San Francisco-based Wish Inc. says it has attracted tens of millions of new shoppers this year to its mobile marketplace that mainly sells goods from Chinese companies.
The company’s monthly active users doubled compared with a year ago to 65 million during the first eight months of this year, Gary Ding, the company’s general manager in China, said in a recent press meeting in China. According to mobile research firm App Annie, Wish was the most frequently downloaded Android shopping app in the 30 days ending in mid-October.
Other business metrics also are up this year, Ding said.
“We recruited 338,000 sellers, up 87.7% over the same period in last year. The number of goods selling on the site has exceeded 100 million, an increase of 98% over last year,” he said. He also said the merchandise return rate declined 40%.
Ding did not discuss Wish’ sales, but the company previously has said sales totaled $3 billion in 2016.
Wish operates an online marketplace on its namesake shopping app, selling mainly low-priced products, such as $5 watches and clothing, to price-sensitive consumers in North America and Europe. Wish also provides a Pinterest-like interface that personalizes product recommendations based on the consumer’s interests, the company says.
Ding says Wish is encouraging users to upload their own content, such as writing posts about their shopping experience or uploading photos showing the products they’ve purchased.
The U.S. company has expanded in Europe by establishing localized customer service and logistics support teams in several countries in the region. The number of users in France has increased by 78% so far in 2017 and the number of orders grew by 198%, according Wish.
About 90% of Wish sellers are Chinese companies or those that mainly sell goods from China, and the company launched programs this year to work more closely with Chinese merchants and manufacturers.
In March, Wish rolled out a program it calls “Star Factories” to help Chinese manufacturers sell directly to overseas consumers. About 300 factories participate in the program, selling more than 20,000 products.
Wish also beefed up its staff in China. The company now has 95 employees in the country, more than double the number from last year. Wish says it is training 700 students in e-commerce operations each quarter through a partnership with 21 universities in China.
Wish this year launched its first advertising feature, called Product Boost, that allows sellers to promote their products on the app. Every week merchants sells 25 million items through Product Boost and sales through the advertising service are growing at 10% per month, Wish says.
When a U.S. shopper buys a Chinese item on Wish, it has taken on average 20 to 30 days for delivery, but the company is working to shorten that time. The company’s Wish Express logistics service, introduced this year, can speed delivery to about five days.
More than 30,000 merchants have used the logistics service, offering more than 15 million items for sale with the faster delivery option. Wish Express now accounts for 25% of Wish products sold to U.S. consumers, Wish says.
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