What a Tmall Global flagship really costs.
Model what a Tmall Global flagship costs to run through a Tmall Partner (TP), on the cross-border bonded model (天猫国际), across your first two years. Deposit, commission and annual fee move with your category.
Start calculatingFour moving parts, two years of cost.
You fund
Platform and bonded deposits, trademark, launch content. The one-time money that gets the store live.
The TP runs
A Tmall Partner (TP) owns the team and runs the flagship day to day, on a flat monthly retainer plus a commission on sales.
Traffic sells
Paid search and display fill the store. Livestream and KOLs move volume on commission, on top.
You measure
The calculator totals every line, splits setup from running cost, and flags what comes back on exit.
- Year 1 and Year 2, side by side
- Full cost stack in RMB and USD
- Deposit and commission by category
- Refundable deposits vs real burn
- Breakeven GMV from your margin
Set your assumptions
Year 1 and Year 2 cost breakdown
Where the money goes
Your first-year cost, ranked biggest to smallest.
See the full line-by-line breakdown
| Cost item | Year 1 | Year 2 |
|---|
Reading the numbers
- Setup is paid once but it is not all a Year 1 cost. The store build and the trademark are written off over the amortization period you set, so each year carries its share and the operating result is not crushed by a bill it will benefit from for years. The deposits and the tax prepayment are different: you get them back on exit, so they are working capital and never reach the profit and loss at all. That is why the cash column and the profit column disagree, and both are right.
- The model runs cross-border only, through the bonded warehouse (天猫国际). The warehouse deposit and the tax prepayment come back to you on exit, so the calculator counts them as money you get back, not money you spend.
- The TP retainer plus its commission on GMV is one of the largest lines, alongside paid media. Paid media is funded by you directly into the ad account, not billed through the TP. That split is deliberate: partners that try to front the ad spend tend to fall over.
- The TP runs the flagship. Their team cost sits inside the retainer and the commission, so there is no separate headcount line. KOL commission is billed apart, on sales the creators actually drive.
- The security deposit, the platform commission and the annual fee move with your product category. Pick a category in the fine-tune panel and all three fill in from the published Tmall Global bands. A TM trademark or a 专营店 raises the deposit above the R-flagship figure shown.
- The cross-border VAT is 9.1 percent of sales for general goods, 13 percent VAT levied on 70 percent of the price. In most flagship setups the consumer carries it at checkout, so it is left out of your cost by default. Switch the payer to brand if you absorb it, and note that cosmetics, perfume and alcohol run higher.
- Year 1 usually runs at a loss at RMB 3.5M GMV. The table sets Year 1 against Year 2, when the one-time setup drops off, the channel mix switches to your Year 2 sliders and GMV steps up by your growth assumption. Breakeven GMV shows the scale you need for gross profit to cover the bill, and it often lands several times above a first-year target.
Want us to pressure-test these assumptions against your own brief?
Talk to our China teamA quick note. These figures are a planning estimate, not a quote. The model runs on public benchmarks and the numbers you type in, so the output is directional only. We don't guarantee the totals, the assumptions, or the math behind them. It's here for demo and info, nothing more. Before you commit real money, check every line against actual quotes from your TP, your warehouse, and the platform.