Jollychic: The leader in the Middle East e-commerce market
Jollychic was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. This global high-quality service seller platform has achieved amazing growth in just a few years, with its turnover jumping from 100 million yuan in 2014 to 5 billion yuan in 2017, becoming the leading mobile e-commerce online shopping in the Middle East and North Africa. One of the leaders of the website.
Company Profile
Zhejiang Zhiyu Information Technology Co., Ltd. is the full name of the company. It has more than 2,500 employees worldwide and has branches or offices in many cities in China, as well as in the United States, the Middle East and other places. The founder Li Haiyan is from Hubei and graduated from Zhejiang University.
Development History
Zhejiang Zhiyu was established at the end of 2012 and received an angel investment of RMB 20 million from Huarui in March 2013. From the early days of its establishment to July 2013, Zhiyu mainly focused on building PC websites. In July of the same year, the PC website was officially launched. At first, the main markets of Juyu were the United States and Australia, and the products sold were mainly women’s clothing.
In 2014, Zhiyu adjusted its product selection strategy and decided to focus on European and American-style products as its main sales direction. This year, Zhiyu’s sales reached 100 million yuan.
In June 2015, home textile company Fuanna announced that it would invest in Zhiyu, acquiring a 5% stake in Zhiyu with a capital of 22.5 million yuan. After this investment, Zhiyu began to increase its investment in the Middle East market. In 2015, Zhiyu’s sales increased to 1 billion yuan, ten times that of 2014.
In 2016, Zhiyu further expanded its product categories, adding men’s clothing, shoes and bags, accessories, 3C products and women’s beauty products. This year, Zhiyu’s sales reached 2 billion yuan.
In 2017, Zhiyu acquired MarkaVIP to further expand sales channels in the Middle East market. In the same year, Zhiyu’s sales exceeded 5 billion yuan.
Business model
Currently, Zhiyu mainly adopts a self-operated model, cooperating with suppliers. The suppliers provide goods, and Zhiyu is responsible for pricing and sales in overseas markets. Suppliers provide goods to Zhiyu at supply prices and send the goods to Zhiyu’s domestic warehouses. Zhiyu is responsible for subsequent operations, promotion, first-leg logistics and “last mile” distribution, the latter of which is completed through cooperation with local logistics companies in the Middle East.
Reasons for current achievements
Zhiyu’s success in the Middle East e-commerce market is mainly attributed to two points: differentiation and localization.
Differentiation
Before focusing on developing the Middle East market, local e-commerce leader Souq mainly sold electronic products, while another e-commerce company Narshi, although focusing on fashion products, mainly dealt in European and American brands such as Nike. Therefore, Zhiyu chose to enter the market with the relatively scarce category of fashionable women’s clothing.
Localization
Zhiyu has made a rapid and comprehensive layout in localization. Currently, it has more than 1,000 overseas employees, covering all functions such as marketing, logistics, warehousing, after-sales, and operations. At the same time, Juyu has expanded to all categories and is actively establishing overseas warehouses in the Middle East.