1. Industry product selection
To select products, you must first understand the industry situation, so product selection can also be understood as a step to understand the market. Therefore, whether you have just joined AliExpress and have not yet Whether you know what products to sell, whether you have your own company or factory, or whether you have determined the products to sell, you should understand this link.
Log in to the AliExpress backend and click on the “Zongheng Data” – “Business Opportunity Discovery” – “Industry Intelligence” link. The platform recommends some blue ocean industries to us.
There is a supply and demand index (commodity index/traffic index under the industry within the statistical period) in the blue ocean industry data segmentation. The smaller the supply and demand index, the smaller the competition.
Under the industry overview, we can select the industry and time period (7 days, 30 days, 90 days) to view the visitors, traffic, payment proportion and market size of the industry in the most recent time period.
We can also choose three industries that we are interested in and view the recent development trends of these three industries.
The trend data details can facilitate us to analyze the data from different angles. In addition, we can also download the latest raw data (Excel table), which is more convenient for us to conduct data analysis.
If our products are more suitable for a certain country, or we want to focus on a certain country, we can refer to the industry country distribution.
2. Category selection
The so-called category selection refers to which categories of products should be sold in a certain industry.
After understanding the industry product selection and determining the industry you want to work in, you need to determine which categories of products in this industry you want to sell. We can use the product selection expert function in Business Opportunity Discovery to do this. According to the analysis, product selection experts are divided into two aspects: hot sales and hot search: hot sales, representing the seller’s perspective, suitable for finding popular products; hot search, representing the buyer’s perspective, suitable for developing new products.
(1) Product Selection Expert: Hot Selling.
Hot sales will look at the recent hot-selling categories in the market from the industry and TOP countries, the attributes of the hot-selling categories, and the hot-selling characteristics of these categories, and related sales. Quickly let you see the market clearly and choose products conveniently.
Industry TOP hot-selling product words. Figure 4-10 shows the top hot-selling categories in the country in recent times. The larger the circle, the higher the sales volume. The color represents competition. The redder the color, the more intense the competition; the bluer the color, the smaller the competition. Industry TOP related products. Click on a category to view the products related to that category that buyers have browsed, clicked, and purchased at the same time. The thicker the line, the stronger the connection between products. That is, the more buyers browse, click, and purchase at the same time. The larger the circle, the higher the sales; the color indicates competition, the redder the color, the more intense the competition; the bluer the color, the smaller the competition.
Top hot-selling attributes in the industry. Popular product attributes in a certain category. Click the “+” sign to expand the TOP hot-selling attribute values, and click the “-” sign to collapse the attribute values. After clicking on the attribute value, the larger the circle, the higher the sales volume: the same type of color is only used for attribute classification in this picture.
For example, if you click on the “+” sign for the best-selling attribute of dress, you can see the sleeve length: sleeveless is the most popular; fabric: chiffon; skirt length: above the knee, mini skirt.
Sellers can combine their own product characteristics and optimize product attributes to increase the chance of buyers finding the product. At the same time, sellers can also learn about the currently hot-selling attributes to facilitate product selection.
Industry TOP hot-selling attribute combination.
The best-selling attribute combinations under a certain category. The same color represents a type of attribute combination. The larger the color proportion, the more sales. The larger the circle, the more sales.
You can click on the circle to view the details of the attribute combination. Bow, Novelty, Girls icon, the attribute combination details box below pops up. The characteristics of this type of product include flowers, bows, tutu skirts, girls, etc.
Select an attribute combination to view the characteristics of this type of product on the platform. At the same time, we can also search on other websites to see the characteristics of this type of product.
(2) Product selection expert: hot search.
Hot Searches: From the perspective of industry and TOP countries, we look at the categories of recent hot searches in major markets, the attributes of hot searches in categories, and related sales, which can help us see clearly which products buyers are searching for.
The idea of product selection in the hot-selling dimension is the same as that in the hot-search dimension, so we will not introduce the product selection in the hot-search dimension in detail.
