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Browse, Click, Buy - Domestic Consumers Head Overseas with Online Shopping By staff reporter LI YUAN INTERNET shopping, the phenomenon that has revolutionized the wayAmericans and Europeans purchase, is finally hitting China.Propelled by the young, Internet shopping is recognized by China'sincreasingly large middle class for what it has always stood for:convenience, choice and discounts, discounts, discounts. Ouyang Weiping, a Beijing local, decided to take a virtual walkdown a digital shopping isle recently. Drawn to cosmetics, sheimmediately discovered that Macy's Department Store offered herfavorite brand at a Christmas discount price far cheaper than atlocal stores. Three weeks later, her beauty bundle arrived at heroffice and included a bonus Christmas gift. Ouyang admits to beingwon over by her experience. Digital Trump Card An increasing number of Chinese consumers are taking to onlineshopping services provided by overseas retailers. For example,letsebuy.com, an overseas shopping forum in China, already has aregistered membership of more than 30,000. Members gather online toshare overseas shopping experiences, analyze customs policies andtransnational freight prices, as well as compare favorite foreigndiscount websites. Liu Yi works as an English translator at a magazine in Beijing.After falling pregnant, she began to explore the shoppingpossibilities available to her on overseas websites. Although Liupossesses a solid command of English, she was still wary aboutmaking her first online purchase. She ended up picking out someproducts for her baby, commenting, "These are the same things I buyin my local supermarket, but the prices online are really great just a third of what I'd expect pay down the road." Liu only boughtlightweight items online due to expensive international freightrates US $15 for the first kilogram and US $5 for everyadditional one. At present, there are still a number of hoops consumers in Chinamust jump through before hitting overseas digital malls. Afterobtaining a dual-currency bankcard, shoppers must register anaccount on paypal.com for overseas online bank payments. Havingdone this, some websites still do not deliver goods directly tothem in China buyers need to set up an account with a forwardingcompany, which will receive their goods from the retailer and sendthem on to China. Value-added taxes, import tariffs and consumption taxes allcontribute to the high prices of foreign goods on Chinesesupermarket shelves. In some cases the accumulated tax rate onimported common household goods can be over 50 percent. Given thishigh tax burden, it is no surprise that people are turning to theInternet, by which means many of these taxes can be avoided. With women leading the way in China's online shopping revolution,cosmetics is currently the number one product in terms of volumethat Chinese shoppers order from abroad. The huge profits generated globally by online retailers isencouraging overseas Chinese to set up websites that capitalize onthe growing domestic appetite for online bargains. Feng Wei, a native of Chengdu in Si-chuan Province, now lives inthe U.S. Three years ago he began work as an informal purchasingagent for his Chinese friends looking to buy Coach handbags. Asmore people sought his help, he decided to abandon his telephoneand open an online store to display the bags and take orders.Nowadays, each month he sells around 40 bags, securing him a handymonthly income of about RMB 10,000. "As shopping malls give big discounts more frequently than officialwebsites, we usually buy bags from mall outlets during the discountseason and make them available at the cheaper prices all yearround," Feng says. "It's all about price. Our goods are cheaper, sopeople buy from us." A resident of the Netherlands for the past five years, Fang Hong,originally from Beijing, purchases baby food and milk power forChinese customers concerned about the domestic safety record ofthese products. "According to local Dutch law, one can buy at most three cans ofmilk powder at any one time. But I get so many orders from theChinese mainland that I have to go to supermarkets in nearby citiesthree times a week to buy enough to meet demand." Fang took up thismiddlewoman role after the Chinese milk scandal in 2008. Lingeringdomestic caution keeps her in business. I am an expert from carcodescanner.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Launch X431 Master , Mileage Correction Tools, Airbag Reset Tools,and more.
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