Perspectives
Founded by husband and wife team Jonathan and Danielle Jenkins, OrderWithMe is a group buying site specifically designed for the small Western businesses who are having trouble navigating the somewhat unintelligible world of Chinese manufacturers.
By allowing companies to buy in bulk, OrderWithMe can offer the same deals that larger retailers get, which means up to 70% discounts on fashion and furniture items.
Co-founder Jenkins came up with the idea for OrderWithMe when – as a merchant himself – he realized that bulk, factory-level information from sites like Alibaba was of little help to an American small business. Instead of a choice of 35K handbags, Jenkins needed something that would narrow down inventory selection to only the hundred most popular.
OrderWithMe differentiates itself from Alibaba by offering a skill that is increasingly more valuable, a crash course in “how to handle China” for Americans.