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Q: Are Taobao shops profitable?
It seems like everyone I know has a 'part time job' as they call it, running a shop on Taobao. Have any of you tried selling anything?How was the experience?
9 years 29 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
Yeah, it's a wonderful modern days Ponzi launching platform.
The other day I even found a friend of a friend of a friend selling nice reddish red wines named after my family. My family who is in the Champagne business and never produced a single drop of red wine in centuries.
Profitable, well, "I opened my Taobao shop, selling all that illegally imported stuff from a friend of a friend who knows someone dropping hundreds of crates of that super rare product no one knows abroad (because of course it's highly confidential, you know). I had to pay upfront but still, then I became rich and didn't need to work a single day in my life", said no one ever.
I was introduced to three former teachers in Changsha who rented a room together and sold things online. They claimed they made about 600 yuan a day between the three of them.
Maybe they did.
There are many success stories on Taobao. There was a documenty on CNN about how Taobao transformed a village of farmers into wealthy entepreneurs. Of course there are profitable shops. If there weren't, there would be no Taobao. I order almost everything on Taobao, so somebody's making money.
How many Taobao shops are there ? I am gguessing there are a lot of people not really making anything, but it beats making zero.
E.g. if I search for my favorite jam from home. I find plenty. Best guess is that that the shops selling these things, are run by someone who has a relative in the country where the products originates. They then ship small amounts that have to be sold at a very high margin to make a profit.
I don't see why not. If you have something people want to buy and you sell it online you're not going to be paying expensive rent for a shop that relies on foot traffic,and need to gamble on the location you choose being a good one.
Rent can be a killer, as can decorating the place, putting up signs, dealing with fire safety permits, red stamps from every official in the city and all the other bullshit that goes with having a physical location.
Much better to sell from your spare bedroom to a huge online market if you can.
