Product selection plays a vital role in cross-border e-commerce. As the saying goes, “70% product selection and 30% operation”, this is even more true for every Wish merchant. The traditional nine-character policy of product selection, “small and beautiful, differentiated, and branded”, is its most basic principle. How to continue to deepen and explore on this basis is a key issue that every merchant must think about.
As the largest category market on almost all domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms, the Fashion category can never keep up with the development of the market no matter how much research is done. There may be countless eye-catching new models on the shelves overnight, and refreshing new trends will be recognized by people. But for product selection, a few unchanging rules can still bring us a lot of inspiration and help. The following explains several key points of Fashion product selection from four aspects.
1. Product attributes such as function, picture, price, label, etc.
Product function refers to the specific performance of the product itself, that is, the overall function of the product, and the ultimate reason why customers choose the product. Product pictures are the primary factor that can accurately convey product information to customers and attract customers’ attention. Product price is the key guide for the checkout conversion rate. These three product attributes can largely determine the success of product selection.
Wish customers are first exposed to these three items. As we all know, e-commerce is not like offline stores, which allow customers to get close to the products they want to buy, observe, try and buy them. When shopping online, you can only judge whether the product is worth buying by looking at the product’s picture, price and evaluation. These three points are particularly prominent on Wish. If a customer sees the product picture and likes the product, he will then look at the product’s price and then consider whether the product’s function is suitable for him or the people around him. Therefore, these factors can basically determine whether the customer can buy the product. Therefore, the pictures and prices of products are very important during development. Before customers see the product, merchants must have screened the product. If merchants feel that there is a problem with the product picture or they cannot even impress themselves, it is difficult to convince customers on Wish, and the goal of making the product a hit is just empty talk.
The two pictures are pictures of the same product, with the same title, label, shelf time, etc. But after a few weeks, the sales and collection volume of some pictures have obviously increased significantly, because it can well show customers what products are sold, how many colors the products have, etc.; a real flat picture, not only does not have aesthetic appeal, but also cannot well show the characteristics of the product itself. Therefore, good pictures can bring hidden traffic, collection and sales to the product.
As the facade of a product, every merchant wants to make it as perfect as possible, but in fact, the most important function of the picture is to display the product, so that customers can see what the product is and what it is used for at a glance. Some merchants add smaller text to product pictures. In fact, this is unnecessary and even counterproductive, because smaller text not only does not allow customers to see clearly what you want to express, but also may affect customers’ judgment of what the product is. For example, the white-background color photos on the Amazon website can show customers the characteristics of the product more clearly.
The picture determines whether it will attract customers to pay attention to your product, and the price is an important factor that affects customers’ purchases. Good quality and low price products can win the favor of customers. Other cross-border e-commerce platforms such as AliExpress have many marketing measures such as full store discounts and limited time discounts, but Wish is a platform that sells at a fixed price (fixed price) – except for special holidays, merchants cannot arbitrarily discount, customers cannot blindly bargain, and buyers and sellers cannot directly contact each other for discount activities. Therefore, the initial pricing model and strategy of Wish merchants must meet the psychological requirements of customers. Before pricing, merchants need to conduct a full market research on the products they develop, understand the market of the products and the average market price of the products, so as to make a targeted pricing plan. Wish has always attracted customers with its high-quality and low-cost products. For foreign Wish customers, what they want to buy is an affordable, interesting, and high-quality product. As the saying goes, “the same price is better than quality, and the same quality is better than price”, “I have what others don’t have”, “I am better than others”, “I am cheaper than others” is the magic weapon for Wish merchants to win.
In addition to pictures and prices, tags are also an indispensable focus when selecting and developing products. They have a great impact on the traffic and click volume of products, so merchants must be very careful when filling in tags. The filled-in tags must be able to accurately reflect the characteristics and categories of the products. Merchants need to try to avoid some flooded words. When filling in tags, merchants can refer to some data analysis websites: Miku, Haiying Data, etc.
