When a shopper in China bought Nike, Philips or Haagen-Dazs online, Baozun was often the company behind the store. Foreign brands wanted China's online shoppers but did not know how to run a shop on Tmall, write the marketing, or ship the parcels. Baozun did all of it for them. By 2015 it served 94 brand partners. That May it listed on Nasdaq as the hired hand behind China's online shopping boom.

A Back Office for Brands

Vincent Qiu, Junhua Wu, Michael Zhang and a few other investors founded Baozun in Shanghai in August 2007. The idea was to be the brand's own e-commerce team, rented out. Baozun built and ran official brand stores on Tmall and JD.com, bought ads, answered customer questions, and packed orders in its own warehouses. Some brands paid service fees. For others, Baozun bought the goods and sold them itself. Alibaba became an early investor and a close partner.

Ten Dollars, Then Hong Kong

Baozun sold 11 million American depositary shares at $10 each in May 2015, raising $110 million, and listed on Nasdaq as BZUN. Gross merchandise volume on its platforms kept climbing as more Western brands moved into Chinese e-commerce. Baozun also branched into owning brands of its own. In 2020 it added a second listing in Hong Kong, as many Chinese companies on American exchanges did. It still trades on Nasdaq under BZUN.

Cover: A Fan Peddler Showing his Wares to a Young Woman, Suzuki Harunobu. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a peddler showing his wares (selling on behalf of brands).