When William Heathershaw noticed that there was no good way to bring overseas products to China, he created one. That’s the short and simple story behind Dong-Xi.com, but the process of establishing the company was rattled with challenges. Heathershaw recently took a breather from serving the people to tell Agenda how he overcame those obstacles and turned a one-suitcase operation into an international business. See the end of this article to see how you can win shopping credit with Dong-xi.com.

How did Dong-Xi come into existence?
Well, friends often asked me to pick up items when I traveled back to the States, and there seemed to be a demand for a service to purchase quality and authentic items hard to access in China. So I posted an ad on thebeijinger.com, asking if anyone wanted me to bring books to Beijing. I had over ten responses, so it was clear that expats were interested in this service, at least for books. More research revealed that expats living in China were interested in purchasing electronics, baby supplies, clothing, and more from foreign online retailers, but faced the problem that many of these retailers didn’t deliver to China, and that they often rejected non-US credit cards. So we decided to create a service that not only forwards packages to Chinese addresses, but could also pay the online retailer on behalf of the customer.

From there, I contacted my cousin in Oregon to find a business partner for this venture. Oregon is a sales tax free state and is well positioned geographically to receive packages from US online retailers to forward to China. Initially, we began to advertise through word of mouth and free online postings in Beijing. Our website at the time was very simple and information based. This was before Halloween 2009 and we decided that expats could order costumes from the States. We went to Sanlitun bars who advertised our services to their customers. Luga and Lee Mitchell, then of Blue Frog, were an incredible help introducing us to the Sanlitun crowd, and we owe them a lot for believing in our service.

So how did you expand your operations?
In the beginning, we didn’t have the mechanism for customers to place orders through the site. Orders had to be placed through email and this meant the site was perceived as unprofessional. We met very little success due to our minimal marketing efforts. Luckily, we found an angel investor who provided a website developer and covered advertising expenses. As the holiday season was quickly approaching, we were determined to launch our first functional website by the second week of November, and were well on our way with a functional website, two partners, an investor and a Chinese staff member for support. We were sure the holiday season would be a huge opportunity to start our soon-to-be booming business, but once again, our marketing wasn’t well received and we processed very few orders. It was very obvious that it would take time for Dong-Xi.com’s name to spread and for us to gain the trust of the community.

How has business been since your launch?
We have made excellent headway in the last year. We have been fortunate to form great relationships with organizations such as the International School of Beijing and the British School of Beijing. We are also being recognized by media such as the Beijinger magazine, Global Times, City Weekend Beijing and Shanghai, China Daily, and other magazines in second tier cities. We initially focused on Beijing, but we are now connected with markets on a national scale and will soon have a Chinese version of our site.

What was the biggest hurdle in founding Dong-Xi.com?
The nature of our business has many factors that are out of our control, largely pertaining to customs relations and taxes. These issues created some havoc for us in September with regulation changes in personal package imports, but we managed to overcome these issues through our logistical partners USPS and EMS.

You must have a lot of insight into the shipping industry here. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned?
Dong-Xi.com uses the postal service to deliver packages from our US warehouse to our customers’ home addresses. With this logistics model, we are bit different than an actual importer, freight forwarder, or logistics provider. What I have learned is that when shipping packages into the country, logistics providers like DHL, UPS, and FedEx have different operations. After evaluating and experimenting with these logistics providers, our customers agree that USPS is the best.

What sets this website apart from other shopping sites?
Dong-Xi.com is unique. It is not a retailer, but instead a service that helps you to shop from US online retailers that do not deliver to China or don’t accept your form of payment. Our website is easy to use and provides many benefits, namely the potential to save money and newfound access to many items.

Once you register, you are provided a unique US address that you use when completing orders with the online retailers. When Dong-Xi.com receives your purchases from the retailers, the items are consolidated and sent to your Chinese address. If your form of payment is rejected, Dong-Xi.com can purchase items on your behalf, and you can pay Dong-Xi.com through PayPal or other methods.

But can’t we get almost everything we need on Taobao?
Compared to TaoBao, Dongxi.com has many advantages. It is one service that you deal with for all purchases from online retailers. With TaoBao, you purchase and communicate with each of the individual shops so the user experience and customer service is not consistently of high quality. Also, the authenticity and quality of products sold on TaoBao shops are often questionable. When purchasing through Dong-Xi.com, you are purchasing from the official online retailers of your favorite brands and items, and what’s more, when the online retailers are having big sales, you have access to those sales. Especially now in the holiday season, most retailers are having huge discounts which you can access. Finally, there are over 300,000+ US online retailers that carry almost 80% of consumer goods globally. That means that assisted by Dong-Xi.com, there is no limit to what you can purchase.

An increasing number of online retailers are delivering internationally, however Dong-Xi.com holds many advantages by having the retailer ship to your China address. For one, the retailers’ logistics providers’ rates are typically higher than Dong-Xi.com’s, and Dong-Xi.com can consolidate your purchases from multiple retailers in a single box. This means you don’t have to pay for multiple shipments. China is our only market, giving us an advantage over retailers who don’t know the little tricks that guarantee successful and quick delivery.

What is the future of Dong-Xi.com?
We are continuing to be B2C focused and are soon opening up a Chinese website for the national market. This will be an interesting challenge as the Chinese online shopping market behaves quite differently than the expats’. We are actually interested in finding a Chinese partner to head the Chinese market if you know anyone!

Do you still shop in Beijing?
I can’t think of any merchandise I have bought in Beijing in the last year! Generally I spend most of my time free time working on ORIENTED Happy Hours networking events, and International Newcomer’s Network (INN) events. I’m also learning Chinese at Live the Language in Dawang Lu and teaching a class at the China Communications University.

You can find me around town grabbing grub and a drink largely in Sanlitun and Shuangjing-- Lugas, Blue Frog, Flamme, Fubar and Gung Ho. I also frequent like Dao Le wine bar in Pingod.

Giveaway

Dong-xi.com is giving a lucky reader the chance to win US $50 of credit to spend at Victoria's Secret, Gymboree, American Apparel, Lands End, or Kohls via the Dong-xi.com website. The winner will also be given free shipping on their items (up to US $50).

To be in the running, just post a comment below telling us the one item you miss most from home – and why. The most original response will be announced as the winner at this time tomorrow.

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