There are some differences between the merchant self-filled tags and Wish optimized tags on the data analysis website. From these differences, we can see that Long Sleeve and SlashNeck may be the keywords to increase the number of views of this product. Therefore, from the perspective of market demand, merchants can analyze the tags recommended by Wish according to the Wish recommended tags in some data analysis software, so as to increase the traffic of their products.
Finally, it is recommended that you write some words that can accurately describe the product in the front and some irrelevant words in the back when writing tags.
Therefore, it is not difficult to see that for cross-border e-commerce customers and merchants, product description, pictures and prices are important factors in product selection, but product labels are more important for product display and push on the Wish platform.
2. Market demand for products
No matter how powerful the product itself is, how beautiful the pictures are, how affordable the price is, and how appropriate the labels are, if it is not guided by market demand and the product itself has no market competitiveness, all the preparations are empty talk, which will also lead to the failure of product selection.
In the final analysis, a product can become a real hit because it conforms to market rules, has a large demand and is not highly homogenized. For any product on Wish, evaluating the market demand for the product plays an extremely significant role in improving its order effect. In general, customer purchasing habits, platform traffic distribution (i.e., the main product line), and seasonal influences are the main factors in evaluating product market demand. Customer preferences are always the key factor in evaluating whether a product can continue to be sold or even become a first-line hit.
First, the Fashion category is nothing more than men’s clothing, women’s clothing, children’s clothing, and accessories. Data shows that the ratio of male and female customers on the Wish platform is about 4:6 (unofficial data), and the consumer group is mainly “post-85s” or even “post-90s”. Therefore, when developing the Fashion category, it is necessary to develop suitable products that can cater to different consumer groups according to the different genders and age groups of the customer groups. Because the consumer groups have different genders, ages and purchasing habits, the price of the product also needs to be evaluated to a certain extent. For example, customers born in the 1990s like to buy some fashionable and expensive products, while women born in the 1980s and even the 1970s prefer high-quality and low-priced products and make purchases based on practicality. Therefore, the product lines we choose should be closer to them.
Second, in terms of the distribution of customer countries, more than 90% of Wish’s customers are distributed in Europe and the United States, so products using European and American model pictures are often more popular with customers.
Third, if you want to improve the core competitiveness of your products, you must have a certain understanding of the traffic distribution of the entire Wish platform. Merchants can judge the main traffic focus of the platform through the recent hot products on the platform. You can adjust the development categories based on the changes in the sales proportion of each category on Wish through third-party websites.
At the same time, customers in different countries have different needs for different products. For example, American customers prefer simple, solid-color and loose series, while European customers are keen on slim and fashionable series. Therefore, the sales countries of certain products can be distinguished according to the needs of customers in different regions, which will significantly help to concentrate the browsing volume and improve the product conversion rate, thereby increasing the sales of products and ultimately achieving the desired effect.
Fourth, seasonal factors play a vital role in the adjustment of Fashion categories. When selecting products, it is important to make an estimate of seasonal products. From listing, review to sales, and then to truly becoming a qualified hit, it must take a period of time to settle down, which means that it is necessary to spend some time to “raise” a specific product. In the process of growth, the product may miss the opportunity to sell in the season, which requires us to have a lead time when making seasonal products. When it comes to lead time, it is not just about the season. We need to know and prepare in advance for any link of development. For example, for the hot-selling items of the season, it is not necessarily that you can get immediate results and hundreds of orders a day by selecting the hot-selling items, but choosing some pre-sale items can often bring you unexpected results. At the same time, in terms of the stocking, shipment and arrival of off-site platforms such as 1688, we also strongly recommend that you consider various factors comprehensively and do not step into the minefield of no inventory, difficult shipment and slow delivery.
Next, let’s give a few simple examples to analyze the importance of market demand to a product. In the process of developing products, people often have a misunderstanding that the lower the unit price, the easier it is to get orders. In fact, this is not the case.
