What is Tmall Global & Tmall Global Review

Tmall Global was officially launched by Alibaba Group on February 19, 2014. Tmall Global mainly provides domestic consumers with overseas imported goods. On February 27, 2018, Cainiao Tmall used blockchain technology to trace the source of overseas shopping products and combat logistics information fraud.

Things to know before moving in

1. Tmall Global may decide whether to allow entry based on actual circumstances (including but not limited to factors such as brand demand, company operating conditions, service level, etc.); at the same time, Tmall Global may require customers to provide other qualifications during the application for entry and subsequent operation stages; Tmall Global will update the entry and operation standards from time to time in combination with relevant national regulations, development trends of various industries and consumer purchasing needs.

2. Merchants must provide data and information truthfully.

Investment Instructions

1. Currently, Tmall Global recruits investors by invitation only. For details of Tmall Global’s business categories, please see here .

2. The store opening entity must be an entity company overseas or in Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.

3. Priority will be given to recruiting well-known physical stores/B2C websites overseas and in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and well-known overseas brands that have not entered the Chinese market.

Store Type

1. Brand flagship store

Stores opened by Tmall Global for brands with their own brands or brands that are exclusively authorized by the trademark owner. In principle, a brand flagship store can only sell products under the corresponding brand. If the store brand is a group brand, it can sell products from multiple brands under the group. Its products must be directly sourced from the store brand trademark holder.

2. Mall-type flagship store

Offline supermarket chains, stores or online B2C website brand trademark owners or entities directly provided with exclusive authorization by trademark owners can open stores on Tmall International. At the same time, the goods sold by merchants can be traced back to the 35 categories of trademark holders of the store brand and the trademark rights holders corresponding to their goods.

3. Industry flagship store

The store opening entity is an offline chain supermarket, store or online B2C website that mainly operates a single industry category (such as clothing, maternal and child care, beauty, personal care, etc.), and the brand trademark owner or the entity directly provided with first-level authorization by the trademark owner enters Tmall International to open a store. If the store that meets the above conditions needs to sell goods that are not brands in the industry to which it belongs, it must provide first-level authorization from the store brand. The goods it sells can be traced back to the 35-category trademark holder of the store brand and its product brand owner.

4. Specialty Stores

The brand trademark owner provides store opening authorization to enter the store opened on Tmall International.

5. Specialty stores

Stores that operate two or more brands under the same Tmall International business category.

Product and service requirements

1. Commodities :

(1) Products: Products that have joined Tmall Global’s Authenticity Guarantee Program and are produced or sold overseas and have been formally imported into China through international logistics;

(2) Product page: Product information is described in Chinese, using international metric units of measurement, and equipped with Chinese Wangwang customer service;

(3) Logistics service: Delivery must be completed within 120 hours. The delivery can be done directly to individual parcels or from China’s bonded areas to mainland consumers. Logistics information must be traceable. For products sold to countries and regions outside mainland China, delivery must be completed within 120 hours. There is no mandatory requirement for a specific delivery method. Logistics information must be traceable.

2. After-sales service :

(1) Merchants selling products to mainland China must set up return points in mainland China.

(2) Merchants selling goods to Hong Kong must set up a return point in Hong Kong.

(3) Merchants that sell products to Taiwan must set up a return point in Taiwan.

Rates

Margin​

Tmall Global operations require a deposit, which is mainly used to ensure that merchants operate in accordance with Tmall Global's regulations, and to pay liquidated damages to Tmall Global and consumers in accordance with the Tmall Global Merchant Service Agreement and related rules when merchants violate regulations. Depending on the nature of the store, the amount is as follows:

1. Unless otherwise specified, the normal deposit is RMB 150,000;

2. For merchants whose products are sold to two or more countries and regions, the deposit is RMB 300,000;

3. For Tmall Global business category "Adult Products/Sex Products", the deposit is RMB 300,000;

4. For Tmall Global’s business category “Medical and Health Services”, the deposit is RMB 300,000;

5. For Tmall Global’s business category “OTC drugs/medical devices/family planning products”, the deposit is RMB 300,000;

6. For Tmall Global business category “Health Food/Dietary Nutrition Supplement Food”, the deposit is RMB 300,000;

7. For Tmall Global business categories such as “milk powder/supplementary food/nutritional products/snacks”, the deposit is RMB 300,000;

8. The deposit for the Tmall International business category “Maternity Wear/Maternity Supplies/Nutrition” is RMB 300,000.

Note: If the store operates multiple categories of products with non-conventional deposits at the same time, the store deposit will be charged higher and the amounts will not be added up.

Annual fee

There are two tiers of RMB 30,000 and RMB 60,000 according to different business categories. For cross-category operations, the highest annual fee will be charged. The annual fee standards corresponding to each first-level category are detailed here .

Real - time deduction of technical service fees

Merchants operating on Tmall Global need to pay a software service fee based on a certain percentage of their sales (referred to as the "rate"). The Tmall Global software service fee rate standards for various categories are detailed here .

Restrictions on entry

1. If a merchant is deducted 48 points cumulatively or all at once due to serious violations and is removed from Tmall Global, Tmall Global will no longer cooperate with the merchant within two years from the date of removal. The scope of cooperation includes but is not limited to: reopening a removed store by changing the business entity, and the business entity of a removed store due to serious violations applying to open a new store.

2. If a merchant voluntarily withdraws from Tmall Global, they shall not reopen the original store as the original entity or with a changed entity within six months from the date of withdrawal.

Development History

-Since Tmall Global started recruiting merchants in July 2013 , overseas shopping platforms such as Bonjour, the second largest cosmetics group in Hong Kong, Eastern Choice, the largest TV shopping channel in Taiwan, Kenko, the largest health product B2C website in Japan, and Ashford, the first online store for overseas luxury watches, have opened overseas flagship stores on Tmall Global. There are more than 140 stores on Tmall Global, and the largest cosmetics group in Hong Kong and the largest health product group in the United States, NBTY, are also planning to enter Tmall Global.

-Since its launch in February 2014, Tmall Global has ranked first in market share for more than four consecutive years. It has attracted global products from more than 70 countries and regions, and as many as 18,000 overseas brands, greatly enriching the supply of imported goods for domestic consumers.

-On June 24, 2015, following the announcement of the launch of the first national pavilion, the Korean Pavilion, in May, Alibaba Group's Juhuasuan platform and Tmall Global jointly launched the "Global Village" model. Eleven national pavilions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey, were unveiled on Tmall Global. On the same day, Alibaba Juhuasuan platform announced the full launch of the cooperation process with 20 national embassies, and more overseas specialty products are expected to be launched on Juhuasuan.

-In April 2018 , the cross-border new retail offline store - Tmall International West Lake Yintai Store opened with great fanfare. Since then, Tmall International has maintained a high triple-digit growth both online and offline.

Advantages

For the domestic market, the process of "overseas shopping" for domestic consumers is quite complicated. They need to know English and hold foreign currency credit cards. After purchasing goods, they must be sent back to China through a forwarding company, and it often takes 30 to 45 days. Tmall's launch of the international channel has greatly reduced the difficulty of purchasing overseas goods.