Seven years since the tainted baby milk powder scandal killed six babies and hospitalized hundreds of others, Chinese moms still choose imported baby formula over domestic products whenever possible. Not only have e-commerce developments brought great convenience to Chinese customers, the establishment of international warehouses on Chinese soil has also highly benefited cross-border online shopping and ensures a speedy delivery of baby food.
Wang Ye, mother of an 18-month-old daughter, picked out two cans of German baby formula on an e-commerce website headquartered in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. Seven years have passed since the tainted baby formula scandal became public in 2008, but fear lingers in her heart. Foreign products remain her only trusted choice.
The brand came highly recommended by a lot of Chinese parents. The milk originates from Switzerland and is processed with German technology, they told each other on social media. The website's banner ad shows the picture of a cherubic blond baby cuddling a formula can, with words popping out claiming the product has similar qualities to mother's milk, improves infants' immune systems and prevents constipation.
As soon as Wang filled in her ID number, home address and credit card infomation, the two cans of formula were on their way to her Shanghai home.
That was the first time Wang bought milk powder on a domestic e-commerce website, and it opened a whole new world for her.
Before local e-commerce websites were available, mothers like Wang had had to go to great lengths to find foreign baby formula. Shopping in imported-food supermarkets is an easy option for those living in major cities, but it costs more than buying formula online. Some ask friends to pick milk powder up whenever they go abroad on vacation or on business trips.
Reluctant to bother her friends and unwilling to pay the prices charged by posh supermarkets, Wang first tried online shopping on a foreign e-commerce website but found the process arduous. First she applied for a credit card that could spend multiple currencies, then she visited an US e-commerce website for baby products and spent a long time choosing a suitable product with the help of online translation software, and finally she had to find a reliable courier.
"I was very worried. What if it wasn't delivered correctly? Would it be intercepted by customs?" said Wang.
Her baby's food arrived three weeks later. It was slow, but at that time there were not many options. She was actually overwhelmed with her achievement. Since then, her daughter's crib, car seat, nursing bottle and virtually all the small things that a baby needs, came via various overseas e-commerce websites.
She kept a tally: 74 packages in total, 3,012 euros ($3,269) for milk powder, $5,590 for the rest.
Wang is not alone in buying formula from overseas, as these days it is a common task for Chinese parents. Almost 70 percent of Chinese purchasers of baby products were not willing to buy domestic-made baby formula, three years after the formula scandal resulted in fatal kidney failure among some children, according to a survey conducted by China Central Television in 2011. Mainlanders' bulk buying of milk powder in Hong Kong has triggered political spats.
Idiot-proof purchases
Things are much easier now. Wang's order for two cans of German formula placed on the domestic e-commerce website didn't even directly involve a German firm. It appeared on Xu Enhai's computer network at an international warehouse in Guangzhou's airport.
Xu works with a state-owned corporation dealing in shipping. Seeing the growing demand for foreign products in China, he jumped at the opportunity and set up a logistics platform specifically for cross-border e-commerce in 2014. With the original logistics network already in place, Xu only had to make a few changes to create a one-stop service for consumers like Wang. Sellers, agents, transport companies and so on are linked through Xu's efforts, and foreign-made baby formula is now just a click away.
Eight Chinese cities were designated trial zones for cross-border e-commerce platforms in 2012. There were over 2,000 registered platforms like the one Xu works with by the end of 2014.
Cross-border e-commerce platforms provide an idiot-proof overseas buying experience. It frees Chinese consumers from hassles ranging from visiting a website in a foreign language to finding transport companies, let alone the nagging worry that customs might find fault with a delivery and confiscate it.
