1. Welchen Weg gehen Sie?
Das ist die wichtigste Weiche: Sie entscheidet, ob Sie überhaupt eine chinesische Gesellschaft brauchen, und filtert die Kanäle unten.
Cross-border: Tmall Global and JD Worldwide accept a foreign entity, so you skip the entity setup step. The trade-off is category range, logistics and long-term brand control.
2. Wählen Sie Ihren Kanal
Ein Durchgang durch jeden Kanal, damit Sie sehen, welchen Shop Sie kaufen würden. Die Ansichten sind mobil, weil Chinas Handel mobile-first ist — der Großteil des Traffics kommt von Smartphones. Es sind Demo-Mockups der Oberflächen, keine Screenshots von Kundenshops.
Xiaohongshu / RED 小红书
Chinese Instagram
Named in our own service scope. Discovery-first: content drives the sale, and the store converts the traffic the content earns.
Tmall Global 天猫国际
Cross-border flagship for foreign brands. No Chinese entity required — goods clear through bonded warehouses or direct mail.
JD Worldwide 京东国际
JD’s cross-border channel. Foreign entity accepted, no Chinese company required.
WeChat Mini Program (custom) 微信小程序商城
Your own storefront, built or rented. No marketplace commission, but you bring every user yourself — and you carry build and maintenance.
SaaS-Anbieter für ein eigenes Mini-Programm — nicht branchenspezifisch
Kosmetika benötigen eine NMPA-Anmeldung (normal) oder Registrierung (Sonderzubereitungen). Grenzüberschreitend gilt ein vereinfachtes Verfahren.
Möchten Sie wissen, wie man einen Xiaohongshu / RED-Shop eröffnet?小红书 — wir begleiten Sie durch Qualifikation, Zeitplan und die Zuständigkeiten, bevor Sie etwas ausgeben.
Ask us
3. Was die Plattform berechnet
Wir nennen eine Zahl nur, wenn wir ihre Herkunft belegen können. Unbestätigtes ist entsprechend gekennzeichnet.
| Posten | Was wir wissen | Woher es stammt |
|---|---|---|
| Plattform-KautionReported, unverified | Nach Kategorie gestaffelte Kaution, meist von einigen Tausend bis Zehntausenden Yuan angegeben | Branchenberichte |
| Plattform-ProvisionNeeds a partner quote | Nicht veröffentlicht | Kommerzielle Preise, die nicht veröffentlicht sind. Ausgefüllt von Ihnen oder Ihrem Partner — niemals von uns. |
| Jahres-/PlattformgebührNeeds a partner quote | Nicht veröffentlicht | Kommerzielle Preise, die nicht veröffentlicht sind. Ausgefüllt von Ihnen oder Ihrem Partner — niemals von uns. |
4. Ihre einmaligen Einrichtungskosten
Jedes Feld ist mit dem Besten vorbelegt, was wir haben: dem eigenen Wert der Plattform, falls vorhanden, sonst unserer Größenordnungsschätzung. Jeder Wert ist entsprechend gekennzeichnet, und die Notiz darunter sagt, worauf er beruht. Leeren Sie ein Feld, um es unbekannt zu lassen — und nutzen Sie „Vorbelegte Werte löschen“ weiter unten, um zu sehen, welchen Unterschied unsere Schätzungen machen.
Industry estimate Berichtet als kategoriegestaffelt von wenigen Tausend bis Zehntausenden; wir füllen das untere Ende ein.
Industry estimate No annual fee is commonly quoted for this channel now — the model has largely moved to per-order service fees. Confirm on the platform’s own portal before committing.
Industry estimate Kategorieabhängig: Kosmetik-Anmeldung etwa ¥5.000–20.000, Lebensmittel-Lizenzen ähnlich, CCC-Prüfungen teurer.
Industry estimate Nur die erste Klasse: amtliche Gebühr plus übliche Agenturpauschale. Jede zusätzliche Klasse kommt ungefähr wieder dazu.
Industry estimate Visueller Aufbau — Shop-Design, Produktfotografie und Detailseiten — für den ersten Launch.
Lizenzkosten variieren je nach Kategorie und sind meist die am wenigsten vorhersagbare Position — Lizenzkosten mit unserem Lizenzkosten-Rechner schätzen →
Vorausgefüllte Werte stammen von der Plattform oder aus <b>unserer eigenen Branchenschätzung</b> — jeder ist gekennzeichnet, und wofür es keine Grundlage gibt, bleibt leer. Nur eine Größenordnung. Ersetzen Sie sie durch Ihre eigene Zahl, sobald Sie eine haben.
