老外開淘寶一夜暴富：「中國人發現我是個外國人後反倒更容易撈錢」

新聞 01-25

還記得去年我們被淘寶支配的恐懼么，我天朝的購買力真是6得飛起！不買這個東西又不會變富，買了這個東西反正依舊很窮，那為什麼不買？而老外好像也發現了這一大商機，聽說他們在中國也紛紛開起了淘寶，而且還賺了不少錢呢！快來跟著主頁君一起來聽聽他們聊聊在淘寶路上遇到的機遇和挑戰吧~

文｜Wang Han

From 環球時報英文版

微信號：gtmetroshanghai

在雙11又一次創下交易記錄，並被外媒廣泛報道後，「電商好賺錢」這個認知連歪果仁都門兒清了。有些在中國的老外甚至真地開起了淘寶店，賺得盆滿缽滿。

老外開店都賣些啥？有沒有碰到什麼囧事和難題？聽我給你開扒——

前陣子，我們的馬雲爸爸和美國總統特朗普在特朗普大廈進行了

40多分鐘的談話

。而此次談話的主題便是

阿里巴巴對美投資擴張計劃

。馬雲鼓勵更多美國人參與到阿里巴巴電商平台，並豪氣地

許諾未來5年將為美國創100萬個工作崗位

。

而很多在中國生活的老外，早已發現淘寶潛在的巨大商機，註冊了淘寶店鋪做起了老闆

。這些外國人通過淘寶平台，把外國的產品和生活方式帶給了好幾億的中國消費者。

我採訪了兩位外國淘寶店主，邀請他們聊聊為什麼會有在中國開淘寶的想法，歪果仁開淘寶的程序，在異國做電商遇到的挑戰。

想了解怎麼發家致富嗎？小夥伴們接著往下看吧！

29歲的開開是一位美國人。2007年,他第一次來中國旅遊；2008年和2009年，他分別在

北京大學和台北國立大學學中文

（高材生啊！）。

Kaikai, the Chinese name of a 29-year-old American, became a Taobao shop owner in 2012. He said that his first visit to China was in 2007 he then studied Putonghua at Beijing University and National Taiwan University in 2008 and 2009.

「我用中文日常交流沒有任何問題。我也看得懂中文，能在電腦和手機鍵盤上打出中文。但我沒刻意練習寫中文，因為現在大家都是打字比較多。」

"I can say everything in Chinese, I can also read and type the words on computers and mobile phones," he said. "However, I didn"t dedicate my Chinese studies to handwriting as there is not much practicality for it in this day and age."

他良好的中文功底為他後來的淘寶事業奠定了重要的基礎。

在2012年，開開創立了他的淘寶店鋪，主要是賣美國進口的廚房電器，電子產品和旅行用具

。

His excellent command of Putonghua laid a solid foundation for his future Taobao career. In 2012, Kaikai began selling household kitchen appliances, electronic devices and travel accessories on Taobao.

他說開淘寶店這個想法是受到身邊叫他從美國帶iPhone 4S的中國朋友的啟發。

「我那時也需要把我的薪水（用美元支付的）換成人民幣。所以他們給我人民幣，讓我用美元買手機，也讓我免去了換錢的麻煩。」

He said he was inspired by Chinese friends who kept asking him to buy iPhone 4S from the US for them. "At that time, I had a need to convert my salary (paid in dollars) into yuan, so it was a win-win for both sides," he said.

在幫朋友們帶了幾次手機後，開開看到了代購這個行業的商機。於是他

一鼓作氣辭掉了當時的工作，專門開了淘寶店

，全職賣美國的產品。

Realizing the viability of this new trade, Kaikai decided to quit his job and begin selling products on Taobao full time.

但開淘寶店首先就是要註冊。對於老外來說，註冊淘寶店程序會不會比中國店主麻煩得多呢？開開在採訪中說，

獨立開淘寶店的歪果仁只需要提交護照，參加簡單的中文水平測驗。通過之後，就可以註冊淘寶店鋪了

。

In terms of procedure, he said foreigners without Chinese partners need only a passport and the completion of a simple Chinese-language test.

