure in China is not only about the competition with local sites.
A new selling site can compete with China's local sites if done in the right way.
Gmarket actually looks and works like Taobao.
I think eBay copied Taobao and named it Gmarket and lauched it in Asia.
So, Chinese are not the only copycats! Americans do copy Chinese too!
LOL!!! :welcome;
I think eBay is still cracking its head to find a way to suck the Chinese people's money.
It can copy Taobao and launch it in other Asian countries.
But it cannot copy Taobao and be successful in China because there's already the original Taobao. LOL!
And they have no idea how to make a new selling site work in China.

Yahoo auctions is also successful in some Asian countries, like Taiwan.
The bottomline is really that different things appeals to the needs, wants, likes of different people groups.
eBay in Asia? Forget it.
The only way eBay is having a significant presence in Asia now, is as a selling machine used by HK sellers to suck money from the west.
Now that I think about it, maybe that's why the HK sellers seem to get away with murder on eBay?
I see them violating at least 5 policies easily but they can happily go on selling thousands each day on eBay with seemingly no trouble from eBay.
I think eBay is studying them to try to understand Chinese culture and how they can make a successful selling site in China... :spy:
Hahaha... I am sure thinking too much into this!


By the way, foreigners can buy on Taobao as long as they have a Chinese bank account and Chinese address.
Any foreigner can bring their passport and some cash and open a bank account in China. I have done so.
For the address, you will need to have someone in China who can ship the stuff to you then.
I think it's probably the same for selling.

Wow really nice info in this thread. thank you all

Your idea to sell the stuff in china is pretty good,as we known,china is a big big market,there are lot of demand in this big place .

But china ebay do not exist from 2004(except hong kong).Now the big auction site in china is taobao(same company with alibaba)

The only way is sell the stuff on this website if you want to sell the stuff directly to customers in china.

But there are only chinese lanauage ,no other lanauage.

If you want to sell the stuff,you can find a chinese parnter to list or handle things for you .If you have enough fund,you can set a chinese office here and hire some staff to work for you.(shipping the goods to china by sea,and get 1 warehouse and then shipping the goods from there,you can save much cost)

If your stuff are good,chinese people will like it and will buy it.

Im thinking to go to china to buy stock in bulk and ship it to UK. I think I can cut out the middleman in dhg and other wholesaler websites...any thoughts on this please?

I think you would have to buy huge ammounts to make it worth it though as the cost of going to china and staying there and then finding what your looking for would add alot to the price

I think the op meant he wanted to sell on bay china ,to sell to people in his own country items from china ,not sell to the chinese

Seen a few people on bay uk doing it unless some chinese type in english slang haha

well it will be kinda like a working-holiday so no bother there

@Cortex

Depends how big you are talking. Do you mean containers or just some big box fulls?

If the latter and you have patience you can save sooooooo much money by shipping stuff slowly using the national postal service.

If I send something by airmail (14 days delivery), for example it will cost 100rmb, if I ship by SAL (6week delivery) it is about 50rmb, if I send by the slowest option (about 3 months) the price comes down again to like 25rmb or less.

If you send the stuff, you know it has been sent. China Post are pretty reliable too - so your stuff will arrive home, eventually.

You can potentially undercut all of your rivals and still have a nice tasty profit to boot.

I sometimes wish there was two of me - if there was then that is exactly what I would be doing!

Containers, to me, are to big a risk. They involve a huge investment and storage space at the other end.

You could easily pay for your flights and time here with just a few big boxes full of stuff from here.

Head south to Guangzhou - that is where most of the factories are and loads of shops selling the stuff.

Do it! You have nothing to lose...

Well said:clap::clap:

thank's for all
 

thank's for all.
I want to ask something else, what do you think about selling exhaust for motocycles in Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia with their eBay?? do you know if eBay has failed even in this places? if eBay has failed do you know another way to sell on-line like with TAOBAO but in Thailand,Vietnam or Malaysia?

thank's for your answers again.

Claudio

Claudio,

How about you tell what you want to do.

Are you looking to sell Italian made motor parts in Asia?

Replies will be more helpful :D

Replies
 

Yes i want to do this because i already sell on eBay.IT,eBay.UK, eBay.de
and eBay.com.
if i could sell in Thailand,Vietnam or Malaysia, where the commerce of scooters and motorcycles is better than Italy, would be great.

Claudio

Thems folks can see your listings already though... or should be able to anyway if you state you deliver w/wide.

Good luck on selling exhausts. The last one I got for my scooter cost £6 brand new!

The markets are totally flooded in Asia with m/bike and scooter parts at prices that are unreal.

Unless you have something amazingly incredibly fantastic - like an exhaust that makes your bike fly then you may have quite a job on your hands!

If you do sell those though - please can i have one? How much to deliver to China :laugh:

FIZZYFISH

Thank soooooo much for your reply :)

Yes Im planning a trip to Guangzhou [guangdong] and also to Shenzen(?)
I dont think im up to Container level just yet but i definitely want to be shipping some big boxes over..most probably by ChinaPost airmail and some by EMS.

The only things im not sure of are
1. Will they just let me walk into their factory and start choosing items or do i need to go through an agent? How does it work?

2. In terms of quantities...im looking to buy in the 500pcs - 1000pcs. Do you think thats a good enough size? I would like to buy many products so if i can buy in the 100pcs then that would be even better...but ive no idea how they might think if i said i want 100pcs...maybe they would think its too small?

skybyke
 

yes i'm studying E.T. to create a skybyke....if you want i can sell you the first!!! you must jump and the byke flies!!:doh:
ahahah thank you FizzyFish.:clap: