8 Best Mobile Apps For China Importation Business

8 Best Mobile Apps for China Importation
8 Best Mobile Apps for China Importation

Thanks to the internet that has streamlined importation business for a lot of importers. Gone are the days when importers needed to travel 6,164 miles to China to procure goods. Now, with just a smartphone, business owners can run their businesses right from the comfort of their homes without going through the stress of booking flights or incurring ticket fees.

In this article, we will share the best 8 mobile apps in no particular order that importers use to buy, import or procure from China using their mobile phones from anywhere in the world.

According to Jiguang’s report at the end of November 2018, the total number of online shoppers using Chinese ecommerce apps installed on their mobile devices grew from 207 million to 783 million within just one year. The penetration of ecommerce in China has reached 71.1% of the total Chinese population. With the population of China reaching over 1.4 billion, this means there are over a billion people on China’s shopping apps. In terms of spending, Emarketer estimates that spending on China’s shopping apps reached USD 1.53 trillion!

With China shopping apps experiencing such tremendous growth, competition is becoming more and more fierce. The apps are forced to take into consideration User experience because of the stiff competition. B itased on the ease of doing business via these mobile apps, here are the 8 best mobile apps in China.

Taobao is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

Taobao Marketplace facilitates consumer-to-consumer (C2C) retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online stores that mainly cater to consumers in Chinese-speaking regions (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and abroad,which is made payable by online accounts. Its stores usually offer an express delivery service. It can be downloaded on both Google Play and Apple Store.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, also known as Alibaba, is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, internet, and technology. Founded on 28 June 1999 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, the company provides consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business-to-business (B2B) sales services via web portals, as well as electronic payment services, shopping search engines and cloud computing services. It owns and operates a diverse portfolio of companies around the world in numerous business sectors.

Alibaba is one of the world’s largest retailers and e-commerce companies. In 2020, it was also rated as the fifth-largest artificial intelligence company. It is also one of the biggest venture capital firms, and one of the biggest investment corporations in the world.The company hosts the largest B2B (Alibaba.com), C2C (Taobao), and B2C (Tmall) marketplaces in the world. It has been expanding into the media industry, with revenues rising by triple percentage points year after year. It also set the record on the 2018 edition of China’s Singles’ Day, the world’s biggest online and offline shopping day. Alibaba mobile app is available in Google Play and Apple Store and it is translated in 17 languages.

AliExpress is an online retail service based in China and owned by the Alibaba Group. Launched in 2010, it is made up of small businesses in China and other locations, such as Singapore, that offer products to international online buyers. It is the most visited e-commerce website in Russia and was the 10th most popular website in Brazil.It facilitates small businesses to sell to customers all over the world. AliExpress has drawn comparison to eBay, as sellers are independent and use the platform to offer products to buyers.

AliExpress started as a business-to-business buying and selling portal. It has since expanded to business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, cloud computing, and payment services, as well. As of 2016 AliExpress ran websites in English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Polish, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian and Russian languages. Customers outside the countries for these languages are automatically served the English version of the service. AliExpress is often used by e-commerce stores that use a dropship business model. You can download the mobile app on  Google Play and Apple Store.

Pinduoduo Inc. ( Pīn duōduō) is the largest agriculture-focused technology platform in China. It has created a platform that connects farmers and distributors with consumers directly through its interactive shopping experience. In 2019, nearly 12 million farmers supplied their fruits and vegetables to Pinduoduo users.

It has pioneered several new trends including social commerce,and consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M).

As of December 31, 2020, Pinduoduo has generated RMB 1.67 trillion gross merchandise value (GMV) in the last twelve months. The number of average monthly active users reached 724.6 million in the 1st quarter of 2021. For the 12 months ending on June 30, 2021, Pinduoduo’s annual active buyers reached 849.9 million. The app is available on Google Play and Apple store.

This is another product from the Alibaba group. It is a B2B eCommerce where you can find suppliers and manufacturers. It is one of the largest platforms for wholesale sourcing and manufacturing. One of the best things about shopping on 1688 is that  shoppers can be guaranteed legit trading because all suppliers must get a government license before they can be registered on 1688. 

1688 is mainly for the domestic market and originally in Chinese language. It is quite popular because it has one of the lowest prices you can find in the Chinese market. The mobile app is available on Android and Applestore.



Formerly known as Taobao Mall, the  Chinese-language website is a B2C online retail platform that allows users to buy brand-name goods for consumers. According to Alexa rank, it is the third most visited website globally in 2021. One special perks of Tmall is that it is great for brand visibility as much as shopping.

It has 500Million active users and is also owned by the eCommerce giant Alibaba group. Download on Google Play and Apple store.

This website is a fortune 500 company and recognized as the largest retailer in China. It is a platform  for local and global brands that want to reach Chinese consumers online. It is formerly known as 360buy headquartered in Beijing. JD.com is China’s leading one-stop e-commerce platform, providing nearly 570 million active customers with direct access to an unrivaled range of authentic, high-quality products, and helping leading local and international brands tap into China’s fast-growing e-commerce market. In terms of transaction, volume and revenue JD is a global competitor to Alibaba.The brand has equally diversified into robotics and artificial intelligence. The app is available on Google Play and Apple store.

The app quickly scaled in the last few years and currently has over 1Million downloads globally. It is originally designed for B2B shoppers where business owners can buy large equipment and find reliable suppliers and manufacturers for their businesses. Unlike some other Chinese shopping app, Made in China is available globally and in English language thereby breaking the barrier of language for shoppers and connecting business owners with suppliers as easily as possible. The app is available on Google Play and Apple store.

Now that you have so many options to choose from as an importer, when shopping from China, we encourage you to check out our verified suppliers list where you can find contact details of registered suppliers of various goods/niches in China. 

Further readings/resources:

Private Label Manufacturing Guide: This guide is a comprehensive step-by-step approach to help you get started with Private Label Manufacturing. It is a free guide but only made available to you as a bonus if you ordered the verified suppliers list.

Contract Template- A contract template is a legal agreement between you and your supplier. Again, this is necessary to make sure that your business transaction is protected on both ends. You can download the template here.

Expert Importation Guidebook- This is a starter guide to help you if you are a new importer. This free eBook is designed to take you from a beginner to pro level. Get it for free here.

https://naiyuanmart.com/5-best-chinese-websites-for-importers-in-2021/