Commerce mini programs have been busy lately: with physical shops shut, community groups, merchants with stock and resellers all built malls to sell whatever they had. The neighbourhood model especially — courier cannot enter the estate, some residents cannot leave it, and an order placed in the estate’s mini program arrives at the door in ten minutes. Within one estate, quality is self-policing too: sell something bad and the group chat settles it.
What is less widely understood is that a mini program has to pass review before it goes live. You cannot simply put up a mall and sell whatever you like. Review has grown stricter as the ecosystem matured, and that is to the good — it is what stops a few bad sellers from spoiling the format.
Who can apply at all
Under the current rules, a mall normally takes online payment, and only sole traders and registered companies can apply for it.
The category to apply under is merchant-operated retail, not marketplace platform. A marketplace platform is held to a much higher standard and needs a value-added telecoms business licence; agencies quote around ¥40,000 to obtain one. That is why few attempt it — and why WeChat mini programs suit smaller applications better than very large ones.
Special categories, special certificates
Being a registered business is not enough on its own. Certain goods require a certificate for that category.
General merchandise
A food business licence, covering the supply of daily goods and food as a general retailer. Selling alcohol, salt or health supplements on top of that requires the corresponding merchant-operated sub-categories.
Food
A food business licence for selling and delivering food and drink intended for human consumption — processed, part-processed and unprocessed, excluding tobacco and substances used only as medicine. Infant and formula milk count as special food.
Health supplements
One of three: domestic health food approval, imported health food approval, or a food business licence whose scope includes health food sales.
Adult products
A Class II medical device operating filing certificate.
Books, audio, video, games, animation
A publications business licence — issued at provincial level for wholesale, or at county level for retail.
Refined oil products
One of three: wholesale, storage or retail approval for refined oil.
Everything else
Other categories carry comparatively few restrictions. The authoritative list is WeChat’s own documentation on service categories open to non-individual mini programs — worth reading before you build, not after.
The sensible order of work is to settle the category and the certificates first, then build. A mall that is finished and then fails review is the most expensive outcome available.
XZS Tech is a Shenzhen-based development company. We build custom mini programs, WeChat and mobile apps, e-commerce systems and corporate websites, covering requirement analysis, design, development and after-sales support, and we hand over the source code at delivery.
If you are planning something along the lines of what this article describes, tell us the scenario and we will come back with an approach and a cost range. Call 0755-82494862, or reach us through the contact page at hk.xiaozhushoukeji.cn/en/contact-en/. The first conversation costs nothing.
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