Want us to fill these in with confirmed numbers?Tell us the channel and category and we will come back with quotes from the operators we work with.
Request confirmed figures
5. Der laufende Monatsbetrieb
Das Agenturmodell ist entscheidend: Es bestimmt, welche Kosten fix sind und welche mit dem Umsatz wachsen.
Das Agenturmodell ist entscheidend: Es bestimmt, welche Kosten fix sind und welche mit dem Umsatz wachsen.
Industry estimate Berichtete Retainer starten bei etwa ¥20.000–30.000/Monat für einen Tmall-ähnlichen Shop.
bei reinem Retainer nicht verwendet
warehousing + delivery
Industry estimate Kein veröffentlichter Satz für diesen Kanal. Die Provision chinesischer Marketplaces liegt üblicherweise bei etwa 0,6–5 %; dies ist ein Platzhalter mit 2 % — ersetzen Sie ihn durch den von der Plattform bestätigten Satz.
6. Was dabei herauskommt
Einmalig
—
Monatlich
—
Jahr 1
—
Break-even-GMV / Monat
—
Aufschlüsselung
| Einmalig | Betrag |
|---|---|
| Summe | — |
| Monatlich | Betrag |
|---|---|
| Summe | — |
Ihre eigenen Positionen zählen in die Summen hinein. Eine monatliche Position gilt als feste Monatskosten — genau wie der Agentur-Retainer und der Kundenservice.
7. How the channels rate
Six dimensions, fixed grade bands, and the data point behind every grade. Higher is better for a foreign brand. The grades are our editorial judgement — no platform issues or endorses them.
| Kanal | Reichweite | Bindung | Zugang | Kontrolle | Marge | Eignung | Warum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tmall Global 天猫国际 | B | B | A | C | B | A | The default first move for a foreign brand that has no Chinese entity yet. |
| Tmall 天猫 | A | B | D | C | C | B | The brand-credibility anchor in China. Expensive and slow to enter, still where buyers check you. |
| Taobao 淘宝 | A | B | C | D | D | C | Cheapest place to test demand. Weak for brand building, and brand protection is poor. |
| JD Worldwide 京东国际 | C | C | A | C | B | A | A credible cross-border alternative to Tmall Global, often easier to get into. |
| JD (POP) 京东 | B | C | D | C | C | B | Best for electronics, appliances and anything where delivery trust drives the sale. |
| Pinduoduo 拼多多 | A | B | C | D | E | D | Enormous reach, brutal economics. Only sensible with a cost structure built for it. |
| Douyin E-commerce 抖音电商 | A | A | D | D | D | B | Unmatched for discovery and launch momentum. Requires content capability you must actually have. |
| WeChat Store 微信小店 | C | C | B | C | B | B | The cheapest legitimate way to start selling in WeChat. It converts the audience you already have — it does not find you one. |
| WeChat Mini Program (custom) 微信小程序商城 | E | D | C | A | A | B | The right end-state for a brand with real private traffic. The wrong first move if you have none. |
| Weidian 微店 | E | D | B | D | D | D | Fine for social reselling. Not a channel to build a foreign brand on — and remember it is not a WeChat product. |
| Xiaohongshu / RED 小红书 | C | C | C | C | B | A | The strongest place to build preference before you sell. Where beauty, lifestyle and baby & maternity brands win. |
| Kuaishou Store 快手小店 | B | B | D | D | D | C | Real scale, strong in lower-tier cities. Requires a committed livestream operation. |
| Vipshop 唯品会 | D | C | D | E | E | C | A clearance outlet, not a brand home. Useful for stock, not for positioning. |
A = am besten für eine ausländische Marke → E = am schlechtesten. Die Abstufungen stehen weiter unten.
