Tmall VS JD.com : What’s the best e-commerce platform for you ?

If you are a company that wants to sell its products in China, then this article might interest you! E-commerce remains a very effective and convenient solution for that. If you want to do so, you will have to choose between two options. The first solution is to create a website of your own in Mandarin well referenced on Baidu. The other option is to sell your products through Chinese e-commerce platforms. You then have to choose between the two giants of this sector in China: Tmall or JD.com.

The e-commerce market in China surpassed that of the United States a long time ago. China’s wide economic development has caused many changes in Chinese cities. Their people saw their purchasing power increase, which also influenced their consumption habits. Since the country became more and more modern, the life of the Chinese was strongly digitized. They have increasingly turned to e-commerce to make their purchases. In addition, delivery services are very fast. The choice and prices are also more interesting. This is a great way for the Chinese to shop efficiently without wasting time in a store. Their schedule is too busy for that! They are also addicted to their smartphones. They spend a lot of time on their apps and like to check the authenticity of a product on the internet before buying it.

This market remains in strong growth and is, therefore, an ideal tool if you want to sell your products in China! However, having your website standalone is a rather risky bet to take. The e-commerce platforms in China are so large that they will easily block the light to your website. With more than 500 million users, Tmall holds more than 50% of the market and JD not far from 25%. So it’s hard to compete with these giants! Moreover, the Chinese will not spend their money without having confidence in the product and the website. In this way, offering your products on the websites of these giants would give you the expected credibility. But, how to choose between Tmall and JD?

Tmall VS JD

To be able to compare them and choose which platform seems most interesting for your company, you must first understand them well.

Tmall was created by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. This e-commerce giant holds many other innovative companies: the Alipay payment application, the Alibaba Cloud, augmented reality, the new concept of “Hema” supermarkets, etc. Taobao manages C2C relationships while Tmall is its B2C equivalent. It is well named because it can be compared to a large “mall” (a shopping mall) containing many different stores. However, each brand still has control of its store. In this way, Jack Ma wanted to offer the consumer the opportunity to have full transparency about the supplier and give responsibility to him.

Once registered on Tmall, the supplier can take care of his “store”. It must manage the promotion of its brand, the delivery of its goods, the management of the customer service etc. So this option is similar to having your own website. However, you benefit from the Tmall interface. This will give you visibility and credibility with Chinese consumers. But you keep control! However, you will not benefit from all the information you might have had with your own website. Many major brands have already chosen this option; Burberry and Estee Lauder are recent examples.

JD on the other hand would be seen as a simple store offering a lot of products, as JD takes care of everything. So this option is very convenient! Because once your products are exchanged with JD, your role ends there. JD will buy the product in bulk and take care of the remaining tasks.

To choose between the two platforms, it is necessary to know what degree of responsibility you want to have on your goods and what degree of control you wish to keep on the e-commerce interface. If you wanted to have your own website and choose to go through these platforms as they are the most effective way to penetrate the Chinese market, then Tmall is for you. While if you don’t want to control everything, but just sell large amounts in China and let the site look after everything for you, JD will be perfect.

They are hard to compare because they are different, but both are very interesting. Their growth is big and durable. Over 150% over the last three years! Whatever your way of doing business is, one of these two platforms is necessarily suitable for you. They all promise you credibility and easy implementation in the Chinese market.

For an even easier implementation, don’t forget to have a digital marketing campaign! The expertise of our Shanghai-based agency can help you get the best visibility on the Chinese market. Please check our website for more information.

Read our Tmall and JD Guide for more details

You think tmall and Jd are not the ecommerce platform for you brand? Read our Guide To China Best Online Market place