Highlights: Start-up Your E-Commerce Business in China

This week I happened to attend a Seminar on how to get started with eCommerce in China for foreigners. I have got you some key highlights of the event & some not so good snaps of the keynote, but useful ones :-)

Despite the opportunities that the fast growth of e-commerce presents to Foreign SME’s to access or expand their operations in China Market, there is still a lack of understanding concerning the establishment, development and maintenance of an online business. In this context, the set-up of an e-commerce platform should be tailor-made to attract online shoppers’ appeal, without overlooking China’s online legal and tax framework.

China loves foreign brands, but you need to consider the logistic part of where to import your products & how much tax you are supported to pay to the china government to assure you get the best price into the market & yet make your profit.

Real cases will be used to simulate this journey, from the ideas conception to the execution, as well as the daily back-office operations of running an online shop. This seminar aims at showcasing the tools that a company needs to successfully run an online business. During the seminar direct and practical questions will be presented and covered, such as:

You should ask the right questions before you start you business:

- Are my products or services suitable for online business? 

- What are the steps to take in order to open an online store? 

- Can I open and run an online shop if I only have a representative company?

- What kind of web designs do Chinese customers like?

- How do I promote online?

- How do I handle online transactions and what payment options do I have?
- Will my company be facing double taxation?

- How does it work with invoicing? - Where should I store my stock?

Last not the least - the Proz & Cons of getting started in China market:

Summary:

1. China user base is very big, an interesting market which you can't ignore.

2. Instead of starting your own eCommerce website, use the china market place. Get started with TMall.com

3. Always work with Chinese vendors to get an easy start.Use Chinese marketing tools & langues to reach out to locals.

4. China government rules are very dynamic and are very different. Obey them to survive.

Garrett Gee is living the idea Dream!

I wonder at times how can someone be living such a perfect life when I heard & got to know Garrett Gee!

To introduce him in short – “He is an entrepreneur who sold his Scan app to Snapchat for $54 Million and is now travelling the world with his wife & two kids”

I wanted to share his inspiring story here with these beautiful visuals that I got from his Instagram account.

Started Scan:

Garrett started Scan while he was a freshman at Brigham Young University together with his 2 other college mates. Scan is an app which is used to connect to real world with the digital universe through mobile scanning technology like QR code, bar codes, beacons & more.

He raised $8 million in funding for Scan, which had 50 million downloads worldwide.

Balancing Scan & Soccer:

He became the caption of BYU soccer team while he was chasing his dream with Scan. For him hard work doesn’t feel like hard work when you love what you do and you understand what you’re working towards.

Shark Tank:

The 20-something dropped out of BYU to develop the Scan app, after receiving funding from Google. Scan was considered so user friendly and popular that it knocked Angry Birds off the App Store top ten list.

Garrett appeared in Shark Tank, he didn’t get the funding but his presence made US believe that he will be big with his idea someday soon.

Fell in love:

Life is meaningful when you find someone with whom you can share it. Jessica was just the right girl for him. He married her and they do everything together. She makes it all worth it & enjoyable.

Sold his company:

He & his co-founders then sold Snap to Snapchat for a reported $54 Millions in 2014. $30 Million in cash and the rest in equity in Snapchat.

Decided to sell his belongings:

Garrett Gee decided to ditch the regular lifestyle and travel the world after selling Scan. So he and his wife decided to sell most of their belongings, including their cars, furniture, TV and extra clothes, and are using money they made to fund their adventures. 

Travelling the world:

Here’s the crazy & most inspiring part. The couple and their two young children, Dorsey and Manilla, call themselves "The Bucket List Family." So far, 25-year-old Garrett and 29-year-old Settie are travelling with their kids to a wide range of exotic spots, such as Turks and Caicos, Thailand, Australia, Tahiti and Hawaii.

Take Away: 

It’s so important to follow your passion & not follow the rules but go with your own instinct. If you believe in something go hard chasing for it. You will meet success & always keep inspiring people around you by being the best form of yourself.

Look what just happened. I tweeted about him & he shows his like on Twitter. Life is magical go out & live it J 

Learn more:

The Bucket List Family Youtube link

Garrett gee Instagram link

Internet Report 2016

The "Queen of the Internet" Mary Meeker's Internet Trends report released today at the 2016 General Assembly in the US.

Below is the quick summary of the report with the highlights:

The number of Internet users worldwide exceeded 3 billion, an increase of 9 percent over the previous year, the global Internet penetration rate reached 42%. 

India's Internet users reached 277 million, up 40% over last year which makes India the second largest Internet market, after China.

The global smart phone users increased by 21% over the previous year, an increase of 31 percent last year, the growth rate slowed down; after a 5-year high growth in 2015 global smart phone shipments up 10%, up 28% last year.

Smartphone users in Asia Pacific grew 23% last year up 35%.

Global mobile phone operating system share, iOS share in 2015 was 16%, Android share reached 81%.

To benefit from the rapid growth of mobile advertising (66%), 2015 US online advertising grew by 20% last year to 16% in 2015 increased by only 5% of the desktop ads.

Google and Facebook, the two companies together to eat 76 percent of the US online advertising market.

Desktop ad blocking users has reached 220 million mobile ad blocker users reached 420 million, mainly concentrated in China, India and Indonesia.

E-commerce share of the US retail distribution channels, from less than 2% in 2000, increased to more than 10% in 2015, reached more than $ 340 billion.

Message type applications continue its rapid growth, industry leaders including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat.

Voice is becoming a computing interface is the most efficient form of computer input, the machine accuracy of the speech recognition from about 70% in 2010, increased to about 90% by 2016.

IPhone sales in 2015 may have reached its peak, the next Amazon Echo equipment sales will begin to take off?

China Internet Report:

From more than one measure, China has become the market leader in the Internet, the number of Chinese Internet users reached 668 million.

Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu three companies are China's mobile Internet market leader, they accounted for 71% of Chinese users of mobile consumer long time.

2015, China's online advertising market has more than television advertising.

2016, There were 31% of the micro-channel micro-channel shopping users, while in 2015 the figure was 15%.

Global Internet market leader: Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Tencent, Alibaba and other companies, flush with cash.

What do you think about this report & is this what you expect to be coming by?

Link to the complete video