Was jede Dimension misst und wie die Noten abgestuft sind
| Dimension | What it measures | Grade bands |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | How many people you can actually address — measured by monthly active users. | A ≥500m MAU · B 100–500m · C 30–100m · D 10–30m · E no platform audience of its own |
| Engagement | How often they come back — measured by the DAU/MAU ratio. | A ≥70% · B 50–70% · C 30–50% · D 20–30% · E below 20% or not measurable |
| Access for foreign brands | What you must have before you are allowed to apply at all. | A foreign entity accepted, no Chinese trademark needed · B foreign entity accepted, trademark needed · C Chinese entity needed, light licences · D Chinese entity + R mark + category licences · E platform-dominated with no merchant route |
| Brand control | How much of the storefront, the customer relationship and the pricing is yours. | A you own the storefront and the relationship · B largely yours · C shared with the platform · D platform template, little differentiation · E platform sells on your behalf, you have no storefront |
| Margin protection | How much pricing power you keep once you are live. | A you set the price · B mild discount pressure · C promotion-driven · D heavy price competition · E price is the only lever |
| Overall fit | Our composite call for a first-time foreign brand in a mid-price category. | A strong first move · B worth doing with preparation · C viable but secondary · D only with a specific reason · E not recommended as a primary channel |
Woher die Nutzerzahlen stammen (und warum manche Spannen sind)
| Data | Detail | Source / date |
|---|---|---|
| User-scale figures | QuestMobile monthly-active-user readings reported through industry media in 2026 (March and May). Sources disagree on JD and Pinduoduo by meaningful margins, so those are shown as ranges. | QuestMobile via media · 2026-03 / 2026-05 |
| Kuaishou users | DAU 412.7m and MAU 771.7m from Kuaishou’s Q1 2026 results — the only user figures here taken straight from a company filing. | Kuaishou Q1 2026 results · 2026 |
| WeChat users | WeChat MAU 1,154m from Tencent filings. This is the size of WeChat, not of WeChat Store — the store has no audience of its own. | Tencent filings · 2026 |
| Douyin users | MAU passed 1bn (QuestMobile 2026-03); DAU/MAU ≈ 84%, the highest of any channel assessed. | QuestMobile via media · 2026-03 |
| Xiaohongshu users | MAU above 350m; DAU/MAU ≈ 37%, because people arrive to search rather than to browse. | LatePost / media reports · 2026-06 |
| Grades themselves | Every grade is CNGateway’s editorial judgement, formed from the bands published above plus the qualification and cost facts on this page. No platform issues or endorses these grades. | CNGateway editorial · 2026-09-28 |
Media reports of the same QuestMobile reading disagree — JD appears anywhere from 521m to 676m MAU,
Pinduoduo from 683m to 780m. We print the range rather than pick the figure that suits the story.
Only the Kuaishou and WeChat figures come from company filings.
8. Voraussetzungen: chinesische vs. ausländische Gesellschaft
Die Formalitäten, nicht die Preise. Das muss vorhanden sein, bevor eine Plattform Sie verkaufen lässt.
Using a Chinese company
General-trade route
You need an entity that can sign contracts, issue invoices and receive payments in China. Which vehicle is up to you — a WFOE, a joint venture or a domestic company all work; they differ in ownership, speed and how much you do yourself. (A representative office does not, because it may not trade.) Choosing the vehicle is the precondition for everything else on this route.
- Business licence covering the target category — A WFOE or domestic company. The business scope must cover what you intend to sell — adding a category later takes time.
- Registered trademark (R mark, or an accepted application) — Flagship stores normally require an R mark. Specialty and franchise stores may accept an application, but the tier and permissions differ.
- Category-specific prior licences — Food business licence, NMPA cosmetics filing or registration, medical device permits — driven entirely by category.
- Corporate bank account — Settlement, tax and platform payouts all run through the corporate account.
- General VAT taxpayer status (if you need to issue special invoices) — Determines whether you can issue VAT special invoices downstream.
- ICP / EDI licence (model-dependent) — Only relevant for a self-hosted independent site or certain operating models — not for selling on a marketplace.
Using a foreign company
Cross-border route
No Chinese entity needed — the single biggest attraction of this route, and the fundamental dividing line against general trade. The trade-off is category range, logistics and long-term brand control.
- Overseas company registration documents — Certificate of incorporation and business scope, usually notarised. Apostille simplifies this for member states.
- Overseas trademark — Some platforms accept a foreign mark; certain categories and flagship tiers still require a Chinese one.
- Full brand authorisation chain (if you are a distributor) — Every link from brand owner to you must be documented for the platform. One missing link blocks the application.
- Overseas manufacturer registration (food categories) — Food commonly involves registration of the overseas manufacturing site with China Customs.
- A domestic agent or responsible person — Product filing, after-sales and compliance correspondence need someone inside China to receive them.
- Bonded warehouse or direct-mail logistics plan — Decides delivery times, cost and which categories you may legally sell. Usually fixed at onboarding.
9. Hintergrund und Quellen
Das Begleitmaterial, eingeklappt, damit es die Berechnung nicht stört.
