Wowsai, Packed Full of Handicrafts, is China’s Etsy

China has a clone of the iconic American arts and crafts sales site Etsy – it’s Wowsai. With a similarly eclectic mix of handmade crafts, Wowsai is a small fish up against the blue whale that is Taobao.

But of course, Wowsai has a whole different ethos to most e-commerce platforms. It’s about handicrafts, original design, and environmental mindedness. This start-up’s founder is Zhao Jing-wen (pictured below), who admits to having studied Etsy’s progress since the seminal ‘maker’ site first set up shop in 2005.

In a profile and interview on Techweb, Jing-wen explains that C2C was the only way to go for a site that focuses on such small-scale production by craft enthusiasts.

Wowsai founder Zhao Jing-wen. (Image source: ChinaZ).

The biggest problem that Wowsai faces, says Jing-wen, is the sometimes erratic nature of handicraft production:

The process of making a small number of goods is not easy … It can be complex, or use costly materials. And there’s the issue of items being out of stock. If a user finds one or two items out of stock, then they may abandon the entire order.

Nonetheless, the two-year old Wowsai has been profitable since last year. Jing-wen is aiming for his site to get one million sales this year. In contrast, Etsy sold 100 million items last year.

It’s good to see an e-commerce site doing something distinct. The last time I looked at some unique Chinese e-commerce sites, I somehow overlooked Wowsai. I just wish that Jing-wen and his crew had made the effort to think of a more original design for the site. There’s nothing wrong with successfully localizing and adapting an idea, but copying the entire ‘look’ is taking it a bit far.

[Source: Techweb – article in Chinese; Image source: ChinaZ.com]