Chinese e-commerce site Biyao vows to make luxury cheaper with new manufacturing model

A Chinese entrepreneur who courted controversy four years ago by calling e-commerce operations “a scam” is bidding to revolutionise the industry by trimming the fat from the supply chain so that shoppers can buy products from suppliers of luxury brands like Prada at cheaper prices.

“This is going to shake up many industries around the world, especially as most of the products [we sell] are made in China,” said Bi Sheng, who launched online shopping website Biyao.com two months ago.

“If China’s best manufacturers start to make things differently, the effect will have a global impact,” he added.

The site cuts out intermediaries so that customers can buy customised products directly from top manufacturers at a significantly reduced cost. However, they will lack the logos that are still prized as trophies and status symbols in much of mainland China. The site currently sells glasses, sports shoes, high heels, and jewellery, and has been growing quickly. 

“By the time you buy a Prada handbag in China, it has already been marked up 100 times from the cost of production,” Bi, a former chief marketing officer and assistant to the president of Baidu, China’s top online search engine, told the South China Morning Post earlier this month from his office in Beijing.

“A pair of glasses is marked up about 150 times,” he added, before pointing to a white Uniqlo T-shirt.