Woher Agenturhonorare stammen — und warum wir keine Zahl drucken
| Model | What it means |
|---|---|
| Fixed monthly retainer | Predictable cost, no upside share for the agency. Typical when you already know the category. |
| Commission only | No fixed fee, agency takes a share of GMV. Strong agencies increasingly decline this — they carry 1–3 months of cost before any sales. |
| Hybrid (retainer + commission) | The common structure in 2026: a reduced retainer plus a GMV share. |
| Structure | What 2026 write-ups report |
|---|---|
| Retainer — Taobao store | ≈ ¥3,000–6,000 / month basic; ¥12,000–30,000 full service |
| Retainer — Tmall store | ≈ ¥20,000–80,000 / month; full-service brand programmes above ¥100,000 |
| Hybrid structure | Retainer ≈ ¥50,000–100,000 / month plus 5%–15% of GMV |
| Commission only | ≈ 8%–20% of GMV (some sources 3%–15%; trend described as moving toward 12%–15%) |
| Team-size logic | A flagship doing ¥5m/year is quoted at 5–8 people; a ¥1bn flagship at 30+ people and ¥200,000–400,000 / month |
Read this before you use those numbers: These ranges overlap and contradict each other, and they come from marketing articles rather than rate cards. Use them to sanity-check a quote you have been given — not as a price. Your agency quote is the only number that belongs in the calculator.
Source: Third-party 2026 write-ups (Baidu/SoHu/Zhihu articles). No platform or agency publishes a rate card. Reported, unverified
Wie jede Zahl auf dieser Seite hergeleitet wurde
| Level | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Official | Published by the platform. Link opens their own page. |
| Reported, unverified | Appears in several 2026 third-party write-ups; we could not confirm it on the platform’s own pages. Treat as a range, not a quote. |
| Needs a partner quote | Commercial pricing that is not published. Filled in by you or by your partner — never by us. |
Fakten, die wir nennen können
| Fact | What it means | Source / date |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-border needs no Chinese entity | Tmall Global and JD Worldwide accept a foreign entity. The domestic marketplaces (Tmall, JD POP, Pinduoduo, Douyin) require a Chinese entity first. The two routes have different preconditions — which is why the calculator starts by asking. | Platform merchant portals · 2026-09-28 |
| WeChat Store charges no platform deposit, joining fee or annual fee | Tencent’s own store is free to open; normal WeChat Pay processing fees apply. It is the lowest-cost entry point into WeChat commerce, and the storefront design is not yours to control. | store.weixin.qq.com (official, fetched 2026-09-28) · 2026-09-28 |
| WeChat Store (微信小店) and Weidian (微店) are two different companies | They sound alike and both sell "opening a shop on WeChat", which is why they get merged — but WeChat Store is Tencent’s own product (store.weixin.qq.com, free, no deposit), while Weidian is operated by an independent company in which Tencent was only an early investor (aiqicha company registry: "微店并不是腾讯旗下的产品"). Consequence: a Weidian shop is a third-party shop that shares into WeChat; it is not a storefront WeChat operates, and it carries no special standing inside WeChat. | store.weixin.qq.com · weidian.com · aiqicha company registry · 2026-09-28 |
| You can run a stand-alone e-commerce mini program | Yes. A custom mini program with WeChat Pay needs a verified entity (company, sole trader, or in some cases an individual), a merchant account and category qualifications — but no marketplace deposit and no marketplace commission. Everything else is dev or SaaS cost. | WeChat Pay merchant documentation · 2026-09-28 |
| Paid-in capital deadline for new companies | A newly registered limited liability company must have its capital fully paid within 5 years of incorporation (new Company Law effective 2024-07-01). | State Council regulation on capital registration · 2024-07-01 |
| Apostille replaced consular legalisation | Since 2023-11-07 China applies the Apostille Convention: between member states, consular legalisation is replaced by an apostille certificate. | MFA / Supreme People’s Court / gov.cn · 2023-11-07 |
Sie möchten bestätigte Zahlen, bevor Sie sich festlegen?
Kautionen, Provisionen und Honorare unterscheiden sich je nach Kanal und Kategorie und ändern sich. Sagen Sie uns, wo Sie verkaufen wollen — wir melden uns mit bestätigten Zahlen, der Checkliste und einem Plan.
Sprechen Sie mit unsVorläufige Schätzung auf Basis Ihrer Annahmen; ein verbindliches Angebot erfordert die Bestätigung unserer Partner. CNGateway gibt keine Finanz- oder Steuerberatung. Regeln und Gebühren ändern sich — prüfen Sie stets das offizielle Händlerportal, bevor Sie Geld binden.
