Daigou retailer AuMake opens flagship George Street store as Aussie brands beg to be stocked

THE baby formula chaos caused by Chinese shoppers stripping shelves is starting to die down, the head of dedicated daigou retailer AuMake says.

THE head of Australia’s first-ever retailer dedicated to servicing the rapidly growing “daigou” trade hopes scenes of Chinese shoppers stripping supermarket shelves of baby formula to send overseas will soon be a thing of the past.

“We’re making headway into that,” said Keong Chan, chairman of ASX-listed AuMake.

AuMake, with six Sydney locations and 15 planned by the end of June, offers a one-stop shop where Australia’s roughly 80,000 daigou can purchase, pack and send highly sought after baby formula, vitamins, skincare and other products to their customers in China.

Daigou, some of whom make upwards of $100,000 a year, sell the products via social media apps like WeChat to meet insatiable demand for clean, green Aussie products from an estimated 50 million potential consumers.

Mr Chan, speaking as the company launched its flagship store on George Street in the heart of Sydney’s CBD opposite Town Hall station, said the company had received “very strong feedback” from the daigou.

“We deal with big brands directly, daigou don’t need to be visiting three or four different stores to get whatever than can off the shelves,” he said.

“We work with suppliers, they ask how much they need of every product [for our] customer base of daigou and tourists. Other major retailers are not geared up for that kind of demand.

“The feedback from the daigou is they’re just so happy that there’s someone that they can talk to, who can deal with popular brands and suppliers on their behalf.”

AuMake chairman Keong Chan, left.

The store will largely serve the Chinese tourist market.

He said given its location, he expected around 80 per cent of the business at the new store to be Chinese tourists, with the goal of making them feel welcome.

According to the Australia China Business Council, the number of Chinese tourists heading Down Under was expected to more than triple from one million in 2016 to 3.3 million in 2026.

“Having in-demand Australian product available, with no purchasing limits, knowledgeable bilingual staff and payment options they are familiar with, including WeChat Pay, Alipay, Unionpay, is the basis of building a long-term relationship with Chinese tourists and daigou,” AuMake managing director Joshua Zhou said in a statement.

Mr Chan said while there would be continued demand for the big-name brands like Bellamy’s and Aptamil, daigou and their customers were always looking for new Australian products — hence the company’s recent partnership with the Australian Made campaign.

AuMake has also made a number of recent brand and trademark acquisitions including Ugg Australia, Jumbuck and Health Essence, which turned over $200,000 last financial year. “Tourists are looking for new things, and they’re very impressionable because they want to know what the real products are,” Mr Chan said.

“If daigou keep [only selling] the popular products the margins are quite low, so they’re looking for new things. What we want to do is just give our customers new stuff all the time, rotating a lot of products.”

He said interest from Australian brands and manufacturers had been feverish, with an average of 15 to 20 suppliers a day enquiring about having their products stocked.

With 15 Sydney stores planned for next year, AuMake is also aiming for locations in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Melbourne to have up to 30 within the next two years. “There’s no need for this to be a grey market,” Mr Chan said. “To us it’s not grey at all.”

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