Note: If you feel that the circle is not too accurate, we can click “Download Original Data” in the upper right corner to conduct detailed analysis through the exported Excel table data.
3. Product selection
Through the above content, we know how to select products in the industry and how to select products in the category. Next, we will introduce how to select products among the products. Here There are many tools used, and they will be introduced one by one below.
(1) To select products by attributes, click the “Data Aspects”-“Product Selection Expert” link.
Select the “Hot Selling” dimension, select the boots under the shoe industry, select the country as global, and select the time as the last 30 days. Click on the word Boot and you will enter the page corresponding to this word, that is, TOP Hot Selling Properties page, download form.
After downloading the form, from the seller’s perspective (hot-sale dimension), see what attributes of boots the seller mainly sells. Based on the characteristics of these attributes, you can choose the style of boots to sell.
(2) Keyword selection
Click the “Search word analysis (buyer’s perspective)” link in the “Data Aspects” interface and the keyword tool under “Marketing Tools” ( Seller’s perspective) link to enter the corresponding interface for operation. Keyword product selection from the buyer’s perspective.
Take the hot search word dimension as an example, then select a product, such as boots, then select a country and time to download the original data.
We can select boots products based on the buyer’s search terms, such as botas tacticasskechers shoes (note that this term is a brand term. If we are not authorized, selling such products will result in complaints) ,dr boots etc. These products with high conversion rates and low competition are what we want to choose.
(3) Style reference from peer sellers. It is said that peers are enemies, but there are also ways for us to “take advantage” of our enemies. For example, when we select products, we can refer to the product styles of peer sellers.
Enter the product you want to know about on the buyer’s homepage, such as women’s boots (women’s boots), sort in descending order by order, and see who are the best sellers in the category of women’s boots on the platform. What styles of products are sold, as shown in Figure 4-21
4. Selection of products outside the site
Previously we have learned how to select products on the site, let’s learn how to select products on the site Off-site selection.
(1) Similar cross-border B2C platform. Cross-border e-commerce websites related to AliExpress include eBay, Amazon, etc. When selecting products, we can also refer to the product selections of our peers on these platforms, which will help us select products.
(2) Cross-border independent website. The export cross-border e-commerce industry has developed so far. There are two main ways. One is to sell on third-party platforms such as AliExpress, eBay, and Amazon, and the other is to build an independent site and operate it (such as Lanting Jishi, Da Dragon Net, DXcom, etc.). Both models have created different development directions for cross-border export e-commerce. The hot-selling products of these independent stations can also provide reference for our product selection.
The following is a brief introduction to Lantingjishi, Dalong.com, and DX.com.
Lanting Jishi—the embarrassment of China’s first foreign trade e-commerce stock.
Lanting Jishi was founded in 2007. The founders are Guo Quji, Wen Xin, Liu Jun and Zhang Liang. Since its establishment, it has received a total of five financings and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013. The basic business model of Lanting Jishi is B2C. The starting category is wedding dresses, mainly targeting the North American and European markets.
It has its own e-commerce platform and also opens stores on overseas e-commerce platforms such as eBay and Amazon. Use Google promotion to exchange for traffic, pay with Paypal, and ship with UPS and DHL.
Lanting Jishi was profitable for a period of time in 2012. Its website users come from more than 200 countries and regions, with an average daily number of foreign customer visits exceeding 1 million and page visits exceeding 2 million. It can be said that Lanting was in the limelight at that time.
However, Lanting began to lose money after it went public, and the losses continued to expand. At the same time, it was also revealed that many senior executives had resigned, and its capital chain was in trouble. Gong Weifeng, founder and CEO of Lianlian.com, believes that as a typical representative of independent cross-border e-commerce export sites, Lanting’s current crisis is that it has not formed industry barriers on the one hand, and is being squeezed by giants on the other.