Why can a piece of clothing sell more than 600 pieces in 4 months when the customer unit price is as high as 46 US dollars? Obviously, it is because the market demand for this product has enhanced its core competitiveness. First of all, the product category belongs to the motorcycle jacket category, which is deeply loved by Americans; second, although the product seems to have a high customer unit price, it is a piece of clothing suitable for young men. We have mentioned before that the consumption level differences between people of different genders and age groups can be clearly reflected in this product; second, pay attention to the time of listing of the product. For such a winter clothing that is listed in September, it is difficult to get orders immediately, but the first two advantages provide a certain traffic foundation for the outbreak of the product in winter. So when a product has been “raised” for a period of time, the product has successfully ushered in its warm spring from the severe winter, which is the problem of advance quantity mentioned earlier.
It is undeniable that the homogeneity of Wish products is now serious, and a large number of auxiliary tools such as data analysis software and collection software are emerging in an endless stream. Of course, these softwares have both advantages and disadvantages for our usual product selection and subsequent product development. So how can we create our own products in a complex market environment with an increasing rate of product duplication? Ultimately, it still depends on the market demand given by big data.
In short, when selecting products, you must consider the tastes of customers and make corresponding adjustments based on changes in Wish data, so that your products can become more competitive and have a foothold on Wish.
3. Follow the sale of cross-border e-commerce hits
How to judge the real market demand of cross-border e-commerce, you need to analyze it based on the sales data of various cross-border platforms. So how do you choose hot-selling products in the market? In the early stage, you can follow the best-selling models of various platforms, which is what we usually call follow-selling.
With the growing strength of domestic platforms such as 1688, there are more and more products in the Fashion category. There are hundreds and thousands of pages to choose from when searching for a sweatshirt casually, so for new and old merchants, what kind of products can meet the market and become a hit has become a huge problem. Instead of aimlessly selecting products for development, it is better to understand the market demand by following sales. The more direct way to understand market demand is to use the data of major cross-border e-commerce platforms at this stage. What are the specific channels for obtaining these data?
1) Wish App push
As a Wish merchant, installing the Wish customer app is a top priority. Through the customer app, the data you get is the most timely and accurate. You can find new hot products on the platform at the first time and learn from them in the shortest time, so as to increase the chance of seizing the market. However, the Wish platform has a feature that is different from other platforms-push. The products seen by each person on the App are different, so the data obtained through the App push is timely and accurate, but not necessarily comprehensive.
2) With the help of a third-party data platform
As mentioned above, the data seen on the customer app is timely and accurate, but on the one hand it is not very comprehensive, and on the other hand it is not very intuitive. With the vigorous development of cross-border e-commerce, various third-party data platforms have emerged in an endless stream. Here I will take one of the data platforms (Merchant Network) as an example to briefly introduce it.
?Product hot-selling rankings – the sales rankings of the entire platform in the past week.
?Product soaring rankings – the rankings of sales growth on the platform in the past week.
?New product hot-selling rankings – new products launched within two months are ranked by sales in the past week.
?New product soaring rankings – new products launched within two months are ranked by sales growth in the past week.
?New store new product hot-selling rankings – sales rankings of newly registered stores within two months in the past week.
?New store new product soaring rankings – sales growth rankings of newly registered stores within two months in the past week.
Most people may choose to follow the hot-selling products on the product hot-selling list. Indeed, the order rate of the hot-selling products on the follow-selling platform will increase significantly. However, it is difficult to promote them into hot-selling products in a short period of time to achieve immediate results, because many hot-selling products already have their own competitive advantages. If you want to completely seize their market, you may need to invest a lot. Moreover, the products on the product hot-selling list are often old products, which will inevitably make people aesthetically “fatigued”. Change your mindset, and perhaps referencing the product rankings will bring you unexpected results. Find some good products with potential, combine your own advantages, develop more competitive products, and seize your own space before others have a firm foothold in the market.
In addition, you can also find some big merchants who are doing well through third-party data platforms, as shown in Figure 12-2-8. The “big merchants who are doing well” mentioned here not only have high sales, but also have a high overall order rate. For these merchants, we can also try to refer to their new products.
Other similar third-party data platforms:
? Haiying: http://www.haiyingshuju.com/
? Miku: http://wish.malllib.com/wish/
? Wish365: http://wishdata365.com/wish/data/login
However, most third-party data platforms have a common shortcoming: the data is not accurate and timely enough. For this point, you might as well analyze it together with the App, and the effect should be twice the result with half the effort.