開開一開始開店的時候，

是靠著一個人的力量白手起家的

，沒有僱傭任何幫手。

Like many budding entrepreneurs, Kaikai didn"t have any help at the beginning of his business.

「我一開始是在上海一個很便宜的青年旅館運營我的淘寶店的。從在美國採購、把貨發往中國、清關，到在店鋪上宣傳銷售、發貨、處理售後……中間所有環節我都是一個人完成的。沒有人教我怎麼做，我都是靠自己摸著石頭過河的。」

"I first started the business by myself, living and operating out of a youth hostel in Shanghai. From product procurement overseas, to logistics, importing, sales and final fulfillment, I controlled every step of the process," he said. "I didn"t have anyone to hold my hand, so I had to learn everything on the fly."

儘管中文不是開開的母語，

他一開始親自擔任「旺旺客服」。

他說他喜歡用語音的方式與客人溝通，

而且還特意用英文回復

。他覺得語音的形式比起文字回復，更加親切，更容易與客人建立信任。

「而且我的中國客人發現我是個外國人後，會特別高興。」

Even though he is not a native Chinese speaker, Kaikai conducted all his customer service interactions himself. "I would often send messages using Taobao"s voice function, which made the sales experience with customers a lot more intimate and congenial, because Chinese are happy to know that it"s really a foreigner communicating with them," he added.

開開說「歪果仁」這個身份，是他在淘寶上做生意突出的競爭優勢。

Kaikai admits that his identity as an American guy selling American products in China is his biggest competitive advantage on Taobao.

「我每次上架產品，都會親自給我的產品拍有自己店鋪特色的照片和視頻，把我的店鋪和其他賣類似產品的店鋪區別開來。照片里也會有我。所以

我的客人看到照片知道我是個美國人後，會更相信我的產品是美國進口的正品。

」

"In most of my listings, I take all the product photos and videos myself to differentiate my store from other sellers," he said. "It"s an effective strategy to give my customers peace-of-mind knowing that they are buying authentic American products from an authentic American."

另一位外國淘寶店主Thomas目前是芝加哥大學行為科學方面的助理教授。2013年他在北京的時候注意到了中國空氣污染的問題，於是他創立了一個叫Smart Air Filters的公益企業。

他創辦這個企業的初衷是給人們提供更廉價的空氣凈化器。

Thomas Talhelm is an assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago. During his stay in China in 2013, he noticed smog becoming a crucial environmental issue and thus founded the social enterprise Smart Air Filters to promote DIY air filters as cheaper alternatives to expensive air purifiers.

Thomas把市面上幾款空氣凈化器拆開後，發現最核心的零件就是一個電風扇，一個過濾器，

而這些核心零件單買的價格不及一台空氣凈化器價格的十分之一

。而經過他的測試，僅僅用最簡約核心的零部件，依舊能有效地過濾空氣。

These DIY purifiers primarily consist of a fan and a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, which are the major components of any standard air filter.

為了把這種便宜的DIY空氣凈化器帶給更多有需要的人,Thomas跟他的朋友們在2013年創立了自己的淘寶店Smart Air.

To ship them to and sell them in China, Talhelm and his team set up their own Taobao store in 2013.

「我們一開始賣的東西很簡單，就是最基本的過濾屏障和風扇。現在我們的產品種類比較豐富了。每個產品的過濾污染物的效果，我們都有做數據測試，結果也全部是公布在網上的。」

"We started simple, but since then we"ve expanded to other products that we"ve personally tested and published results for, such as carbon filters for formaldehyde, pollution masks and particle counters," he said, adding that their customer base is comprised of both expats and locals concerned about China"s worsening air pollution.

「

在淘寶上開店能夠讓我們用最低的成本把我們的產品帶給儘可能多的中國人。

淘寶毫無疑問是中國規模最大的電商平台，所以我們第一反應就是在淘寶上開店。現在中國還有微信平台跟京東，也可以讓個體賣家賣東西，但淘寶還是最大的。」

"Opening a Taobao store allowed us to get affordable clean air options to more people in China," he said. "Taobao is clearly the major online commerce platform in China. The choice is a no-brainer. Now there are more options with Weidian and JD, but Taobao is still huge."

