Abstract
Purpose Chinese consumers’ cross-border internet shopping, so called “haitao” is an emerging popular trend in China. Haitao can be understood as service innovation process because it creates new market spaces and provides differentiated values for Chinese customers. Design/methodology/approach This study aims to explore the service innovation strategies and success factors of haitao business in the Chinese market. The authors selected two successful haitao sites of Amazon.cn and Gmarket.co.kr, as representatives of a global player and a niche player, and conducted a comparative case study to analyze their service innovation strategies and key success factors. Findings This comparative case analysis based on value chain framework revealed some common success factors such as trust, advanced system and alliances as well as their service innovation efforts. Amazon has advantages such as efficient logistics system and global sourcing, whereas Gmarket has advantages such as product category, sales promotions, and payment system. Originality/value This study provides some implications for managers with localization, alliances and platform strategies.
Highlights
More and more Chinese consumers enjoy internet shopping because of strong economic growth and rapid internet penetration. They are enthusiastic buyers of foreign products using foreign online retailers. This cross-border internet shopping trend, called haitao (海淘), has grown at the exceptionally fast rate of 74.8 per cent annually from 2011 and reached about US$600bn market size according to the China Internet Network Research Center (2016)
This study aims to explore the strategies and success factors of haitao business in the Chinese market
We examine the service innovation process of haitao companies using the framework of Porter (1985) and Chesbrough (2010) in detail
Summary
More and more Chinese consumers enjoy internet shopping because of strong economic growth and rapid internet penetration. They are enthusiastic buyers of foreign products using foreign online retailers. This cross-border internet shopping trend, called haitao (海淘), has grown at the exceptionally fast rate of 74.8 per cent annually from 2011 and reached about US$600bn market size according to the China Internet Network Research Center (2016). The full terms of this licence may be seen at: http:// creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
