New Trend: Diversified, Efficient, and High-Quality Trade Networks
Trend 3: Increased Use of Wireless Terminals
The “millennials” are entering the labor market, and it is estimated that by 2025, they will account for 75% of the workforce. The average age of Alibaba.com’s overseas buyers is currently 39 years old, of which buyers aged between 25 and 34 account for 31%. They are more suitable for handling affairs through mobile, instant messaging and network connections. According to a study by Kenan-Flagler Business School, “One-third of millennials said that when accepting job opportunities, device flexibility, social media freedom and job mobility are higher priorities than salary.” They prefer to be able to complete work through mobile devices at home, hotels, coffee shops, airports and even airplanes. Comparing the end of 2017 with the end of 2016, the number of active buyers visiting Albaba.com using only PCs has dropped by 29%, and more buyers will visit Alibaba.com from both PCs and wireless terminals, or even only wireless terminals. In 2017, the number of active buyers on Alibaba.com APP increased by 52% year-on-year, and the average monthly DAU increased by 269% year-on-year.
The wireless trend also extends to the supplier side. On the one hand, in order to be able to undertake the buyer traffic brought by the wireless terminal, suppliers will need to invest more energy in the operation and management of the wireless terminal. On the other hand, overseas buyers can query products, initiate demand communication, and even place orders anytime and anywhere through wireless terminals. Suppliers need to improve their service capabilities and service awareness, and respond to buyers’ needs more frequently and quickly. The platform will also optimize the buyer’s operation experience on the wireless terminal in response to this trend, and provide more tools and capabilities to help suppliers operate multiple terminals.
Trend 4: Verticalization and content-based shopping guides
With the increase in the number of overseas buyers, buyers’ purchase orders have become fragmented and diversified, and buyers’ needs have also shown a trend of becoming more segmented and vertical. On the one hand, e-commerce platforms can use data to recommend dry goods and suppliers to better match buyer needs; on the other hand, procurement in different industries and categories has different focuses, procurement cycles, and requirements for supply chain services. E-commerce platforms need to deepen their vertical and refined operations for different industries. Alibaba.com started to operate by industry in the second half of 2017. The number of industry-specific activities increased by about 3 times compared with the first half of the year. The structure of the activities also shifted from the previous website function promotion and regional merchant incentives to the perspective of industry buyers. The click-through rate and conversion rate of the activities have increased to varying degrees. Take the big promotion activities as an example. In the September 2016 Procurement Festival, the product merchants were circled according to the basic data of the website, and the large-scale merchants were batch-labeled; and in the September 2017 Procurement Festival, the product merchants were selected based on the minds of industry buyers to create industry sub-venues. The supplier side also adopted a layered operation strategy to support high-quality suppliers in the industry.
Finally, the average daily traffic of the venue increased by 2.5 times, and the conversion rate increased by 7.5%. As more and more information is obtained on the Internet, buyers are increasingly relying on this content information to provide decision-making support for procurement. At the same time, a large amount of content information also increases the difficulty for buyers to screen and identify effective information. Buyers’ demand for content in the procurement chain is mainly concentrated in the two stages of product selection and sourcing, and the main information content required is the popular products in the consumer market, the prediction of potential explosive products and the dynamics of platform suppliers.
The proportion of buyers’ demand for premium information content at different stages of purchase
Taking Albaba.com as an example, both PC and wireless ends provide buyers with the latest and most professional industry trend content. The platform, buyers and sellers, and industry influencers jointly produce information content, and use multimedia presentation to enhance buyers’ browsing experience, help buyers discover potential products, select high-quality suppliers, and assist buyers in purchasing decisions. In the wireless multimedia information module, an average of 15 to 20 articles were released every day in March 2018. The average number of buyers browsing the website increased by 80% compared with October 2017, and the average length of stay per person increased by 54%.
The demand in the international consumer market has tended to be personalized, especially the younger generation of consumers who pursue unique and personalized products. The changes in demand in the terminal market are reflected in its upstream supply role. Retailers are the most directly affected by this trend. When purchasing, they will also pay more attention to the diversity, uniqueness and possibility of rapid market entry of products, thus requiring small orders, short cycles and fast delivery. The fragmentation of foreign trade orders has become a trend. For suppliers, small orders also mean lower risks, faster capital turnover, and higher profits overall. However, fragmented orders also place higher demands on suppliers’ small-batch production capabilities and order processing capabilities. In order to better adapt to such changing trends, suppliers need to make corresponding adjustments in terms of goods, service capabilities, and production capabilities.