How Azoya is helping overseas brands to succeed at ecom in China

by Insider Trends

This article was originally published on Insider Trends.


Azoya – Retail 2020

China is much talked about in the retail world as a place of opportunity for brands. It is, after all, on the cusp of being the biggest consumer market in the world.

Yet, across all sorts of industries big names from the West have found that success in the country is not a simple task. Many fall foul of thinking about China in the same way that they do other countries they operate in when in reality it is very much its own beast.

Azoya is working to help retailers and brands to make their move into China the right way. An enabler of cross border ecommerce, it acts as valuable partner in helping them navigate this new market in a locally minded way. It’s an approach that equals ecommerce success.

We spoke to Azoya’s European MD Elena Gatti to find out how Azoya helps brands navigate market differences, where most go wrong and how Chinese retail is innovating at a rapid pace.

Elena Gatti, Managing Director, Europe, Azoya

Can you describe Azoya in a nutshell?

Azoya is a cross border e-commerce enabler for brands and retailers from all over the world who are looking to access the Chinese market.

There are a lot of challenges when trying to enter this market; it’s a completely different world. Retailers need to have a local partner in the country as not only is the customer different but so are the Chinese ecosystem and the internet landscape.

Azoya is a strong partner to these brands and retailers, sitting close to the customers in China.
We can be viewed as an enabler, not only helping them build the website but also operating it and doing campaigns. We have a collection of 50 different APIs with marketing channels, shopping guides, blogs, etc; so we can spread and push digital marketing to drive traffic to the web shops.

Azoya was founded five years ago, as a Chinese company based in Shenzhen. We have around 250 employees, most of them in mainland China. The rest are spread out all over the world (in Germany, UK, Australia, Japan etc), mainly for business development and project coordination.

We specialise in the categories of beauty, nutrition, accessories, OTC, and pharma; i.e. industries that can ship small and low value items.

Azoya – China Ecommerce


What is the business model in terms of logistics?

With cross border ecommerce, the safest way to start is with a drop-shipping model; i.e. the company packs the parcels in their home country and sends them directly to China. The issue with that is the poor customer experience, as you would need to target customers who would be willing to wait 10 to 14 days for their items to arrive. Read More