An army of Chinese shoppers dictates the fate of Australian brands

THE first daigou, meaning someone who makes purchases on another’s behalf, were Chinese students studying abroad, who hauled desirable products home on behalf of family and friends. Adding a commission helped them pay their tuition fees. The spread of social-networking apps such as WeChat, China’s most popular, brought the business online. Daigou could then offer their services to friends of friends, and promote items they thought might appeal to their network. But whereas daigou in America and Europe procure mainly luxury goods for their customers—a function of high Chinese tariffs—in Australia they buy mainly vitamins, food and beauty products. And whereas luxury brands see daigou as a menace, undercutting sales in China, Australian firms have come to embrace them.

There are perhaps 50,000 daigou, stalking the aisles of Australian shops and periodically stripping them bare. The small fry alone post 60,000 parcels to China every day. The biggest have grown into organised export businesses which funnel goods through China’s free-trade zones. Express delivery services to China have proliferated, and some 1,500 stores in Australia cater mainly to daigou. One such chain, AuMake, recently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its bilingual sales staff can arrange for a purchase to be posted to China as soon as it has been rung up.