Perspectives
Purity Cosmetics, which sources ingredients from Alibaba.com, will sell on Taobao.com.
Pretty much every business today is competing globally, says Ric Kostick, CEO of Purity Cosmetics. And the maker of natural cosmetics is a prime example of how a small company can use the Internet to both buy and sell more effectively internationally.
Incorporated in 2004, Purity sells online at 100percentpure.com, and has sold its products through the Bath & Body Works store chain and via TV and web retailer QVC. Bath & Body Works is part of Limited Brands, No. 18 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide; QVC is No. 8.
An initial challenge Purity faced was to identify suppliers: find the ingredients to make products like its vanilla bean body wash or French lavender hand lotion, identify providers of eco-friendly packaging materials and make deals with factories to produce and package Puritys branded products.
Having successfully sourced goods through a Chinese online marketplace, Purity now intends to sell to Chinese consumers through Taobao, a direct-to-consumer marketplace similar to eBay that is the leading online retail site in China, according to iResearch, a market research firm based in China.