Chinese intermediary
Taobao.com’s parent company, Alibaba, did not order Taobao.nl, but has given its approval however. “Alibaba has provided API’s and we have been given permission to use these on the Dutch market“, initiator Sander Scholten told RetailNews.
Orders that Dutch consumers have placed, are actually handled by a Chinese intermediary, who will act as the one who takes care of the purchases on the Chinese website. This intermediary will also check every order prior to its delivery. The biggest advantage for Dutch users is that all product descriptions will automatically be translated and that the iDEAL payment option is available.
Scholten sees a future for Dutch entrepreneurs to bring Chinese websites to the Netherlands. “It would not surprise me that if 3 out of the 10 largest Dutch web shops are actually Chinese”, he says.
