Another popular platform is now open to Chinese sellers

Cross-border sellers have been looking for potential platforms. Recently, the German hypermarket limango platform has opened up to Chinese third-party sellers, which has attracted widespread attention. It is understood that last year a seller spent 300,000 yuan to register an account on the platform. Now that the platform has opened its doors, many sellers have begun to understand the details of settlement.

Limango opens to Chinese third-party sellers

It is reported that limango, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Germany's Otto Group, has officially opened its doors to Chinese third-party sellers, with the OTTO China team responsible for the entry and management of its Chinese sellers.

Otto is the largest local e-commerce platform in Germany, covering 45% of German households. The "2023 Cross-border E-commerce Development Report" jointly released by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and other institutions combines global layout, growth potential and other dimensions for analysis, and lists the world's top 50 cross-border e-commerce platforms. The top ten platforms include Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Alibaba, JD.com, Target, Best Buy, etc. Otto Group ranks ninth and is the only European local platform in the top 10, and is still in a growth trend.

Limango is no less impressive. As one of the most famous online hypermarkets in Germany, Limango mainly sells clothing, shoes and hats, household goods, toys, outdoor sports and other categories. Through limited-time special sales, it is very active in European markets such as Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, and Poland.

However, the platform has high entry requirements. A seller who tried the platform revealed that the entry standards of limango are the same as those of the Otto platform, requiring sellers to meet the following conditions:

-Business license of a local German company (the legal person can be Chinese or foreign)

-The legal person can be contacted and needs to hold a passport for KYC review

-The company needs to handle VAT

-Shipment from local overseas warehouse in Germany

- Delivery by DHL, Hermes, DPD, UPS, GLS in Germany. Returns must be made by DHL, Hermes, GLS

- German telephone customer service (needs to be available for communication between 9:00-18:00 German time on weekdays)

- The product uses the European EAN barcode (or UPC code)

- Trademarks registered in Germany or the EU

- German Packaging Law LUCID number

-WEEE certification for electronic products

When sellers fill out the application for entry into the Otto platform, they will also ask about the name of the German company, whether there is German VAT, German warehouse, German operating staff and packaging law number, etc. At the same time, sellers need to provide last year's local sales in Germany or sales in other parts of the world, as well as links to Amazon Germany, eBay Germany or other platform stores and independent sites.

The high threshold of limango has stopped a number of sellers, but some brand sellers said that such a situation is good for them and they don’t have to worry about a large influx of sellers causing internal competition. The appeal of the limango platform is still very large. At the end of last year, a seller spent more than 300,000 yuan to register a limango account.

If the seller meets the entry requirements, he/she can submit an application. The platform will review and approve the seller after confirming that they meet the standards. The seller will sign an entry contract with the platform and can then start selling on the platform.

In fact, high entry standards are consistent with Otto's usual style.

Regarding its growth in the European market, Otto China CEO Xu Beisi said in an interview that the Otto Group was established for more than 70 years and has never pursued high growth and high gross profits. It only opened its platform to third-party sellers for the first time in 2019, strictly controlling the number and quality of sellers. For many years, it has insisted on manual verification and invitation system to approve a limited number of high-quality third-party sellers to enter Otto, and is committed to creating a healthy competition environment for win-win situations among consumers, sellers and platforms.

Perhaps it is precisely because of the strict control of sellers' requirements that Otto has been able to gain a foothold in the fierce market competition. Although it has strict requirements for third-party sellers, Otto has also left a new runway for sellers who are interested in joining, which not only enriches its own categories, but also allows more sellers to reach the huge European e-commerce consumers.

Since last year, the hosting model has become popular, and Otto has also chosen to join the game. In the second half of 2023, OTTO China announced the launch of a "full hosting" operation model, hoping to fully link the advantages of China's product supply chain with the traffic advantages of OTTO.de, and provide more convenient and efficient sales channels for cross-border sellers. The platform also encourages sellers with high-quality supply chains and cross-border experience to quickly enter OTTO.de through the "full hosting" operation model to obtain the development dividends of the platform.

Chinese sellers continue to look for new platforms

In recent years, the concept of multi-channel operation has been deeply rooted in people's minds. Sellers are interested in trying out any emerging and potential platforms, from Temu, which suddenly appeared, to SHEIN, which is open to third-party entry, to TikTok, which occupies the top position in overseas social media e-commerce sales. Sellers are very excited and hope to be the first to try it out, or to keep up with the pace of new platforms going overseas in time to avoid being left behind.

In June, TikTok updated the entry standards for the US site and no longer required Amazon sellers to have store turnover. For Amazon US site sellers to enter TikTok, they are only required to have a store evaluation score of no less than 4.0, a furniture/men's clothing and underwear category of no less than 3.8, a business operation time of no less than 3 months, and an account health score of more than 250 points; for sellers in the supply model (VC) model, they must have a record of supplying goods to Amazon for the past 6 months.

This was seen as a great opportunity signal by sellers in the industry. Many sellers immediately applied for registration after learning the news, hoping to make a difference in this emerging channel.

Soon after, news of Amazon's low-price store spread, and many sellers also decisively participated. Since full-hosting and semi-hosting have become the mainstream of the industry model, when Amazon launched this model, it is natural to enter the market at a sprint speed.

After multiple attempts, sellers of different sizes have different feelings about the multi-platform layout. One big seller said frankly that after entering a new platform for half a year, he was more determined to focus on Amazon. "Other platforms are not as good as Amazon in terms of size or stability. Multi-channel is at most icing on the cake."

This view is becoming more and more common in the industry. Sellers believe that even though Amazon is gradually eroding the market, it is still the largest e-commerce platform with a gap. Relatively speaking, emerging platforms will have greater volatility and are not conducive to team building.

So overall, sellers will focus more on the top platforms.

Marketplace Pulse lists the top five global e-commerce platforms, all of which are key platforms for sellers. Amazon, Walmart and eBay are the three major markets in the United States , but if Temu and TikTok achieve their goals this year , they will surpass Walmart in the market rankings.

Among them, Amazon is still the largest market in the United States. According to forecasts , Amazon 's sales this year will reach 325 billion US dollars. This is only third-party sales , not including Amazon's sales as a retailer. If first-party sales are included , Amazon may be the largest online and offline retailer in the United States .