Frequently asked questions
Answers to the most common questions
Although at a high level you could describe the steps to provide an overview, beware that the process in real life will be adjusted to your company profile and objectives:
- Initial assessment: We evaluate your company's readiness for the Chinese market, analyzing your products or services, and determining their potential fit.
- Market research: We conduct thorough research to understand regional differences, consumer behaviour, and identify your target audience, etc.
- Strategy development: We craft a tailored market entry strategy, considering factors such as your business scope, regulatory requirements, and optimal entry mode.
- Regulatory compliance: We guide you through the necessary steps to comply with Chinese regulations, including business registration, tax registration, and industry-specific approvals.
- Partner identification: We help you find and vet suitable local partners, distributors, or agents leveraging our connections with local governments, investment firms, and distribution channels.
- Localisation: We assist in adapting your product, marketing materials, and business practices to suit Chinese preferences and cultural norms.
- Market testing: We help you test your products or services with end-consumers to gauge acceptance and refine your approach.
- Launch preparation: We support you in setting up operations, whether it's establishing a physical presence or preparing for e-commerce platforms.
- Market entry execution: We assist with the actual launch.
- Ongoing support: We provide anything from continuous support for growth to running your daily activities, including help with scaling operations, navigating new regulations, and addressing any challenges that arise.
Typically, going to a new market is a major investment. But this is the very reason why we were founded – to change the conventional export process by identifying the customer first, then the exporter who can serve that need.
We believe in ourselves, and thus we are ready to share the risk. We do not require upfront fees. On contrary, we typically provide a number of resources to get you started for free. Our revenue model is based on your success.
We have been acting in China for over 20 years, and have in that time built a strong network of alliances with local governments, investment firms and sales channels. Today, this enables us to provide A to Z go-to-market and operational services for foreign companies.
The quick answer is: Work with those who have the knowhow and who you can trust. Launching in China without this is doomed to fail.
Partnerships are extremely important. Selling products on one or more of online portals like may give you a superior reach, but will require substantial resources and awareness such as 24/7 attention to your online shop. Doing it alone should be your last choice.
Offline sale is still extremely strong in China, and a good way to establish presence / begin building your brand. To foreign companies, tier 1 cities may seem intriguing. China is huge and this shouldn’t discourage you. Tier 2-3 cities are easier accessible and buying patterns in these cities increasingly resemble those of customers in Tier 1 cities.
Speaking the local language is key to business in China. You wouldn't be able to operate locally without locals. At the headquarter end (say in Denmark) the key to successful communication between you and your Chinese arm is to have one or two key staff with strong English skills.
It isn’t realistic that all employees will be able to speak English, and truthfully it isn’t desirable either, since English-speakers generally require higher salaries. Your general manager should be able to speak English, and depending on your type of company and products/services you may also need a technically trained staff member that speaks English.
Trust or not, it is important to safe-guard the company against unwanted power. While the legal representative must be authorized to exercise certain operational and managerial decisions, the company should not exert too much power or allow the legal representative to make critical decisions suddenly without consulting with the headquarters first.
Trust takes time to build. It is essential that you spend some time with your legal representative. It is imperative that you impart your company values, dos and don’ts onto the legal representative – and that you make the legal representative understand his/her skills and knowledge are utilized and appreciated. Make sure to include your legal representative in important talks, and listen to the legal representative’s thoughts and advice, particularly with regards to Chinese culture.
Consumers’ buying patterns in China generally follow a few overall tendencies. The key determinant is Government policies.
Government policies and/or ‘attitude’ may be severely influence by international relations. The Chinese government has repeatedly demonstrated the willingness to initiate a wave of anti-sentiment towards a country, as seen in previous years with countries such as France and Norway. There is very little to do about this, other than to buckle down and wait for it to be over.
Second, domestic policies can often dictate certain directions and movements, like we see with the sustainability wave. China’s official policy of becoming carbon neutral by 2060 has spiked a massive interest in sustainable solutions.
