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If it’s too good to be true, it really is
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GIVEN the huge savings online when buying luxury and other goods, overseas purchasing services have become popular in China, especially among young people.
From cosmetics to clothes, food to medicine, handbags to infant formula powder, people can buy anything overseas online.
Due to the language barrier and different payment systems, Chinese tend to buy overseas goods on popular shopping websites, such as Taobao.com, Dangdang.com and Amazon.cn. They often assert that they can provide authentic products, complete with certificates, warranties and even overseas logistics information.
The bubble has burst.
A recent CCTV report showed that some third-party shops on Amazon.cn and Dangdang.com were selling fake cosmetics, later found to be obtained from illegal channels. Fake products on Dangdang.com came from Tianzhaotian wholesale market, while some cosmetics sold on Amazon.cn turned out, after official investigation, to be fake.
In early May, the China Food and Drug Administration announced that imported medicine purchased online is usually not genuine and quality cannot be guaranteed. Most Chinese mainland pharmacies do not maintain an online business, according to officials.
Online businesses selling medicine must receive a China Online Medicine Trade and Service Qualification to operate legally. Only 184 pharmacies are licensed online and can be checked with the drug administration’s website (www.sda.gov.cn).
The situation is even worse on Taobao.com, the country’s biggest online shopping platform that has several million stores. Insiders have recently come forward to assert that many shops claiming to purchase overseas are cheating.
Jessie Zha has just closed her legitimate Taobao store, which had purchased chocolate, coffee, clothing and jewelry from Japan for the past two years.
“It’s hard to do business. We can’t compete with others that offer lower prices,” she says. “We couldn’t guarantee shipping dates for food because we had to wait for the freshest batch.”
Shipping from Japan to Shanghai usually takes two weeks and sometimes shipments are held by customs for examination.
“I couldn’t understand why other sellers always had ready-to-deliver goods on hand and why the shipping was so quick,” Zha says.
The mystery was soon solved. In her second year of business, she started to receive online messages and phone calls offering “cooperation opportunities.”
She was told that other providers could supply shop owners with goods almost identical to the genuine, overseas products, but at discounts typically 50 percent.
“They told me I could make more money by doing this and tried to convince me that the products they manufacture are the same as the real one, and the clients would never find out,” she recalls.
Zha refused.
“I have my own principles,” she says.
Shanghai Daily tried several times reaching Taobao’s relevant department handling quality and supervision, but none was successful. Interview was refused.
Shoppers logging onto Taobao.com can find luxury-brand leather belts ranging from 200 yuan (US$32) to 3,000 yuan, each said to be genuine, shipped with warranty cards and shipping information from the city of origin in Europe.
Shop owners are not worried about being found out. If their goods are identified as fake, they just return the money, knowing that there are many more sales to come.
Insider Fiona Huang, who used to run a Taobao shop, explains how it works.
There are many factories, especially in coastal cities, manufacturing products for supposed overseas purchase shops on Taobao. These are typically called “A-goods,” quality copycats of big international brands, including cosmetics, bags, watches and medicine. LV, Hermes, Givenchy — just name it, they are all there.
Shanghai Daily used several Wechat IDs of these factories and inquired about trial orders.
“We can provide any big brands you want,” one factory representative said.
“They are so perfectly copied that ordinary people can hardly tell the difference.” Others said the same.
In addition, the factories offer one-stop service, taking orders, manufacturing, logistics and delivery and after-service. The online seller just sells.
Zha, who refused to sell fakes, says the profits from real overseas purchasing are only around 10 percent because shipping is not cheap. “Those who offer very low prices without shipping fees are probably selling fake products,” she says.
As for receipts, warranty cards and other documentation, all can be copied. That includes price tags, POS (point of sale) documents, and packing boxes. Prices range from 10 yuan to 40 yuan.
Factories say they can mail an empty box to their contacts living or studying overseas, then they mail them back to China, so the boxes have all the post marks and shipping information.
Many overseas purchasing online shops claim they offer physical inspections and authentications if recipients want, but most brands on China’s mainland actually don’t offer the service to individual clients.
“These online sellers are not afraid,” says Huang. “They just return the money if they are detected. It’s not a big thing for them.”
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