Chinese online BBQ seller's Colonel Sanders dream

Semi-finished products for barbeque on sale on yesbbq.taobao.com.[Photo/yesbbq.taobao.com]

However, life was not so easy during the company's start-up phase. Li waited anxiously for more than three months to receive his first online order, in the amount of 278.5 yuan, after setting up the company in November 2008 on Taobao.com, China's e-commerce titan.

His parents and younger brother all helped at the family-run company, but it only registered a meager business revenue of about 200,000 yuan in 2009.

Li's parents objected to the hassle-free return policy and partial or even full refund service provided by the company in the beginning. But strict quality control, good service, sound corporate reputation and patience helped the young entrepreneur find career success.

"Reputation is the lifeline to online sellers, as your customers cannot see you face to face," Li said.

The company even promised to refund customers one yuan for every minute behind the scheduled delivery time.

Good customer service has retained thousands of customers for Li and helped Yesbbq grow into a company with 30 full-time employees, 40 part-time delivery workers and three delivery minivans.

The company's space in Yangpu district, about six miles from the Shanghai Bund, has also increased to more than 10,000 square feet from less than 800 square feet in 2008. The company's return rate has stayed as low as two percent.

Internet darling

"Now many Chinese people care more about having fun than having food. Some people living busy lives in metropolises like Shanghai love outdoor activities, so online barbeque stores are a sunrise industry, and e-commerce fever will help make it into a future darling," he said.

Total transactions on China's online retail market jumped 42.8 percent in 2013 from the previous year to 1.89 trillion yuan, figures from the China E-Commerce Research Center (CECRC) revealed. The Zhejiang-based CECRC last week predicted the market would expand to 2.79 trillion yuan this year.

Li values the potential of restaurant franchising, and Yesbbq now has branches in six other Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shenzhen.

He aims at building Yesbbq into a one-stop barbeque shop where customers can not only order skewers of meat and vegetables, but also buy charcoal, rent barbeque grills or even hire barbeque chefs for different events.

"Online customers have diverse needs. If a company can meet the needs of one in every 10,000 customers, it can be hugely successful," said Liang Chunxiao, an expert with the China Information Economics Society, a Beijing-based research institution.

"We strive to provide customers with whatever food and service they need for outdoor barbeque parties," said Li.

In November of last year, 13 of Yesbbq's barbeque chefs catered to 810 guests at a large outdoor party organized by a foreign company in Shanghai. Yesbbq now charges at least 100 yuan per hour for each barbeque chef, a new profit driver for the burgeoning business.

"With more and more foreigners coming to China, the barbeque market will further balloon," said the savvy businessman, who dreams of becoming China's Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of the global fast food chain KFC.

He is already well on his way to achieving the lofty goal by standardizing the company's barbequed food, using skewers carrying the company logo, hiring a third-party food provider based in Shanghai to ensure timely food delivery during peak business season, and seeking strategic investors.

"No industry is better or worse than others. There is no role model in the online barbeque industry in China, and I have to rely on perseverance and creativity to blaze my own path," said the businessman.