A thorough explanation of the secrets of research that leads to success in importing from China on Taobao with images!

Last time, I specifically explained the research method on 1688.com, which is most used for Chinese import business, using images. This time world Let's take a look at the research method on Taobao, one of the largest CtoC EC sites..

What is Alibaba Group's Taobao?

Taobao was founded by Alibaba Group in 2003The world's largest C2C e-commerce site. The name Taobao means "There is no treasure that cannot be found, there is no treasure that cannot be sold", and the number of exhibits is overwhelming, with over 1 billion.

As I explained last time, the Alibaba Group is the world's largest online mobile commerce company with many e-commerce sites as shown below.

• Alibaba.com : BtoB EC site (worldwide)
• 1688.com : BtoB EC site (within China)
• Tmallcom: BtoC EC site (within China)
• AliExpress : BtoC EC Site (Worldwide)
• Taobao.com : CtoC EC Site (Worldwide)

In addition to these e-commerce sites, the Alibaba Group also operates a number of other businesses around the world, including entertainment, finance, and logistics.

1688.com, which I introduced last time, is a BtoB type EC site for China, but Taobao, which I will introduce this time, is a CtoC type EC site that is expanding worldwide. In other words, it is a marketplace where transactions between general consumers are possible, and its form is similar to Japan's Rakuten Ichiba.

However, with Taobao more than 500 million registered users and transaction volume roughly 80% of China's online shopping market, It is not comparable in size.

The biggest feature of Taobao is that it has an overwhelming number of listings and a wide variety of products. The meaning of the company name, which says that there is no treasure that cannot be found, is not a lie. １ It is possible to trade from a small lot of individual units, and it is also suitable for personal use.

Product research that sells on Japanese EC sites

Before researching imported products on Taobao, firstIt's smoother to decide what to sell down to at least the category.

In the previous article, I briefly introduced how to check from the best-selling rankings such as Amazon and Rakuten. This time, since Taobao is a CtoC type EC site, Research using Mercari as an example, which is often used as a sales destination for reselling imported products from China by individuals, will be introduced.

The product categories that are often sold in China imports are the same as the previous article, but Mercari's users are mostly young people in their 20s and 30s, and the products are light and shipping is cheap, so it is easy for individuals to handle. For this reason, unbranded women's apparel and accessories are popular.

In order to research what is selling in Mercari's imported products from China, narrow down the category and enter the keywords "no brand", "imported from China", and "overseas products" in the search window. to enter.

At that time, if you add the following search conditions and narrow it down, the probability of hitting Chinese imported products that are actually selling and profitable will increase.

Since the filtering conditions are on the left side of the Mercari site, set the main conditions from the top as follows. Let's take ladies' products as an example.

• Keyword: no-brand (or "imported from China", "overseas product")
• Category: Women's (There are also small categories such as dresses and bags)
• Price: 3,000 yen or more (Possibility to earn a gross profit of 1,000 yen or more Focus on products)
• Product condition: New, unused
• Sales status: Sold out (Actually sold Display only products)

Sort the search results obtained by this refinement in order of product popularity. The method is "Recommended" to display a pull-down menu.Like! "Sequence.

Images of products imported from China have the following characteristics, so we will check the rearranged images according to those points.

You can see the details of the product you are considering purchasing on its sales page. If it is an imported product from China, the direct expression “imported from China” will be changed to “imported product”, “imported product”, and “generic product”.There is an explanation such as this, so I will check it.

That's how we collect images and product titles of candidate products. If a product with the same image appears many times, it means that it is selling well on Mercari, so there is a strong possibility that it is a popular product.

Research on Taobao

Once you have a list of candidate products to purchase, research those products and similar products on Taobao. The research method isLike 1688.com Keyword Research and There are two of themImage Research. Before explaining each, let's access Taobao from the following.

Go to Taobao site

Taobao is also a Chinese site, so we recommend using Google Chrome on your computer and using the automatic translation function into Japanese. It's a little strange Japanese, but it's much easier to understand than looking at Chinese.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is basically the same as 1688.com, but let's see what kind of search results you get on the Taobao site.

This time, I will research the apparel products that are candidates for purchase on Mercari. Since most unbranded apparel products do not have a manufacturer name or a product name, we translate some words from the Mercari title of the research target product into Chinese. The same method is used to pick up purchase candidates from other e-commerce sites such as Amazon.

As an example, let's research the swimsuit pictured below. It's a beautiful image that can only be taken by a professional using a model. There were many products with the same image labeled "SLOD", so I decided that it was a very popular product and adopted it as a candidate for purchase.

When I checked the details on the product page, I found that it was imported from a generic brand, so it is almost certain that it was imported from China.

From this title, you can pick up three words "swimwear ladies", "body cover", and "sexy all-in-one", so if you translate these into Chinese using Google Translate, you'll see the figure below. I was. As I explained in the previous article, if you put each word on a new line and search, you will get the Chinese translation result for each word.

Copy and paste this directly into the Taobao search window. When searching for multiple words in Taobao's search window, you need to insert a half-width space between words. However, if you paste the result of Google Translate as it is into the search window, half-width spaces are automatically inserted, which is very convenient.

In this case, one of the three words is the word "desk cover (system cover)". I re-searched with just the two words , "swimming woman (swimsuit ladies)" and "sexy all-in-one". The result is shown below.

However, since we don't know which swimsuits are selling well, we'll sort them in descending order of sales volume. To do so, click on the second character from the left in the text above the top row of the image.

