Current cross-border e-commerce actually uses some of the government’s tariff preferences to sell foreign original products to domestic users through overseas direct mail or bonded warehouses. This has an advantage in price, and the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce are very concentrated.
First, there are only a few popular style products, such as diapers, cosmetics, and branded department store products below the postal tax threshold. Secondly, at present, cross-border e-commerce basically buys international brands, takes advantage of the price difference, and makes a little short-term money. It has neither control over the brand supply chain nor the ability to provide continuous services to end consumers. So this practice looks very active and has a high transaction volume, but the internal value is limited.
Second, although the government is very supportive of cross-border e-commerce, the industry cannot always rely on policy dividends, and the government will gradually regulate the policy control of cross-border e-commerce. We all know that cross-border e-commerce mainly relies on tax exemption, but we cannot expect this discount to continue. In the long run, if we keep using this method, there will not only be tax loopholes, but also risks of policy and legal monitoring. If everyone relies on bonded warehouses to import goods, the enterprises and goods that go through customs and declare taxes will definitely be affected. Therefore, the future trend must be a slow balance between the two sides, on the one hand, the reduction of tariffs, and on the other hand, the gradual inclusion of cross-border goods in the tax mechanism.
Third, in the past few years, the sales hotspots of cross-border e-commerce have basically focused on some popular commodities, brand-name commodities and standard products. In the future, the sales hotspots of cross-border e-commerce will gradually shift.
From the perspective of categories, in addition to milk powder and diapers, there is more room for development in the future, including various nutrition, cosmetics, imported frozen goods and daily necessities. Among them, nutrition is particularly worthy of attention, because China’s ability to produce nutrition is not strong, and many nutrition, such as deep-sea fish oil, have rarely been involved in the past. In recent years, due to environmental problems and people’s work pressure and anxiety, the demand for nutrition has risen sharply, so nutrition may be the next hot spot for cross-border e-commerce.
From the perspective of brands, cross-border e-commerce will have more opportunities to become a third- and fourth-tier brand abroad. Because most of the first- and second-tier brands have entered China, doing cross-border e-commerce at this time is just because the price is cheaper than in China. But this kind of sales cannot be supported by the brand side, because the brand side must protect its authorized dealers. But the third and fourth-tier brands are different. These brands have small sales and have no plans to enter China, but many small brands are very cost-effective. If they can be introduced through cross-border e-commerce, not only will the brand recognize you, but you can also form your own characteristics through operations, so that users will also recognize you.
Fourth, from the popularity of cross-border e-commerce, we can see the evolutionary path of our purchase of overseas goods. Huang Ruo concluded that when we buy overseas goods, the first stage is to pursue good looks, the second stage is to pursue good use, and the third stage is to pursue deliciousness. It is a process from the outside to the inside.
In short, this feature has been very obvious in the past two years. With the increase in income, more and more people are beginning to choose to eat well and eat healthier; people who pay attention to the quality of daily life will choose more high-quality imported substitutes. In the long run, this is the most valuable part of the consumption of imported goods in the future. From a macro perspective, it is better to encourage them to improve their nutritional consumption rather than let the Chinese spend so much money on foreign industrial products.