Analysis of cross-border e-commerce trends in 2019: challenges and opportunities coexist

“Only when the tide goes out will you know who is swimming naked.” For the cross-border e-commerce industry in 2018, this famous saying gradually revealed its true meaning not long after its introduction. 2018 is known as the year of “store closures”, “strangulation”, “compliance”, “destocking” and “disappearing profits”. The industry has experienced a reshuffle process of survival of the fittest, revealing many challenges and opportunities. .

Industry Review: Complex Environment and Lack of Money

In the past year, the number of cross-border e-commerce entrants has increased significantly, and competition has also intensified. Traditional foreign trade companies are gradually transforming into cross-border e-commerce, and domestic sellers, such as Taobao and Tmall merchants, have also joined this track. At the same time, the rise of sellers in India and Southeast Asia has resulted in fierce market competition. Traffic and resources are all tilted towards large and high-quality sellers, which puts small and medium-sized sellers in crisis.

With the tightening of platform policies, incidents such as Amazon account closures and product removals have occurred frequently. The policy of cleaning up sellers has left some small sellers at a loss as to what to do. 2018 also witnessed the impact of the Sino-US trade war. Although it will not have a direct impact on cross-border e-commerce, the decision of the United States to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union has caused an increase in operating costs for the industry. Finally, sellers generally face the problem of financial constraints, and the continued rise in logistics and operating costs makes it difficult for sellers to maintain profitability.

Outlook for 2019: New challenges and coping strategies

Entering 2019, the cross-border e-commerce industry still faces many challenges, especially in terms of the international situation and tax compliance. The renegotiation of Sino-US trade and the adjustment of Universal Postal Union rates may affect sellers’ profitability in the short term. According to the survey results at the end of 2018, sellers’ survival pressure continues to increase, especially the need to invest more in “taxes” and “laws”. Compliance reviews are becoming more and more stringent, and only sellers with excellent compliance systems can survive the competition.

Under such pressure, sellers need to accelerate transformation to achieve new growth. Market-oriented, cross-border e-commerce sellers not only need to expand into new markets, but also improve the quality of their products. Data shows that about 60.61% of sellers have achieved profit growth by entering new platforms, indicating that there is huge potential to expand into new markets. In addition, branding and refined operations will also become trends. Sellers need to reduce operating and logistics costs and improve service efficiency in order to gain competitive advantages in the severe market environment.

In general, facing 2019, the core of the cross-border e-commerce industry still lies in the word “money”. Especially in the face of the uncertain international situation and increasingly fierce competition, sellers should actively respond and explore diversification. development path.