AuMake, the 10-year-old retail business selling to daigous (Chinese personal shoppers), has been on a major roll for the past two years.
In 2018, the Sydney-based company launched an inaugural trade show and announced a deal with JD.com, one of China’s two leading e-commerce giants.
Last year, AuMake acquired rival Broadway for $14.2 million to expand its trans-Tasman store network to 25 to become the largest China-focused offline and online retail platform in Australia.
Like AuMake, Broadway’s main business centred on skincare, cosmetics, health supplements, infant formula and wool.
The expanded company posted a 402 per cent jump in gross profit for the first half of 2020, with revenues rising to $45.2 million.
In a significant shift in its business model, AuMake has announced the debut of a new online marketplace aimed at assisting Australian brands to reach leading influencers in Asia, notably in China.
Chinese social e-commerce marketplaces such as Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu (a.k.a Little Red Book) have experienced meteoric growth in recent years. The sector is expected to be worth $499 billion by 2022.
Asian consumers are increasingly using integrated platforms to buy products based on opinions within their social network and increasingly less on what the brands, retailers or advertisers are telling them, says Keong Chan, executive chairman of AuMake.
“In China, it’s now about discovering products with friends, sharing that experience and buying on that same platform – with product as part of the journey, not simply the end point,” he adds.