Taobao - This is the largest e-commerce platform
in China owned by Alibaba Group. Taobao mainly represents domestic brands for the domestic market.
Opening a store on Taobao is only possible
for a company registered in China.
Tmall - offers premium products unlike Taobao. At Tmall, consumers can find well-known brands and even international goods shipped directly from Hong Kong, Europe, Australia or the United States.
Tmall, with its Tmall Global platform, is far more open to overseas and Hong Kong companies than Taobao, which is purely domestic.
China online trading platforms
JD.com - is China's second largest B2C
e-commerce market (after Taobao, which includes Tmall). While Taobao and Tmall are open platforms that allow anyone (at least in China) to open a store and start selling, JD.com is more focused on direct sales. Thus, JD.com operates more like a traditional online store.
JD Worldwide is a program that allows foreign companies and brands to sell directly to the Chinese market using their JD.com trading platform.
Xiaohongshu - This is not just an e-commerce platform like Tmall and JD, but rather a lifestyle community with a separate section dedicated to branded stores
The site mainly attracts young women aged 18-35 who are looking for reviews about the products they are interested in.
Weidian - is a third-party CMS that works great with the built-in WeChat browser. Weidian is often used by individuals or small businesses selling everything from imported cosmetics to handmade items. Registration is free, but Weidian is currently not available for foreign companies, including Hong Kong.
To open a Weidian store, you need a business license and a bank account in mainland China.
Youzan - Unlike Weidian, which provides free registration, Youzan is paid. Packages start at 4800 yuan.
However, Youzan also requires a business license in mainland China and a bank account before the store can be opened.
Interestingly, the WeChat Store is not hosted on the WeChat server, but on independent websites accessed via the built-in Internet browser in WeChat.