It may be hard to see in the above image, but 「销量」 in Chinese, translated as "Sales". In other words, if you press this button, you can sort in descending order of sales volume.

The sorting result is shown in the figure below, and if you purchase several types from this high-sales product, it will lead to sales rather than blindly purchasing.

Image Research

Image research is a research method that has a very high probability of finding the product you are looking for, even if keyword research doesn't find the product you're looking for. It is very convenient because there is no need to translate it into Chinese.

Image research was once possible on Taobao, but from July 2021, you can no longer search for images on your computer, and the camera mark that was in the search window has disappeared. The reason is that the number of smartphone app users is increasing year by year, and the number of PC users is decreasing.

However, for those who are serious about importing from China, I still want to search for images on a personal computer. I heard from a source good news, it's still possible from a special URL. I will omit the detailed explanation, but if you click on the “site where Taobao image search is possible on a personal computer” below, you can move to the Taobao PC site with a camera mark in the search window, so please try it.

A site where you can search Taobao images on your computer

Move to the Taobao site with a camera mark in the search window as shown below.

Let's use this site to do image research of the swimsuit products used in the keyword research.

As shown below

• Click the camera mark with the red arrow to load the saved image
• Click the image circled in red to search
• Press the "Open" button circled in red to upload.

Then the same or similar images will be hit and displayed as shown below. Similar images are lined up below this, and it turns out that there are a total of 28 stores selling this product on Taobao. One of the stores is selected to purchase the products, but there are points to consider when selecting a store, which will be explained in the next chapter.

How to find good stores on Taobao

Taobao is a CtoC type EC site, and anyone can open a store and sell without screening when listing. Because of this, some stores may deliver poor quality products or the wrong product, so you need to choose your store carefully.

On TaobaoRecommendation criteria for choosing a good store are as follows. When making a selection, consider these factors comprehensively.

Let's take a closer look at each criterion.

Choose a store with a gold mark or Tmall mark

Beneath the image that appears in the search results, there is a store with a mark like a red circle as shown below. These are gold mark , T mall mark.

The image is small and hard to see, so if you enlarge it, it will look like the image below, with the gold mark on the left and the Tmall mark on the right.

• Gold mark: stores with high transaction volume
• T mall mark: TMALL (Tmall) exhibitor

The gold mark is proof of a large transaction volume, so it can be regarded as a good store.

In addition, TMALL is a B-to-C type store derived from Taobao. > is. Panasonic and UNIQLO from Japan also have stores in TMALL, so you can see their high reliability.

Choose a store with 3 or more diamonds in the credit rating

You can check the credit rating mark in the red circle in the evaluation column on the right side of the store sales page as shown in the figure below.

Credit The mark criteria are determined as shown in the chart below, and are determined by sales volume and customer evaluation. As the trust increases, the mechanism is to step up the four-level evaluation from the heart mark to the diamond mark, the blue crown, and the gold crown.

As a criterion, heart status stores have a low transaction volume and are not very reliable, so you should choose a store with 3 or more diamond marks. "Minute" is displayed after the number, but you should understand that this is a "point".

Choose stores with a score of 4.7 or higher on a scale of 5

This can be seen in the red circle in the image below, and is Rated on a 5-point scale for product description, service, and delivery.

If you enlarge the red circle part, it is as follows.

Each item evaluates the following contents, so if you choose a store with 4.7 or more for each item, you can judge that you can trade with confidence.

• Description (product description): Whether the product arrived as described on the store website
• service : Whether the question was answered quickly and politely
• Logistics (delivery): Whether the item was shipped quickly, such as within 2-3 days after placing the order

In addition, in the case of stores that sell on TMALL, you can check the credit mark and 5-level evaluation at the top of the sales site, circled in red in the figure below.

When in doubt, refer to buyer reviews

When there are multiple stores that are candidates for purchase, and even if you look at the above three items, it is difficult to decide which is better, Buyer Reviews at the bottom of each sales site. If you translate it into Japanese, you can understand the content even if the expression is a little strange.

Confirm profit with cost calculator

Another important point when researching is doing some cost calculations upfront.

In the case of Taobao, there is an official transfer service, and after receiving the products purchased at the store in Taobao at the affiliated warehouse in China, we will handle international shipping.

However, it is difficult to have products purchased at multiple stores shipped together at the warehouse to the destination, and if the arrangement is complicated, negotiations in Chinese are required, so it is better to rely on an import agency. It's safe.

Considering these factors, if you roughly calculate the following costs for importing from China in advance, it will be useful when making purchasing decisions.

• Packing material cost
• Shipping within China
• International Shipping
• Customs Duty and Tax
• Japan Domestic Shipping
• Sales Fee
• Domestic Warehouse Usage Fee
• Import Agent Fee

Summary

This time, we explained how to conduct research on Taobao, the e-commerce site that boasts the largest distribution volume in the Alibaba Group. Since it is a C2C marketplace, the purchase price is a little higher than 1688.com, which was introduced last time, but There is an advantage of being able to ship quickly from a small lot.

We have the largest number of categories and listings in the world, so you don't have to worry about purchasing products. Therefore, we are a recommended supplier for those who want to start importing from China but want to start a small business on a side business basis.

Taobao is an EC site that is relatively easy for individuals to purchase, but If you are worried about communicating with stores in Chinese or arranging shipments to Japan, please contact our provided by "THE direct flight" We hope that you will use our services. We will strongly back up your business, so if you are interested, please consider it.