目前這兩位歪果仁店主的店鋪都是皇冠店了，但是回首一路走來的過程，他們都說中間遇到很多困難和挑戰。

開開說，

一開始他並不知道如何把產品大批量地從美國運往中國。為了找到好的物流運輸方式，他碰了很多壁。

「現在我們一個月會發12公噸的東西到中國，有的是空運，有的是海運。」

Kaikai explained that at the beginning he was unsure how to export products from the US into China, which required plenty of logistical research and trial-and-error attempts. "We are now shipping about 12 metric tons of goods each month via air and sea," he said.

此外，開開說自己有點控制狂和完美主義傾向，所以如何把某些業務放手讓手下的人去做，是他另一個挑戰。「現在我請了5個全職人員擔任客服。」

Kaikai pointed out that learning how to delegate tasks to increase scalability is essential. "Initially, I was a bit of a control freak, as I wanted to control all aspects of the business to ensure the best quality service," he said."However, I realized that I had to delegate tasks, such as customer service, which is why I now have about five employees just in customer service."

而Thomas認為認真對待顧客們的反饋，是非常重要的，尤其是顧客的批評。「收到中差評，我們一般會站在客人的角度想他們為什麼給我們不好的評價。我們會查明客人說的是不是真的，找出我們不足的地方。」

Talhelm believes that evaluating customer feedback is extremely helpful, especially negative comments. 「First we try to figure out what the customer is talking about. Is it true? Where was the problem? If it"s a scientific or technical question, I send data (or even run a new test if it"s something we haven"t tested)," he said.

他說目前主要的中差評是關於凈化器的噪音問題。「但市面上幾乎所有凈化器，都會有噪音的問題。一旦空氣凈化器是靜音模式，它的過濾能力就會下降。我們現在在探索如何在保證凈化效果的同時，降低噪音。」

He added that the most common negative comment about his product is noise, which is a fundamental problem with almost all air purifiers. "Any machine that is pushing out air will create noise, but people want less noise. There are quiet purifiers out there, but they don"t push out enough clean air. We"re working on radical new designs for quiet yet clean filters," Talhelm said.

被問到是否需要淘寶平台給你們這樣的外國店主提供一些幫助，

開開說他覺得不太需要

。他說他從沒奢望過馬雲能給外國店主一個通行證，讓他們的淘寶店運營得比中國店主更容易。

In terms of what administrative or promotional support he expects from Taobao, Kaikai said that he doesn"t expect Jack Ma to just hand over to foreign shop owners a magical key to the castle.

他對淘寶唯一的希望就是，阿里巴巴集團能夠繼續維護淘寶目前公平的競爭環境，讓賣家和買家能繼續在這個平台放心地交易。

Thus, his only expectations are for Alibaba to continue maintaining a fair, reliable - and, most importantly, trustworthy - marketplace for both buyers and sellers.

「淘寶上有數不盡的店鋪，我的店鋪只是其中的一個，我再普通不過。但也正是這種普通讓我熱愛這個平台。大家都一樣，都很渺小，都要靠實力脫穎而出。我不用靠關係來拉客戶，做出業績。」

"There are hundreds of thousands of Taobao shops; my store is just a number in the system. That"s one of the reasons why I love e-commerce in China, though, because I don"t have to deal with guanxi (connections with influential people)" Kaikai said.

「最重要的是，淘寶的運行規則非常透明。我的淘寶店鋪能做到這樣的程度，全是靠我和員工們一點一點努力積累起來的，並不是靠內部關係獲得的。而很多實體店的運營，還是需要關係的。」

"For the most part, e-commerce in China is very transparent and a level playing field for sellers," he said. "My success is achieved strictly through hard work and merit, not through relationships with insiders (like bricks-and-mortar stores)."