Lanting started out as a wedding dress company. The selling point of its products is low prices. With increasingly fierce competition, it is easy to fall into the dilemma of product homogeneity and price wars. In addition, with the growing growth of third-party platforms, Lanting Jishi can only use advertising to gain traffic, which makes marketing costs remain high, and the adjustment of Google’s algorithm has made it more difficult. The creation of “Lanting Zhitong” has brought financial pressure to the global cross-border logistics open platform.
Dalong.com–willing to be the co-pilot and USB flash drive of cross-border e-commerce.
Dalong.com’s Dalong.com was founded in 2010. The founder is Feng Jianfeng. It has gone through three rounds of financing. The B2B+020 model hopes to become a co-pilot and a USB flash drive. The USB flash drive can be used anywhere, whether it is Russia, Europe, or the Americas, our system can be used anytime and anywhere. “The senior vice president of Dalong.com said
Dalong.com focuses on providing B2B export solutions for mobile cross-border trade: making business appointments with OSell APP + offline “online trade fairs”. OSell is a cross-border trade The business social APP includes basic functions such as instant messaging and translation services, and also provides global GPS positioning, business circles, on-demand matching, and shake functions. The “Online Trade Fair” refers to China’s boutique exhibitions and events held in overseas experience halls. The format of the business negotiation meeting promotes the “front display and back warehousing” of suppliers’ products in overseas markets.
In addition, on May 22, 2015, Dalong.com officially launched the “Cross-border 20” plan. , laying an offline wedding dress business network in the Eastern European market focusing on Russia, establishing cooperation with hundreds of offline wedding dress stores, and installing 020 system equipment. Although the cross-border e-commerce 020 model is not yet clear, in order to solve the “final problem”. “The Sorrow of One Kilometer” will allow cross-border e-commerce to go further. The future cross-border e-commerce 020 model of “products + services” is an inevitable trend.
DXcom-How to attack while defending
DX was founded in 2006 by Chen Lingjian. As an established cross-border export B2C company listed in Hong Kong, China, DX has always been at the forefront of the industry with its majestic image. , the rapidly changing market environment and the emergence of competitors seem to have made DX a bit “tired” in the past two years.
Starting from 2014, DX’s revenue has been different from the previous two years. Very optimistic, and has closed the sub-site DX Mall, which was launched in early 2014. At the same time, only two categories, clothing and beauty, remain in the main website’s category list. The main reason is the lack of growth in mature markets in Europe and America, and cross-border e-commerce. The emergence of more merchants in the overseas e-commerce export market has intensified competition.
However, DX has not stopped moving forward, and attacking in defense may explain what it will do next. , DX has launched websites in more than ten languages, covering Europe, Latin America, the Americas, etc., and has invested more energy in emerging markets led by Latin America, and has chosen to “borrow” local companies to re-open The first is to use the company’s import rights to supply products; the second is to help DX with marketing and local services.
Unlike the continuous development and growth of the platform, many independent stations seem to be stuck. Industry insiders said that for companies engaged in independent website operations, as the cost of traffic acquisition continues to increase, the policies of various countries continue to fluctuate, and competition among the same industry intensifies, especially now that third-party platforms continue to develop rapidly, independent websites The website suffers from vertical categories and difficulties in attracting traffic, and it has become difficult to move forward.
Therefore, some people who are engaged in independent websites have begun to move to third-party platforms. However, some people in the industry still believe that the bottleneck of independent websites can be solved through adjustment and optimization. Breakthrough. Independent stations currently have two main problems: traffic and payment channels. Therefore, in order to break through the siege, we need to focus on advertising and funding, while also finding the core positioning of the website and constantly improving all aspects of the website
5. Third-party tools
(1) watcheditem.
The following is an example of how to view the best-selling products on eBay. We can use the tool: www.watcheditem.com to conduct analysis.
(2) Google (Google) global business opportunity insights.
