As an online seller, you may be looking for new platforms to reach more buyers. Chinese cross-border platform Suning global could be the perfect option for you. In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about selling on Suning global, from registration to payment and shipping. Let’s get started!
GUIDE TO SELL CROSS-BORDER ON SUNING GLOBAL
1. About Suning.com
Suning Commerce Group, with its website Suning.com, known as one of the largest privately-owned retailers in China, is headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu.
Starting out as a traditional retailer focusing on consumer electronics products, the company now owns 11,064 offline brick-and-mortar stores in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan, covering a diversity of store members including Suning Retail Cloud Franchise Stores, SuFresh (fresh food supermarkets), Suning Convenience Stores and Redbaby (maternal and child supplies stores).
Suning’s e-commerce platform, Suning.com ranks among the top three Chinese B2C companies, with more than 3 million SKUs, on par with other big names such as Tmall and JD.com. Suning.com has been successful in complementing the shopping experience of consumers both at stores and online, making it the leading smart retailer in China.
Suning.com sells a wide range of electronics products, home
appliances, 3C products, books, household commodities, cosmetics, and baby care products.
In 2018, the online platform’s sales revenue saw a strong growth of 64.45%, far beyond the industry average, with a sales volume of RMB 208.354 billion. The number of registered membership users reached 407 million.
2. About Suning Global
Suning Global (g.suning.com) is the cross-border e-commerce online mall of Suning, launched in 2014.
It currently features about 300 foreign shopfronts and offers integrated logistics (4 aviation hubs, 12 automatic picking centers, and 660 urban distribution centers), store operator, and financial support services.
Their most popular product categories are electrical appliances and maternity & baby.
It uses its own online payment escrow service, Yi-Pay, to complete transactions in RMB or foreign currency.
Discovers more Chinese cross-border platforms:
3. Entry process
As a hybrid platform, Suning Global has two cooperation models:
- Entry Model – Suning provides store operator, logistics and warehousing services
- Procurement Model – Suning purchases from overseas partners directly
On Suning Global, although not required, it is strongly advised to use a reliable Third Partner.
4. Requirements for merchants
Basic requirements
- The oversea corporate entity shall have oversea retail qualification with oversea registered trademark
- 100% overseas merchants, 100% overseas commodities mailed from abroad or bonded areas
- Brand Holder/ Brand Authorization Certificate/ Purchasing Receipts
Preferred requirements
- At least 2 years’ online operation experience in oversea goods trading and a professional, independent online operation team
- Oversea well-known B2C and oversea well-known brands are preferred
- Following categories are preferred: mother & baby products, clothes, cosmetics, health products, footwear, bags and suitcases, food
- Members of T-mall HK, JD Worldwide and others overseas B2C websites are preferred
5. Cost of investment
Quality guarantee deposit: 10000 USD
Platform service fee: 5000-10 000 USD per year depending on different categories
Annual fee return policy: 50%-100% if target sales are achieved
Commission fee: 2% – 6%, based on the category of the product sold. More details could be found here.
This is quite similar to Tmall Global.
6. Store types and related requirements
There are 3 main types of stores that you can open on Suning Global:
- Overseas Official Flagship Store: are the stores of Suning Global with own brands (trademark of R or TM)
Categories of official flagship stores are as follow:
- Flagship stores operating own brands with the holder of (brand) commercial right as main body
- Flagship stores operating several own brands with one and only holder (invited by Suning.com only)
- Suning self-supported stores
- Overseas Flagship Store: are the stores of Suning Global with own brands (trademark of R or TM) or exclusive authorization.
Categories of flagship stores are as follow:
- Brand flagship stores (invited by Suning.com only) opened by owners of brands of supermarkets (service trademark).
- Agents operating one or several brands, should provide authorization document.
- The main body must be brand (trademark) owner or holders with Suning Global flagship store exclusive authorization document.
- Overseas Franchise Stores: are the stores of Suning Global with own brands (trademark of R or TM) or exclusive authorization.
Categories of franchise stores are as follow：
- Franchise stores operate one brand but without flagship store authorization.
- Franchise stores operate several brands but without flagship store authorization.
- Franchise stores operate several brands as well as own brand
- Franchise stores operate two or more than two brands
- Franchise stores operate two or more than two own brands (not invited by Suning.com)
7. Sunning Global Application process
- Step 1: Application of enterprise account
- Step 2: Negotiate and sign the contract
- Step 3: Pay related fees
- Step 4: Open shop successfully
The application process looks similar among all platforms. However, to be chosen as a seller as well as to set up a store successfully require much more than that.
We suggest you work with third-party parties who are familiar with cross-border e-commerce and Suning Global to help with the setup.
To conclude this Suning merchants guide
Similar to Tmall Global or JD Worldwide, selling on Suning is advantages in that you have high user traffic and convenient sales support for your customers.
However, there are high entry requirements and high costs of investment to start. Furthermore, the competition can be harsh since all well-known international brands attempt to establish themselves on prestigious e-commerce platforms.
Need more Information about eCommerce China?
With so many options available, it can be hard to know where you should start. We’ve got your back! Our China E-Commerce Guide will help get the ball rolling on all of those fantastic adventures in this new market with everything from app reviews and general info about shopping culture over here down into more specific details like how Taobao operates versus JD and so on.
Similarly, if you are looking to understand what is cross-border in china and how it works, we invite you to have a look at this post. We introduce you to China’s top cross-border e-commerce platforms, their requirements, pros, and cons, and give you advanced tips to succeed as a seller on this online marketplace.
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