Selecting products to sell is commonly known as product selection, and the industry often equates single product types to SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) in logistics and warehousing. For most distribution-type small and medium-sized sellers who do not design or produce by themselves, product selection is a matter of success or failure. This actually involves many aspects of work, such as market analysis, supplier management and procurement planning.
Whether a product can be sold, sold well, and made money depends on the product’s life cycle, profit margin, cost price, market share, audience, development trends, supplier resources, The degree of competition is measured from multiple aspects such as platform rules and geographical solar terms. Check the cross-border export reports, industry intelligence and keyword analysis of major platforms. Product selection has always been the most talked about and core topic in cross-border e-commerce.
In e-commerce, quality service is king for standard products, and those with the long tail of non-standard products win the world. Cross-border e-commerce is a non-standard product as a whole, so we need to consider how to increase the coverage of the long tail.
It is precisely based on which platform or store supports more SKUs, the greater the user’s selectivity, and the greater the traffic and conversions that may be obtained in the end. In addition, the pursuit of diversification of the sales market will lead to new trends. With market penetration and differentiated supply treatment, the operational capabilities of many sellers and B2C independent stations will gradually reach the critical point of SKU management. Even Amazon and JD cannot expand self-operated SKUs without limit, because the number of SKUs and the quality of the supply chain from an inventory perspective This is a major contradiction in e-commerce operations.
Once a product is purchased with money, it immediately becomes inventory. The core indicators of the retail industry are low inventory, sell-out rate, and turnover speed. According to the “2016 Amazon Seller Pain Point Survey Report”, the reason why most sellers have not started selling on Amazon is that nearly half of the sellers stopped selling because they did not have suitable products.
As online competition intensifies, the industry has entered a stage of refined, professional, and vertical product selection that relies on data analysis. Product selection is divided into three levels: industry, category and single product.
Most sellers still focus on specific categories or different stores. Even the same type of products have different platform marketing methods. There are many ways to select products, and the platform itself provides a lot of information. For example, eBay publishes a monthly magazine on global hot-selling products, summarizing products with high sales and high demand as well as local trends. By browsing the best-selling products on the platform, you can understand consumer preferences in different destination markets. You can also directly enter the store to evaluate the sales of competitors. You can also use various research tools, such as Terapeak, Trends Amazon, Digital Sheik, etc.
The product structure also determines the selection and management of logistics products, in accordance with the long tail theory and other marketing principles. 20% of products can bring 80% of sales, and the remaining 20% of products are actually long-tail products, and product sales are random; therefore, the division of product structure directly affects the proportion of inventory, and later in overseas warehouses. This will be briefly introduced in the management section.
Be sure to pay attention to the prohibited sales list. In addition to items that infringe copyright, trademark or other rights are prohibited from being sold, major platforms also prohibit counterfeit goods, replicas, fakes, unauthorized sales, and items subject to the laws of China and the target market. Goods or services that are prohibited or subject to import and export restrictions are also prohibited.