What should you call an operation that has been in the industry for more than ten years? Old-timer? Great God? Living fossil?
Since he first came into contact with eBay in 2007, Tom (pseudonym) has experienced several reincarnations in the cross-border e-commerce industry, and has also witnessed the rise and fall of many sellers and companies, from banqueting guests in high-rise buildings to collapse.
In 2019, facing the “industry winter” of cross-border e-commerce, Tom has something to say.
Choice of platform channels
Many of the first sellers to come into contact with cross-border e-commerce started on eBay. However, with the later rise of Amazon, AliExpress, Wish and other platforms, platform switching and multi-platform operations have become the choice of more sellers.
Tom, who also started at eBay, has experienced several rounds of changes. He believes that neither changes in sellers’ sales channels nor the rotation of e-commerce platforms have essentially affected the total market consumer demand. From a general perspective, this is basically a constant value.
“Each platform has a bonus period. In theory, the total demand is a stable constant – whether the traffic of offline supermarkets transfers to online, or the traffic changes between online platforms, it is just the continuous change of consumption channels. Changes. It should be affirmed that the total number of people who consume offline is increasing, and online people choose between different channels according to their own needs. But for cross-border e-commerce sellers. “When choosing a platform and channel, you should not only consider the dividends of traffic, but also consider your product category and audience,” Tom said.
According to his introduction, current cross-border e-commerce sellers can be roughly divided into two types – channel and resource integration sellers and brand sellers. These sellers obviously have different starting points for choosing channels and platforms.
“Sellers who integrate channels and resources must constantly adjust their channels and make breakthroughs based on the traffic dividends. Whether they go to Amazon or AliExpress, their model, genes, and supply chain determine that they can only To make such changes, the breakthrough is to adopt the supply chain mechanism to continuously increase sales and expand the scale; but for brand sellers, they can open stores on Taobao, Tmall, Amazon, eBay, or authorize When other sellers provide brand support, the brand should be incubated through different channels, whether it is eBay’s Qianfan Plan or Amazon’s Brand+, and the brand will grow along with the platform.”
Choice of mode
Since the development of the cross-border e-commerce industry, the business models of cross-border e-commerce sellers are also constantly innovating. Some people say that high-quality operation is a better model, but many sellers can still become bigger and stronger; some people say that branding is a major trend, but many channel-integrated sellers are still doing well.
Tom believes that the industry ceiling for cross-border e-commerce is very high. There are very successful teams and companies under each model, such as Sarah Moore and Youkeshu of well-known e-commerce companies at the forefront of the industry. They still maintain very high annual growth rates despite their relatively large SKU scale; Some small teams can also make good profits through product focus or brand positioning; in addition to sellers at the two extremes, a large number of middle-level sellers are also living a comfortable life in their own comfortable modes.
But Tom also said that no matter what model or style of play, if your company does not have this gene, and you want to transform to any successful company model, the cost of switching will be very high.
“For many sellers, our size does not actually affect the trend of the entire industry. On the contrary, it is difficult to calculate how much the general trend of the industry affects us. Instead of adjusting operations as the external environment changes, Model, it is better to focus on your own company and your own team, make progress compared to yesterday, improve compared to last year, and keep a calm mind. It can be said that there is no so-called best model in the current industry. The reasonable solution is to base on the operation of the company. Current situation, quick execution, quick review and adjustment.”
How to survive in the cold winter
The past 2018 was not an easy year for the cross-border e-commerce industry, but 2019 may face a more severe situation. In the “cold winter” of the industry, how can cross-border e-commerce sellers “survive the winter”?
“When winter comes, different people have different ways of getting through it. Some people may wear more clothes to keep warm, some may stay at home, and some may choose to go out for more walks. The same goes for cross-border e-commerce sellers, such as Some will broaden their product lines, enrich product dimensions, and actively enhance the feeling of “warmth”; some will shrink their business layout to reduce energy consumption; and some will expand other channels to enhance cold resistance. “< /p>
Tom said that seasons change over and over again, and cyclical changes in the cross-border e-commerce industry and market also exist. Cross-border e-commerce sellers have experienced several “cold winters”. After surviving, they will know how to survive the next winter by communicating with others and summing up their experiences.
“From the perspective of the development of cross-border e-commerce platforms, it has also experienced changes in peaks and troughs. For example, Amazon entered China around 2012, which must have had an impact on eBay, affecting traffic, sellers, and buyers. But in the future There may also be new platforms that have an impact on Amazon. This kind of development happens over and over again. It is not easy for sellers to survive every “winter”, but more importantly, it is difficult to survive every “winter”. Communicate with colleagues who have survived, because everyone’s experience of “overwintering” is different. Let’s integrate and summarize everyone’s “overwintering” experience to see if it can be replicated or form a systematic way of playing. ”
Tom said that in every iteration of the cycle, some people will be eliminated, and new people will come in. There are also many companies around us that go from banqueting guests in high-rise buildings to collapse. How to maintain one’s long-lasting combat effectiveness and gain in the cycle of the market? longer? The core is – “Keep the original intention and return to the essence of trade. Communicate more with young people, discuss and learn more with people who have ideas and can implement them.”
How do cross-border sellers survive the winter? From March 6th to 7th, 2019, the 2019CCEE Hugo.com Cross-border E-commerce Product Selection Conference kicked off the first shot of the year. Meet on the 1F of Guangzhou International Procurement Center. Leading sellers, industry celebrities, and platform officials gathered together, and the industry Cutting-edge information, selling strategies, ideas, and insights, hundreds of factories, and millions of SKUs, all ready to prepare you with “food” for the winter.