Within that framework consumer behaviour is often governed by long-term trends. These include a large variety of products and services that revolve around stable aspects of Chinese culture, including things to do with healthy living, home decor, education and edutainment, and lifestyle products. A product or service in this category may not get you off the ground as quickly, but on the other hand tend to be less volatile and susceptible to outside influences.
Because new trends and fads can be spread very quickly on social media, making a product or idea the craze of the moment. The majority, however, tend to fade out rather quickly. This fast ‘rise and fall’ is often difficult to respond to in time.
Naturally, everything that can be done to protect yourself should be done, by registering IPs, trademarks etc. – preferably at the point in time where you start considering establishing your company in China.
Having said that, protection of intellectual property is an incredible hard challenge. IP protection and copyright laws are getting stronger in China – yet we regularly see local companies blatantly ignoring these laws and copy a foreign product. Infringements tried in court may take years to reach conclusion.
The risk is relevant ‘only’ to brands and other intellectual property that has already achieved a strong recognition. Most products entering China do not fall into this category.
How to position your company in a market with generally fierce competition may come as a surprise.
Distribution platforms like Taobao and Pinduoduo primarily represent price-sensitive customers. Low price is king, and while pricier items will also sell, this generally requires a large effort, unless your brand has achieved a wide recognition in China already.
However (and in general terms), when offering a foreign quality product you do not necessarily need to position yourself on price point. Numerous segments will buy pricier items if they perceive it value-for-money.
The hiring and managing of local employees can be a straightforward as well as highly complex affair, subject to the role in question. For general employees such as sales or HR it often makes sense to hire someone with experience from your industry.
For specialized roles the hiring process may be harder. Specialized people are scarce and their salary expectations are often higher. You may consider cooperating with a recruitment agency or your local partner to achieve a successful recruitment.
Labour compliance, while complex, follows specific rules and regulations, and as long as you follow those you should not encounter any significant problems.
Beware it can be difficult to fire people in China, which is why we recommend short-term contracts for new employees.
Selling on the exchange
You will need the following information to register:
- Your business details
- Your email and phone number
- Basic information about your business
- Tax registration details (GST details are mandatory if you are listing taxable goods and need to be provided at the time of registration)
To register, please contact us >
Buying on the exchange
We display to you the product categories you have expressed interest in. You may also go to a seller’s profile to see any products they might have in their catalogue and/or any featured products. You can filter a seller’s products by category or specification. If you’d like more information from the seller, you can request a quote or message the seller directly from their Shaeps profile.
You can purchase directly on the platform, place orders with sellers by adding products to your cart and checking out. We support transactions made through all major credit cards and wire transfers.
As a broker we see it as a key role to build trust between the parties. Shaeps will independently verify reviews, accreditations and awards, warehouse locations and more to make it easy to choose the right seller for you. We perform quality checks on newcomers and monitor activity to secure the highest possible level of confidence among both suppliers and buyers. Our verification may encounter topics such as reviews, accreditations and awards, warehouse locations and more.
We also keep cash on an escrow account until the transaction has been successfully settled.
We are a consultancy that helps small and medium sized companies export to and do business in China. We offer a full range of go-to-market services, from sales and export to incubation and funding, and a strong network of alliances with local governments, investment firms and distribution channels. And we do this with no upfront fees - our revenue model is based on your success.
In essence, we'll help you with everything you need to propel your business into the Chinese market. We're  located in Copenhagen and Shanghai.
Every rule has an exception, but the typical customer or network member is an SME with:
- Substantial revenue but limited export share;
- Substantial export share, but limited revenue; and
- Corporates superior experience but limited network in one Shaeps’ dedicated market(s).
In other words, companies with no revenue should typically focus on getting the business model ready to scale before commencing with Shaeps.
There are three main reasons why you should choose us.
Firstly, we offer a full palette of go-to-market services from sales, over export to incubation and funding - making us a good fit for early stage exporters.
Secondly, we offer access to a strong network of alliances with local governments, investment firms and sales channels, a significant prerequisite to propelling you into the export market.
Thirdly, we are a no pain, no gain offer. You should expect no real up-front investment, but very limited costs to get started. As a matter of fact, you can get a number of free resources to launch.
