在双11又一次创下交易记录，并被外媒广泛报道后，“电商好赚钱”这个认知连歪果仁都门儿清了。有些在中国的老外甚至真地开起了淘宝店，赚得盆满钵满。
老外开店都卖些啥？有没有碰到什么囧事和难题？听记者Wang Han给你开扒——
前阵子，我们的马云爸爸和美国总统特朗普在特朗普大厦进行了40多分钟的谈话。而此次谈话的主题便是阿里巴巴对美投资扩张计划。马云鼓励更多美国人参与到阿里巴巴电商平台，并豪气地许诺未来5年将为美国创100万个工作岗位。
而很多在中国生活的老外，早已发现淘宝潜在的巨大商机，注册了淘宝店铺做起了老板。这些外国人通过淘宝平台，把外国的产品和生活方式带给了好几亿的中国消费者。
本周Global Times采访了两位外国淘宝店主，邀请他们聊聊为什么会有在中国开淘宝的想法，歪果仁开淘宝的程序，在异国做电商遇到的挑战。
想了解怎么发家致富吗？小伙伴们接着往下看吧！
29岁的开开是一位美国人。2007年,他第一次来中国旅游；2008年和2009年，他分别在北京大学和台北国立大学学中文（高材生啊！）。
Kaikai, the Chinese name of a 29-year-old American, became a Taobao shop owner in 2012. He said that his first visit to China was in 2007 he then studied Putonghua at Beijing University and National Taiwan University in 2008 and 2009.
“我用中文日常交流没有任何问题。我也看得懂中文，能在电脑和手机键盘上打出中文。但我没刻意练习写中文，因为现在大家都是打字比较多。”
"I can say everything in Chinese, I can also read and type the words on computers and mobile phones," he said. "However, I didn't dedicate my Chinese studies to handwriting as there is not much practicality for it in this day and age."
他良好的中文功底为他后来的淘宝事业奠定了重要的基础。在2012年，开开创立了他的淘宝店铺，主要是卖美国进口的厨房电器，电子产品和旅行用具。
His excellent command of Putonghua laid a solid foundation for his future Taobao career. In 2012, Kaikai began selling household kitchen appliances, electronic devices and travel accessories on Taobao.
他说开淘宝店这个想法是受到身边叫他从美国带iPhone 4S的中国朋友的启发。“我那时也需要把我的薪水（用美元支付的）换成人民币。所以他们给我人民币，让我用美元买手机，也让我免去了换钱的麻烦。”
He said he was inspired by Chinese friends who kept asking him to buy iPhone 4S from the US for them. "At that time, I had a need to convert my salary (paid in dollars) into yuan, so it was a win-win for both sides," he said.
在帮朋友们带了几次手机后，开开看到了代购这个行业的商机。于是他一鼓作气辞掉了当时的工作，专门开了淘宝店，全职卖美国的产品。
Realizing the viability of this new trade, Kaikai decided to quit his job and begin selling products on Taobao full time.
但开淘宝店首先就是要注册。对于老外来说，注册淘宝店程序会不会比中国店主麻烦得多呢？开开在采访中说，独立开淘宝店的歪果仁只需要提交护照，参加简单的中文水平测验。通过之后，就可以注册淘宝店铺了。
In terms of procedure, he said foreigners without Chinese partners need only a passport and the completion of a simple Chinese-language test.
开开一开始开店的时候，是靠着一个人的力量白手起家的，没有雇佣任何帮手。
Like many budding entrepreneurs, Kaikai didn't have any help at the beginning of his business.
“我一开始是在上海一个很便宜的青年旅馆运营我的淘宝店的。从在美国采购、把货发往中国、清关，到在店铺上宣传销售、发货、处理售后……中间所有环节我都是一个人完成的。没有人教我怎么做，我都是靠自己摸着石头过河的。”
"I first started the business by myself, living and operating out of a youth hostel in Shanghai. From product procurement overseas, to logistics, importing, sales and final fulfillment, I controlled every step of the process," he said. "I didn't have anyone to hold my hand, so I had to learn everything on the fly."
尽管中文不是开开的母语，他一开始亲自担任“旺旺客服”。他说他喜欢用语音的方式与客人沟通，而且还特意用英文回复。他觉得语音的形式比起文字回复，更加亲切，更容易与客人建立信任。“而且我的中国客人发现我是个外国人后，会特别高兴。”
Even though he is not a native Chinese speaker, Kaikai conducted all his customer service interactions himself. "I would often send messages using Taobao's voice function, which made the sales experience with customers a lot more intimate and congenial, because Chinese are happy to know that it's really a foreigner communicating with them," he added.
开开说 “歪果仁”这个身份，是他在淘宝上做生意突出的竞争优势。
Kaikai admits that his identity as an American guy selling American products in China is his biggest competitive advantage on Taobao.
“我每次上架产品，都会亲自给我的产品拍有自己店铺特色的照片和视频，把我的店铺和其他卖类似产品的店铺区别开来。照片里也会有我。所以我的客人看到照片知道我是个美国人后，会更相信我的产品是美国进口的正品。”
"In most of my listings, I take all the product photos and videos myself to differentiate my store from other sellers," he said. "It's an effective strategy to give my customers peace-of-mind knowing that they are buying authentic American products from an authentic American."
另一位外国淘宝店主Thomas目前是芝加哥大学行为科学方面的助理教授。2013年他在北京的时候注意到了中国空气污染的问题，于是他创立了一个叫Smart Air Filters的公益企业。他创办这个企业的初衷是给人们提供更廉价的空气净化器。
Thomas Talhelm is an assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago. During his stay in China in 2013, he noticed smog becoming a crucial environmental issue and thus founded the social enterprise Smart Air Filters to promote DIY air filters as cheaper alternatives to expensive air purifiers.
