East-West Partnership Solves China Online Sales Puzzle

BEIJING, Sept. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Western companies finally have a one-step solution for penetrating China's booming online market, further to the official partnership agreement signed today by digital marketing powerhouse Web Presence in China (WPIC), and China Logistics experts Baipinhui (BPH). "Although China's e-commerce phenomenon has made sales of western goods to China easier than ever, marketing and fulfillment remains challenging for foreign companies," says Shaoming Yang, CEO of BPH. "Now that such companies can rely on WPIC's China marketing expertise, and BPH's cutting edge logistics and fulfillment systems, the guess work has been taken out of selling online in China."

"BPH and WPIC will be focused on setting western companies up for TMall sales," says Jacob Cooke, CEO of WPIC. TMall is the brand-verified wing of e-commerce giant Alibaba, which sold over $175 billion dollars in 2012, accounting for over 70% of China's total online marketplace. "Western companies wishing to maintain brand integrity while reaching the largest segment of Chinese online shoppers should have a TMall platform," Cooke says.

But while much less resource intensive than setting up for physical sales in China, TMall is not without its challenges. "Reputation means everything to the TMall shopper," explains Yang, "and a TMall store's reputation hinges on two factors: the online assistance provided to shoppers, and the delivery of the goods purchased."

Indeed, TMall and its sister site Taobao, China's eBay, maintain online market dominance chiefly because of the transparency all stores must maintain as the key component of their user experience. Along with price, the different ratings a TMall store has for delivery and customer service are the first thing a shopper sees. "Setting up a TMall store is relatively easy," says Yang, "but if operators cannot explain the product and close the sale, or if there are hitches in delivery, a store's reputation suffers a blow not easily recovered from. This explains why many otherwise excellent western organizations have lackluster sales on TMall, a platform where millions of Chinese search daily for western goods unavailable through physical retail."

Thus a western company's twin challenge of not only setting up and marketing a TMall store effectively, but also making sure that purchases are fulfilled with the efficiency that ensures an optimal store rating. "Until this partnership, western companies had no full solution," says Todd Johnson, a WPIC sales director. "The digital firms that set up TMall stores outsourced fulfillment to a 3PL (Third Party Logistics), and the lack of cooperation invariably hurt reputation and sales. With WPIC, a digital marketing firm, working closely with BPH, a Chinese logistics leader, a western organization can ensure an on-brand experience for Chinese shoppers, with the kind of seamless customer service and delivery those shoppers demand."

"The partnership will work like this: WPIC will make sure that targeted Chinese consumers are attracted to a western company's TMall store, and that their shopping experience is in line with brand expectations. BPH will guarantee that online operators maintain that experience, and that all other aspects of customer service, most importantly delivery, are maintained above and beyond a Chinese shopper's expectations," says Hilary Li, an operations manager at WPIC's Beijing headquarters.

WPIC is a proven leader in digital marketing verticals such as Chinese SEO and SEM, driving qualified online China traffic at high conversion rates and low cost per conversion. BPH, on the other hand, is an award winning e-commerce firm. Its warehouses boast an array of high-tech systems and seamless operations that have made it the preferred logistics company of both Chinese and International retail giants. "This kind of combined expertise just hasn't been available before," says BPH CEO Yang. "We're very confident that this new partnership will make profits from China's e-commerce explosion more accessible to western companies than was previously possible."

BPH (Baipinhui: www.baipinhui.com) is a full service e-commerce solutions provider, with core services in logistics and fulfillment. WPIC (Web Presence In China: www.web-presence-in-china.com) is a digital marketing firm providing complete online market entry solutions to the APAC region.

SOURCE Web Presence in China