Buying agents or Diagou - China online shopping
Beyond daigou, there are other avenues through which the Chinese can purchase Australian products. Last September, Chemist Warehouse announced a new agreement with Chinese company Alibaba, which allows Chemist Warehouse to directly sell products to Chinese customers through Alibaba’s e-commerce site T-mall. Sales of 88 million AUD is projected in 2016. Other Australian brands including Blackmores and Nature’s Care have also started sales through the T-mall platform.
Although the agreement has made headlines on several Chinese news outlets, the Chinese consumers’ everlasting fear of fake goods has kept them cautious, if not overly skeptical. In the feedback section of the Chemist Warehouse T-mall shop, many are suspicious of whether the shop is truly run by the same Warehouse in Australia. “The Swisse Hair Skin Nails (a drink to replenish collagen protein) came to me really fast and was shipped from Ningbo in China. The package looked slightly different and there was deposit at the bottom of the bottle. I’m not convinced that this is made in Australia,”