Thomas把市面上几款空气净化器拆开后，发现最核心的零件就是一个电风扇，一个过滤器，而这些核心零件单买的价格不及一台空气净化器价格的十分之一。而经过他的测试，仅仅用最简约核心的零部件，依旧能有效地过滤空气。
These DIY purifiers primarily consist of a fan and a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, which are the major components of any standard air filter.
为了把这种便宜的DIY空气净化器带给更多有需要的人,Thomas跟他的朋友们在2013年创立了自己的淘宝店Smart Air.
To ship them to and sell them in China, Talhelm and his team set up their own Taobao store in 2013.
“我们一开始卖的东西很简单，就是最基本的过滤屏障和风扇。现在我们的产品种类比较丰富了。每个产品的过滤污染物的效果，我们都有做数据测试，结果也全部是公布在网上的。”
"We started simple, but since then we've expanded to other products that we've personally tested and published results for, such as carbon filters for formaldehyde, pollution masks and particle counters," he said, adding that their customer base is comprised of both expats and locals concerned about China's worsening air pollution.
“在淘宝上开店能够让我们用最低的成本把我们的产品带给尽可能多的中国人。淘宝毫无疑问是中国规模最大的电商平台，所以我们第一反应就是在淘宝上开店。现在中国还有微信平台跟京东，也可以让个体卖家卖东西，但淘宝还是最大的。”
"Opening a Taobao store allowed us to get affordable clean air options to more people in China," he said. "Taobao is clearly the major online commerce platform in China. The choice is a no-brainer. Now there are more options with Weidian and JD, but Taobao is still huge."
目前这两位歪果仁店主的店铺都是皇冠店了，但是回首一路走来的过程，他们都说中间遇到很多困难和挑战。
开开说，一开始他并不知道如何把产品大批量地从美国运往中国。为了找到好的物流运输方式，他碰了很多壁。“现在我们一个月会发12公吨的东西到中国，有的是空运，有的是海运。”
Kaikai explained that at the beginning he was unsure how to export products from the US into China, which required plenty of logistical research and trial-and-error attempts. "We are now shipping about 12 metric tons of goods each month via air and sea," he said.
此外，开开说自己有点控制狂和完美主义倾向，所以如何把某些业务放手让手下的人去做，是他另一个挑战。“现在我请了5个全职人员担任客服。”
Kaikai pointed out that learning how to delegate tasks to increase scalability is essential. "Initially, I was a bit of a control freak, as I wanted to control all aspects of the business to ensure the best quality service," he said."However, I realized that I had to delegate tasks, such as customer service, which is why I now have about five employees just in customer service."
而Thomas认为认真对待顾客们的反馈，是非常重要的，尤其是顾客的批评。“收到中差评，我们一般会站在客人的角度想他们为什么给我们不好的评价。我们会查明客人说的是不是真的，找出我们不足的地方。”
Talhelm believes that evaluating customer feedback is extremely helpful, especially negative comments. “First we try to figure out what the customer is talking about. Is it true? Where was the problem? If it's a scientific or technical question, I send data (or even run a new test if it's something we haven't tested)," he said.
他说目前主要的中差评是关于净化器的噪音问题。“但市面上几乎所有净化器，都会有噪音的问题。一旦空气净化器是静音模式，它的过滤能力就会下降。我们现在在探索如何在保证净化效果的同时，降低噪音。”
He added that the most common negative comment about his product is noise, which is a fundamental problem with almost all air purifiers. "Any machine that is pushing out air will create noise, but people want less noise. There are quiet purifiers out there, but they don't push out enough clean air. We're working on radical new designs for quiet yet clean filters," Talhelm said.
被问到是否需要淘宝平台给你们这样的外国店主提供一些帮助，开开说他觉得不太需要。他说他从没奢望过马云能给外国店主一个通行证，让他们的淘宝店运营得比中国店主更容易。
In terms of what administrative or promotional support he expects from Taobao, Kaikai said that he doesn't expect Jack Ma to just hand over to foreign shop owners a magical key to the castle.
他对淘宝唯一的希望就是，阿里巴巴集团能够继续维护淘宝目前公平的竞争环境，让卖家和买家能继续在这个平台放心地交易。
Thus, his only expectations are for Alibaba to continue maintaining a fair, reliable - and, most importantly, trustworthy - marketplace for both buyers and sellers.
“淘宝上有数不尽的店铺，我的店铺只是其中的一个，我再普通不过。但也正是这种普通让我热爱这个平台。大家都一样，都很渺小，都要靠实力脱颖而出。我不用靠关系来拉客户，做出业绩。”
"There are hundreds of thousands of Taobao shops; my store is just a number in the system. That's one of the reasons why I love e-commerce in China, though, because I don't have to deal with guanxi (connections with influential people)" Kaikai said.
“最重要的是，淘宝的运行规则非常透明。我的淘宝店铺能做到这样的程度，全是靠我和员工们一点一点努力积累起来的，并不是靠内部关系获得的。而很多实体店的运营，还是需要关系的。”
"For the most part, e-commerce in China is very transparent and a level playing field for sellers," he said. "My success is achieved strictly through hard work and merit, not through relationships with insiders (like bricks-and-mortar stores)."
钱都是辛苦挣来了~没有躺着把钱挣了这回事。
两位外国淘宝店主虽然现在店铺已经几个皇冠，但是一开始也是从无到有，全部靠自己做好每个细节，一步一步做起来的。
开开说大家只看到成功的淘宝店主店铺销量多高，没有看到店主们每一天的操劳，重复性地做很多繁琐的事情；而正是这日复一日的辛苦，才让他们的店铺壮大起来。而且两位老外对中国市场的需求判断很准，然后通过互联网的力量，业务能迅速做起来。
来自：环球时报
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