“Her Era”–women have become household consumption decision-makers. Imported product selection, maternal and infant, health care products and cosmetics, were once the troika that drove cross-border e-commerce imports. At present, most domestic self-operated cross-border import B2C merchants use these three popular “explosive products” as their entry points. For a long time, German imports have been “80% milk powder and 20% food supplements plus a pot”.
Judging from the most popular cross-border categories announced by Amazon in 2016: computers, shoes and boots, clothing, accessories, watches, beauty, personal care and health, mother and baby, toys, travel bags, domestic Consumer demand for overseas products goes far beyond the three most popular categories. Imitation consumption is changing towards personalization, refinement and diversification, which has also prompted cross-border e-commerce to enter the stage of refined product selection.
From the perspective of demand, high-quality products in developed markets are still the focus of the public’s pursuit. The United States is a major consumer country with global supply, high quality and low price. Japanese and Korean cultural trends have a wide influence. Hanbok and cosmetics are very popular. The market in Japan is shrinking. China is undoubtedly a huge treasure. In 2015, Japanese companies sold more than 800 billion yen in China through cross-border e-commerce. This is the same as the number of Chinese companies going to China in the same year. The total daily travel purchases and sales are about the same.
Europe and Australia already look like China’s milk powder bases. In fact, before the melamine incident, the domestic demand for imported maternal and infant products was very small. It can be said that safety issues have prevented imported maternal and infant products. The baby rises quickly. Italian and French brand-name clothing and luxury goods have become common consumer goods for middle-class families. Consumers purchase luxury goods through cross-border e-commerce, accounting for approximately 12% of China’s luxury goods consumption.
China is a major clothing producer and exporter, but its brand awareness is not high. Coupled with its long-standing admiration for fashion trends in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, imported shoes, clothing, and bags have remained stable. Topping the list.
In addition, Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly health-conscious and purchase a variety of products to treat common ailments, boost energy, and enhance immunity. This trend is driven by multiple forces at the same time, including rising consumer incomes, urbanization Globalization has brought more pressure, an aging population, and endless food safety and quality problems. Compared with consumers in other countries and regions, Chinese consumers are particularly health-aware and are willing to pay a premium to buy branded and high-quality products. China’s health care consumer goods market has huge potential.
From the perspective of overseas shopping and direct mail, there are still many “long-tail demands”. Cross-border online shopping must focus on trends, freshness, and experience, and there is a balance between content iteration and consumer demand. Synchronous balance, new product synchronization, global synchronization, and fashion synchronization are the easiest ways to win the cross-border incremental market. They have the characteristics of rigid demand, high frequency, and large traffic. They are the starting point for most family units to come into contact with overseas shopping products.
However, it is difficult to operate self-operated cross-border e-commerce, and it cannot simply buy and sell directly from abroad like domestic trade. First of all, cross-border e-commerce imports start with popular categories. Maternal and infant products are the most important category for cross-border e-commerce transactions and have become the main driving force for cross-border e-commerce imports. Cross-border maternal and infant e-commerce has always been an investment Hot spot, “high fever that won’t go away.”
Moreover, the entire cross-border sales are focused on a small number of big brands. The risk of promoting other categories is greater than the risk of promoting standard products. Price wars are used to attract traffic, and communities are opened to enhance user stickiness. Expanding product categories has become the three best remedies for vertical categories, especially maternal and infant e-commerce, to break through and build a moat for competition.
However, if the proportion of hot-selling products is too high, the pressure on the supply chain will be small and the operating risks will be high; the richer the categories, the more convenient it will be for customers. The disadvantages of widening the product line are also fatal, and inventory and services will not keep up. . If you want to achieve high profits, you must focus on consumers’ personalized needs. Hot-selling standard products are just a means of diverting traffic, forming a rich and mature cross-border import ecosystem.
Refined and differentiated product selection depends on whether in-depth cooperative relationships with overseas brands can be established. Now every supplier and overseas brand wants to introduce long-tail products to Chinese consumers so that Chinese consumers can recognize its quality and brand, so many promoters are needed in this process. Almost all B2C cross-border e-commerce companies have to compete for these categories. For example, JD Global Shopping, Koala, Miya, Darling, Jumei, Xiaohongshu, Baby Tree, etc. are all working hard. These companies have money, traffic, and Big guys with resources and negotiation skills have stepped in, which has raised the threshold of the B2C model, which involves the operating model.