3) Data from other platforms
Cross-border e-commerce is becoming more and more popular, and there are many cross-border platforms, such as AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Lazada, etc.
Of course, the audiences of each platform are different, but it is undeniable that the trend is still interoperable. Therefore, you may wish to pay more attention to the hot-selling products on other platforms. In addition, some platforms will carry out some platform activities from time to time. The products promoted by the platform are worth trying, and they may be the next hit.
4) Disadvantages of following sales
Since the Wish platform is different from the traditional search platform, following sales will lead to serious homogeneity of platform products. The Wish system will automatically detect the uploaded products. If the product is seriously homogeneous, not only can it not be ordered, but it is also difficult to pass the product review. The product will always be in a state of pending review. So everyone must be cautious when choosing to follow sales!
As mentioned above, following sales must have its fatal disadvantages, so when doing following sales, we can also change our thinking slightly. Follow-selling does not necessarily mean developing an identical product. We can just borrow one element. For example, in terms of clothing, lace, chiffon, printing and other elements can all be used as our follow-selling elements. In addition, we can also consider developing related products that are popular on the platform. Once a product has a large market, the demand for its accessories will inevitably increase significantly. At this time, we should seize the time to seize the market opportunity instead of blindly following the same product. Otherwise, the final result can only be an endless price war, which is not conducive to sustainable development. In the long run, it will only hurt both sides and even affect the customer experience of the entire platform.
4. Boldly introduce trendy elements
No matter which channel you use to obtain data, the premise of reference is that you must have your own advantages. Blindly following sales will definitely not work. Differentiation is the development trend of cross-border e-commerce, and price wars will never last. The so-called differentiation, as far as the clothing category is concerned, can choose to cooperate with some factories for a long time. On the one hand, the quality can be guaranteed, and on the other hand, you can make your own advantages, such as increasing the size and adding colors. According to market demand, inject your own advantages, so that you can be invincible.
After following sales for a period of time, you have accumulated a certain amount of product selection experience, and you can slowly choose to develop some products. The Fashion category has always been at the forefront of fashion trends and is the most competitive category among major merchants. How to select high-quality new products in the dazzling Fashion market to obtain more exposure, popular elements have become an indispensable part of the selection elements. If you can meet market demand, trendy elements are the icing on the cake.
There are many eternal elements that are extremely irresistible. Here are a few simple examples: retro, black, stripes, simple, bright, irregular, etc. Whether it is men’s wear, women’s wear or children’s wear, the Fashion category is always inseparable from these trendy elements.
Among them, the stripe element has always been an unchanging theme under the Fashion category. It makes people look thinner and taller, youthful and beautiful without losing monotony. Whether it is used for leisure, business or sports, stripes have their unique charm. In the past few years, stripes have grown stronger and stronger. In order to avoid repetition, designers have more and more inspiration. For such a popular element that is not lacking in the market, how can merchants not make a good profit from it?
Fashion elements are everywhere. Whenever a trend begins to prevail, even if there are only some signs, we can easily find it. The key is how to seize these business opportunities in product selection.
In recent years, Chinese style has been widely used in the field of popular culture, such as music, clothing, movies, advertising, etc. Speaking of it, the fascination of Western countries with Chinese elements has been particularly prevalent in the past two years. Whether it is the Victoria’s Secret Show, Met Gala, or Milan GUCCI Fashion Week, it has appeared.
The romantic colors of the West and the mysterious colors of the East collide fiercely. Various elements are mixed together, which is unique and passionate. In the process of selecting products, can everyone grasp the charm of colors?
How to cultivate your sense of fashion elements? You can read more fashion websites, fashion magazines, etc., including some foreign e-commerce websites and official websites of brand clothing, search for various fashion conferences, and learn about the styles of recent popular styles. Walking in the streets and alleys, the models on display are also excellent materials for cultivating fashion vision. Watch more European and American movies, which have all kinds of trendy elements. The surroundings of newly launched games also have good trendy elements. Learn more, and the trend is around you.
The above is the focus of Wish platform selection summarized from four aspects: product attributes, market factors, follow-selling products and trendy elements.