After Alibaba, China’s Tiens group to trigger ecommerce competition

Yet another Chinese company is planning to hit the Indian ecommerce industry. China’s Tiens Group intends to start operations in India by the second half of 2016. The company has already begun the process of setting up outlets in different cities including Kolkata, Mumbai, Guwahati and Hyderabad. Centres in Chandigarh and the North-east are in the anvil.

Kevin Hou, Region President of Tiens South Asia says,

“We plan to sell 3,000 products from the online shopping platform, which would be ready in the second half of the year. Indian customers will be able to buy products from different countries on the platform.”

The Tiens Group

Tiens works through the multi-level marketing or direct marketing technique, selling instant coffee, Chinese herbs and tablets. It was established in 1995, andentered the international market by 1997.

In India, the company intends to compete with Amway and Oriflame; companies that function through the multi-level marketing set-up. Tiens has a solid user base in India, and plans to expand, says Hou,

“The company’s total user base in India is currently 2 million. We plan to take this to 10 million in the next five years.”

The main attraction in India is its potential customer base, says Hou.

“India is a huge market with a 300 million strong middle class hungry for a variety of world class goods and services. At Tiens, we plan to tap the huge Indian market in a big way over the next five years,” he maintains.

The company also plans to work out employment opportunities for local talent.

The Indian charm

Most multi-national companies have made a beeline for India once they have established themselves in their home countries. The obvious reason for this being the fact that Amazon, Alibaba and Tiens find that the country’s dense population and increasing tech-savvy youth translate to a good haul of cash.

Indians are not complaining either. The ecommerce industry as a whole is benefitted with more players, leading to the industry’s growth, and buyers and sellers get more scope and opportunities.