Exporting Russian Products to China through the Cross-Border E-commerce Platforms (Librederm Case)

With improving living standards, Chinese consumers are gaining purchasing power and becoming more interested in purchasing high-quality, original foreign goods. Similarly, the development of e-commerce has had a huge influence on the relationship between the producer and the consumer. Cross-border e-commerce allows consumers to purchase foreign goods online with a guaranteed origin. There are now even new models of export, which have opened up for manufacturers abroad. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to develop an export strategy for Russian manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods through cross-border, e-commerce platforms. We investigate the case of how Russian beauty brand Librederm exports its products through it’s own cross-border e-commerce platform and that of Tmall Global; conduct interviews with Chinese and Russian professionals; detail the reports of research companies iResearch, iiMedia, CBNData; disclose data from the State Bureau of Statistics of China and the China Internet Information Center; and report about how the Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies (Tmall Global, Kaola, JD Worldwide) analyze the current situation of their cross-border e-commerce market in China. This thesis paper is divided into three parts. The first of which overviews the entering models into foreign markets and analyzes the strategies used by Russian companies to enter the Chinese market. The second portion describes the Chinese cross-border e-commerce market. The third section discusses the process of opening the flagship store of the Russian beauty brand Librederm, and identifies the difficulties and key points that should be acknowledged when a company organizes exports to China through cross-border e-commerce platforms. Finally, the algorithm for the exports of Russian FMCG to the Chinese market through the cross-border e-commerce platform Tmall Global is presented in the conclusion.