02 May The best ecommerce platforms for selling food

The purchase of food through the Internet is increasing due to the many advantages it offers: it is more comfortable, it allows you to choose from a wide range of products, it allows you to quickly compare prices, it allows you to see the opinions of other customers… And all of them are applicable both to the final consumer and to B2B businesses.

Although food companies can market their products through their own websites and social networks, e-commerce platforms are the most common way to sell online. In addition, they are also a good way to do customer prospecting.

There are numerous e-commerce platforms, but not all of them are equally useful. For this reason, you must first identify the operations that are of most interest to your company, the products to be sold and the stock that you manage in order to select the most appropriate platform. Remember that, in many cases, the transaction will be an export and your team must know how international trade works, as well as the commercial documents, transport documents and customs documents that are needed to export.

The level of reliability of the e-commerce platform should also be evaluated, as well as the ease of use. In the same way, other factors such as traceability, product management, customer management and logistics management must be taken into account. Scalability is another of the characteristics to take into account when choosing the best e-commerce platform because this will allow you to start operating with small transactions and increase them depending on the growth of the company.

In addition, although the purchase and sale of food over the Internet is becoming more common, not all countries are advancing at the same pace. The most advanced countries are China, Korea, and the USA. Taking all this into account, these are the best e-commerce platforms for selling food:

E-commerce platforms to sell food in China

These are the best ecommerce platforms to sell food in China: Tmall, JD.com, Kaola, YHD y RED.

Tmall

It is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in China with more than 500 million registered customers and more than 50,000 sellers. It is estimated that it has a market share of over 55%. In order to sell on Tmall it is necessary to have a legal entity that operates in China and the process of shipping the merchandise must be carried out within China.

For foreign companies, it offers Tmall Global, which is a platform also aimed at Chinese consumers, in their own language, but which sells imported products from all over the world. Tmall Global operates locally, but orders are shipped from abroad. It has more than 26,000 brands from 84 foreign countries that are sold to 800 million Chinese consumers.

JD.com

E-commerce platform owned in part by the giant Tencent. JD.com has more than 470 million active customers and is China’s second largest e-commerce platform after Tmall. It also offers cross-border option to foreign companies that want to sell in China, JD Worldwide.

Kaola

Acquired by Alibaba in 2019, it has 30 million active users per month. The platform Kaola has established strong relationships with global brands to purchase inventory directly from them and also offers a way for foreign brands to enter the Chinese market.

YHD

Belonging to the JD group, YHD works through a subscription that members pay to be able to buy from it. They manage around 400,000 orders per day and have a collaboration agreement with Walmart China.

RED

RED follows a social e-commerce model through numerous influencers. It has more than 300 million registered users and 85 million monthly active users. Xiaohongshu also runs RED Mall, a platform where Chinese consumers can buy international products.

E-commerce platforms to sell food in Corea

These are the best ecommerce platforms to sell food in Corea: Coupang, Gmarket, SSG Food Market y Lotte.

Coupang

Coupang is the largest B2C e-commerce platform in Korea, founded in 2010. Coupang’s annual revenue exceeds US$5.9 billion. The company’s Rocket Delivery network offers same-day or next-day delivery of more than five million unique items. Coupang claims that 99.6% of their orders are delivered within 24 hours.

Gmarket

Gmarket It is Korea’s largest B2C e-commerce platform, an ecommerce website based in South Korea. The company was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Interpark and was acquired by eBay in 2009. In 2010, the company began expanding to Singapore and Japan.

SSG Food Market

SSG Foof Market  launched on January 1, 2014 as an integrated online shopping platform where you can view all Shinsegae Group products, including Shinsegae Department Store and E-Mart, online at a glance and shop conveniently with one payment. It is one of the best gourmet markets in Korea run by Shinsegye. Updated a step beyond the existing markets, it is designed to function as a multi-use space, grocery shopping, dining and browsing specialty shops.

Lotte

Lotte is a group of companies of Korean origin, founded in 1948. The conglomerate is made up of more than sixty companies and exports internationally, with a majority presence in South Korea. Lotte stores like Lotte Mart, Lotte Department Store, and online stores like: Lotteon and Lotte super Fresh

E-commerce platforms to sell food in USA

These are the best ecommerce platforms to sell food in USA: Walmart y Amazon Grocery.

Walmart

Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and supermarkets. The company was founded in 1962, has 10,585 stores and clubs in 24 countries, operating under 46 different names. Its operations and subsidiaries in Canada, the United Kingdom, Central America, South America and China. Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue, with about $570 billion in annual revenue.

Amazon Grocery

Amazon Grocery is a subsidiary of the American e-commerce company Amazon in Seattle, Washington. It is a grocery retailer with physical stores and delivery services in most major US cities, as well as some international cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, London, Milan, Munich, Rome, Tokyo, and a few other locations. in Singapore and India.In 2020, Amazon Grocery opened several physical stores in the United States and the United Kingdom. The first store opened in the Los Angeles area, followed by Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and other areas.

E-commerce platforms generally act as intermediaries and on their websites you can legally buy and sell food, but they are not responsible for the products sold by their suppliers. So if you are going to sell your food over the internet, keep these websites on food exports at hand.

Rememeber that, in the event of any claim, the responsibility will fall on the seller and not on the electronic commerce platform. For this reason, as a seller, you must take into account that food must comply with all current food legislation, which includes established community and national regulations on food safety. For this reason, you must first know the requirements that you must meet as a food operator, as well as those that must be met by the website you use for the sale of food: relevant legislation on the registration of food companies, traceability, labeling, certificates, facility requirements where the food is…