What is Kaola.com? Kaola.com Review

Kaola.com is a member-based e-commerce platform under Alibaba focusing on cross-border business. It was launched on January 9, 2015. On September 6, 2019, Alibaba Group announced the acquisition of Kaola.com for US$2 billion and led the US$700 million financing of NetEase Cloud Music. On August 21, 2020, it officially announced a strategic upgrade to fully focus on "member-based e-commerce". The sales categories include maternal and child care, beauty and cosmetics, home life, nutrition and health, global food, clothing and luggage, digital appliances, etc. Kaola.com provides consumers with a large number of overseas product purchase channels with 100% authentic products, everyday low prices, 30-day worry-free returns, and fast delivery, hoping to help users "live a better life with less money" and promote the dual upgrade of consumption and life.

Kaola.com focuses on the concept of self-operation and direct purchase. It has branches or offices in the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, China. It directly purchases high-quality products suitable for the Chinese market from the origin of the products, eliminates counterfeits from the source, ensures the quality of the products, and saves many intermediate links. The products are directly shipped from the origin to China, and stored in bonded warehouses under the supervision of customs and national inspection. In addition, Kaola has launched the Ant Blockchain traceability system to strictly control product quality.

As one of the "first batch of pilot enterprises in Hangzhou Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone", Kaola.com has made many achievements in business model, marketing methods, integrity and self-discipline, and obtained the "B2C Commodity E-commerce Transaction Service Certification Certificate" certified by the China Quality Certification Center with a four-star certification level. It is the first cross-border e-commerce company in China to obtain this certification, and it is also one of the first cross-border e-commerce platforms in China to obtain the highest level of certification.

Kaola.com has effectively solved the current situation of information asymmetry between merchants and consumers, and has seven major advantages: self-operated model, pricing advantage, global distribution, warehousing, overseas logistics, capital and nanny-style service.

Media e-commerce

There are natural language, geographical and information barriers in different regions around the world, which makes it difficult for consumers to make decisions when purchasing goods. For example, what to buy, which products are good, how to understand the lifestyle behind the products, etc. Product information is too complicated and unfamiliar to consumers.

In addition to solving the supply chain and platform sales issues of traditional e-commerce, cross-border communication with users is also very important. Product information needs to be delivered to consumers. As a media-based e-commerce company, Kaola.com can solve the current situation of information asymmetry in a friendly manner. "You can use a variety of media means, such as text, video and even Internet celebrities to better explain how this product is good for consumers."

At present, Kaola.com has already found a way to go from selling goods to promoting lifestyles. "The first step is to let consumers know what to buy; the second step is to let consumers buy the right goods; the third step is to let consumers feel that every purchase is inseparable from life, that buying is changing life, and buying is life."

Kaola's massive user base and capital advantages, including funds, assets and capital market resources, have become its continued core advantage that distinguishes it from other e-commerce platforms.

Seven competitive advantages

Self-operated model

Kaola.com focuses on self-operated direct purchases, and has established a professional procurement team to go deep into the origin of the products, strictly review the qualifications of all suppliers, and set up a strict review mechanism to eliminate counterfeits from the source, further ensuring the safety of the products. In the past year, Kaola.com has reached strategic cooperation with hundreds of high-quality suppliers and first-line brands around the world.

Pricing Advantage

Kaola.com's self-operated model has independent pricing power, and can adjust pricing strategies according to market environment and competition nodes by overall coordination of supply chain and warehousing, logistics, and operations. Kaola.com not only needs to reduce procurement costs to control pricing, but also needs to control pricing strategies by controlling profit margins, so as to not only respect the brand's pricing strategy, but also pay more attention to Chinese consumers' sensitivity and preferences for prices.

Global Locations

Kaola.com adheres to the philosophy of self-operated direct purchase and boutique operation. It has established branches and offices in nearly 10 countries and regions, including San Francisco, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Hong Kong. It has visited the origins of commodities to select the world's top quality products[16]. It avoids multiple layers of links such as agents and distributors, and directly connects with brands and factories, eliminating intermediaries and costs. It also adopts a large-scale centralized procurement model to achieve lower purchase prices, and even "overseas wholesale prices".

Warehousing advantages

Through the bonded model, we can achieve legality and compliance, reduce costs and achieve fast delivery, so bonded warehouses that can be used for cross-border e-commerce are scarce resources.

Kaola.com has more than 150,000 square meters of bonded warehousing space in four bonded areas in Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Ningbo and Chongqing, ranking first in the industry. At the same time, the 250,000 square meters of modern and intelligent bonded warehouse in Ningbo has broken ground and will be put into use soon. At present, Kaola.com has become the company with the largest bonded warehouse scale among cross-border e-commerce companies. In the future, Kaola.com will also open bonded logistics centers in South China, North China and Southwest China.

Overseas, Kaola has initially built an international logistics and warehousing center in the United States, and will open international logistics and warehousing centers in countries and regions such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Europe.

Overseas logistics advantages

At present, Kaola.com has been quickly integrated into Alibaba's infrastructure: all technical foundations have been moved to Alibaba Cloud, and global logistics, warehousing and other businesses have been connected with Cainiao.

Plenty of cash

With its strong capital, Kaola.com has invested in the construction of basic conditions such as supply chain and logistics chain, while also continuing to adopt a low-price strategy.

Although Kaola.com has strong financial backing, it did not make any big moves at the beginning. Instead, it spent more than half a year focusing on basic preparations, such as acquiring land and building warehouses, soliciting investment, and sorting out the supply chain.

Babysitting service

For overseas manufacturers, Kaola.com can provide a complete set of nanny-style services, including cross-border logistics warehousing, cross-border payment, supply chain finance, online operations, brand promotion, etc., to solve the barriers for overseas merchants to enter China and save them from the language, cultural differences, transportation and other problems they face when developing the Chinese market alone. Kaola.com's goal is to help overseas merchants save costs and let Chinese consumers enjoy low prices.

References

• 1. Entering the comprehensive e-commerce market: NetEase Kaola officially announced its name change to NetEase Kaola: Everything is worth buying [reference date 2018-06-05T16:00:00.000Z]
• 2. What makes cross-border businesses tremble is not the giants and financing but the entry of NetEase Kaola: NetEase [cited on 2016-06-11T16:00:00.000Z]