Google Global Opportunity Insights provides data from global Internet searches. Sort opportunities in each market by total search volume, suggested bids and competition. With the help of Google’s global business opportunity insights, some questions that have troubled small and medium-sized enterprises such as “What is the competition in this market?” “How does the demand for products in this region compare with another region?” “How much does it cost to advertise in this new market?” , will be easily solved.
You can enter keywords that describe your product or service, and then select a region. You can also select from multiple markets (Filter), including G20, EU, Emerging Markets, Asia or the whole world.
Google Global Insights uses data from global Internet searches to show how many times people searched for your keywords in any of 56 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, and more.
When integrated with AdWords, Google Global Opportunity Insights also displays estimated recommended bids and competition in your target market for the keyword (translated by Google Translate).
These metrics allow you to compare the cost of acquiring new customers with the profitability of your product, helping to determine whether attracting customers in new markets is beneficial to your business.
The operation is as follows:
Enter the URL: https: //translate. google. com/globalmarketfinder/g/index. html? locale =en (you must first log in to “climb the wall” software, you can only access the website after logging into circumvention software such as VPN).
The following takes the keyword Led as an example. We can select the corresponding region, the corresponding language, and the keyword we want to enter: Led. In addition, we can choose our own Filter.
By sorting the countries with large search volume in each market above, you can finally select several countries and regions as the main target markets for development. Of course, Google Market Finder cannot achieve completely accurate market insights, it is just a reference tool for us.
6.1688 Wholesale Market 1688 Purchasing Wholesale Website Home Page
Currently, for many newcomers to cross-border e-commerce, 1688 is the first platform to choose the source of goods. 1688 has gathered a large number of supplier products in China. Resources, when choosing a 1688 supplier, it is first recommended to choose a real factory supplier with the ability to continuously develop new products. It is actually relatively simple to judge whether a 1688 seller is a real supplier. For example, judging from the name of the seller, from To judge the product price given by the seller, we can also enter the seller’s company name on the Baidu website to get a basic understanding. If necessary, we can also go to the seller’s factory to inspect the current 1688. The seller will conditionally provide photos of the product. For product photos, it is recommended that you take them yourself, because the core of success in later cross-border e-commerce operations is to create your own features and characteristics. The photos provided by 1688 merchants are likely to end up being the same for many peer stores, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the store. Through communication with the seller, we can also truly feel the seller’s service concept, service level and cooperation. The seller’s attitude is very important. If a seller is not very cooperative or enthusiastic enough, there is no need to choose. Another important strategy for choosing 1688 as a source of supply is that we should regularly learn about industry trends and product trend development through 1688. If we choose an excellent product supplier, he should have the ability to continuously develop and update new products. 1688 currently has a large number of supplier resources in China. When choosing suppliers, do not blindly pursue the absolute lowest price. Generally, we choose suppliers with medium prices and good service awareness in the industry for long-term cooperation. The reason for rejecting absolute cheapness is also mentioned above. Cross-border E-commerce relies more on brand, quality and high-quality service to compete. Absolutely cheap products generally have unstable quality and poor services. As long as they are managed carefully, cross-border e-commerce can still have enough profits.
7. Taobao
It is also a very good way to select the source of goods through Taobao. The current operation method of selecting the source of goods through Taobao is like this. Many large online stores will have it. Distribution agency mechanism, of course, stores will naturally prefer it if they spend some money to purchase goods. The biggest advantage of choosing the source of goods through Taobao stores is that we can truly judge the quality and market reputation of the goods through Taobao reviews. This is the most obvious. If you want to distribute a product from a Taobao seller, look at the product reviews and customer reviews. The quality of the goods is clear at a glance. Another important point is that Taobao sellers have a much better service awareness than 1688 sellers. Needless to say, the reason is that to survive on Taobao, service is definitely hard work.
We can use background data analysis to guide product selection, but we must pay attention to data collection to be comprehensive: you can choose different ideas: blue ocean industries, high traffic, high single-volume products, etc.; you cannot blindly follow the data, you need to combine it Practical, multiple practice exercises.