DHgate.com First in China to Launch Virtual Office

BEIJING, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- China's leading wholesale marketplace and champions of small businesses, DHgate.com, today launched IntroducingSuccess.com, a virtual office created exclusively to support America's aspiring entrepreneurs and SME retailers.

The free site serves as a repository of information about starting and running a successful online business. IntroducingSuccess includes detailed guidance on all avenues from website tips to international product sourcing -- including practical know-how on increasing profits through easy dealings with China-based suppliers.

The site, a first of its kind in this market, features a team of animated professionals all working for fictional start-up company, "SuccessCo." Each team member has a specific area of expertise, such as Susan Oliviera in Accounting and Richard Cooke in Operations, all headed by CEO and Founder, Maggie Succesco. They share their insights and resources with visitors in an easy-to-navigate virtual office space.

Introducing Success is broken into three primary areas. The first is for ecommerce novices and provides a questionnaire for would-be-entrepreneurs and details on starting a business. The second section which provides content ranging from web design tricks to shipping options is geared towards those who might already be retailing, just not online using an international sourcing model. The last section includes marketing and sales tips that can be used by newcomers or experienced sellers. The site also features valuable information on doing business with China.

Ecommerce pioneer DHgate.com is the first Chinese company to specifically focus on helping western business owners get the most out of trade with China by addressing everything from "Chinese Business Practices" and "Choosing the Right Supplier," to useful resources such as "Taxes, Duties and Customs Considerations."

This innovative thinking is typical of DHgate.com and Founder and CEO, Diane Wang.

Diane is an experienced entrepreneur who left senior management positions at Cisco and Microsoft to start Joyo.com, which she grew to China's most successful B2C site and was subsequently acquired by Amazon in 2004. Having been an ambitious online retailer with little start-up capital, Diane learned the hard way that international trade with China could be made much easier. She launched DHgate.com that same year.

"DHgate.com takes the hassle out of cross-border trade with China, allowing safe transactions to take place in a few clicks of the mouse. 1.5 million small businesses have been able to grow their profits through purchasing from the 500,000 China suppliers on DHgate.com, and IntroducingSuccess.com has been created to take that further."

IntroducingSuccess.com is a resource hub that helps with the other fundamentals, and is designed to save businesses time and money.

"It was also important to me that the site doesn't just cater to those businesses which use DHgate.com to buy their inventory -- we wanted it to be a place that ANYONE interested in starting an online shop could go for information. That's why we used a virtual office and separate URL."

As a market-maker, DHgate.com adopts a forward thinking business model, based on providing "freemium" (free and premium) services to business owners. IntroducingSuccess.com is a free, value-added service which complements the free membership model offered by the DHgate platform. On DHgate.com buyers pay nothing upfront; DHgate earns its revenue through commissions paid by the seller-only after a transaction is completed successfully.

The company is focused on providing easy access for buyers to learn more about making the most of China's supplier base and making the most of the boom in ecommerce. They frequently update their Facebook page and Twitter accounts as well as running two popular blogs. Blog.dhgate.com focuses on wholesale trends and The Gateway Blog (http://www.thegatewayblog.com ) shares Diane's personal advice to entrepreneurs and retailers. With webinars, podcasts and even a YouTube Channel in store for 2010, buyers will find DHgate.com a hub for all their business needs. And starting this month, Diane will also host a regular blog entitled "The View from China" on http://www.PracticalEcommerce.com .

As Diane says, "It's not just about transactions -- It's about leveling the playing field for businesses of all sizes and opening up China to the world."

About DHgate.com

DHgate.com is a leading online marketplace for the world's small and medium size businesses and the largest China-based wholesale trading platform in the world. Founded in 2004 by former Joyo.com CEO, Diane Wang, DHgate serves over 1.4 million registered buyers from 230 international locations and in excess of 500,000 China-based sellers. Offering over 20 million product listings at any one time, DHgate.com facilitates thousands of successful transactions per day. DHgate.com now employs over 300 full-time employees and generates annual transaction volumes well in excess of USD$250 million. DHgate.com recently received the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 China 2008 and 2009 award.

SOURCE DHgate.com