Power of persuasion
Chinese personal shoppers, known as daigous, hit the front pages two years ago by cleaning out stocks of infant formula from Australian stores for sale in China. Some newspapers slammed the practice for being “shonky” and a “black market”. Locals fretted that their babies would go hungry. But daigous now are a legitimate and powerful way for Australian businesses to sell anything from Ugg boots to health supplements, skincare products and processed foods directly to shoppers in the world’s largest market. They have upended the traditional Western sales model where slick marketing by consumer goods companies is used to entice consumers. TV ads, social media and billboard campaigns are their tools of trade. But daigous use word of mouth, personal networks and social media to generate bulk orders from shoppers. Product makers are at the tail of the chain, not the head.
There are many daigous, a number being one-time students, and their daily exports are blossoming. There is now even an ASX-listed company, AuMake International, servicing daigous via warehouses in Sydney and Perth and five stores, including one in Sydney’s George Street shopping mecca. There are hundreds of such outlets around Australia but they don’t need street-level shopfronts. Mostly they are out of sight.
The queen of the daigous in Australia is Livia Wang. She, however, is not a personal shopper. Wang migrated to Australia a decade ago from Taiwan after working in public relations. There, many of her clients exported goods to China. Years before daigous existed anywhere in the world, she learnt valuable skills that helped her establish a thriving trade consultancy in Sydney’s Milsons Point. Her clients are a web of Australian and New Zealand brands selling into China and daigous.
“In Australia, there are around 60,000 daigous who make a living out of selling products,” says Wang. “That is a lot. Every year from 2016 that number has grown by 30%. Each day we send to China around 40,000 to 60,000 parcels. There are another 20,000 parcels being sent per day from New Zealand. That is one box being sent to one purchaser in China. Why don’t Australian businesses see the opportunity? Ecommerce has become mature. Daigous are there for a reason – because their family and friends trust them as a sourcing channel.” Wang says each shipment is worth about $50 to $60, meaning that total daily exports by daigous could now top $1 million.
Wang migrated to Australia in 2008 to study for a degree in public relations from the University of Sydney. “I never thought I would have a business of my own. I wanted to work for someone else.” She took a job waitressing at a nearby coffee shop and eventually married her boss.
“When I met Sean, we opened hospitality businesses, first one then another and then another one. It was all very successful until the third one. It had 100 people, and we thought we could make money but it was such hard work. We didn’t know that a liquor licence was required but it took a year to be approved. We had to pay the staff and keep the business running. It looked like a wine bar but we couldn’t sell wine. I got down to $3000 in my bank account. I either had to sell the house, go bankrupt or find a way to use those dollars. I chose the third. I spent the money on a business coach to help me start again. That took a year, and I rebuilt the business to where it should have been. I worked very hard to get that back and when it got towards break-even I sold it. I learnt that I had to be very, very humble.”
Four years ago Wang switched towards what she does now. Initially she believed that public relations would be difficult in a country where she didn’t know the language well. But she spotted an opening in the local Chinese market, in particular copywriting and correcting spelling mistakes she noticed