Online sellers look at new sites to make business click

Small e-retailers ponder other options as competition heats up at Taobao, Meng Jing reports.

Those who enjoy shopping without leaving home are clicking onto Taobao, where almost every necessity is catered to on the online platform of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, from home appliances to clothes, plane tickets to puppies. But while shoppers can have the world at their fingertips, running a store on Taobao is a different order. Chen Xiaogang, a Shenzhen-based e-retailer, who has run a shop on Taobao for seven years, has decided to change his business focus from the giant online platform with millions of e-retailers to other platforms. "The opportunities to make a fortune (on Taobao) are small but the risk of losing money is rather high," said Chen, whose team of 40 people generated about 20 million yuan ($3.22 million) in revenue in 2013 by selling women's clothing.

Despite the appearance of success, Chen insisted that the marketing investment to make his company stand out from the cutthroat competition is a heavy burden.