2.6.1 How traditional foreign trade companies operate on the Amazon platform
After understanding who is operating cross-border e-commerce on Amazon, it is necessary for us to continue to conduct an in-depth analysis of how to operate well.
Most of the companies engaged in traditional foreign trade are trading companies or factories. They have always faced large overseas wholesalers directly. They usually find overseas wholesalers through offline exhibitions or Google searches, and receive orders. The order amounts are often relatively large because large overseas wholesalers are very familiar with the local country’s market. They just tell the Chinese factory the consumer’s requirements and then customize the production according to his requirements.
Therefore, traditional foreign trade companies need to clarify the following three key points.
First of all, traditional foreign trade companies must determine whether their products are suitable for retail, that is, whether they are suitable for direct use by end consumers, because many traditional foreign trade orders are B2B corporate purchase orders. At this stage, Amazon is used as the platform Cross-border e-commerce mainly focuses on B2C retail, and B2B orders are very few. For example, if your factory produces security doors and has facial recognition functions, but this product requires professional maintenance personnel to come and install it, then this product is obviously not suitable for cross-border e-commerce, and it can also be said that it is not suitable for cross-border retail.
Secondly, traditional foreign trade orders are large in amount and infrequent, often once or twice a year, but on the Amazon platform, multi-frequency fast-moving consumer goods dominate. As long as there are no large-scale quality problems in traditional foreign trade products, it is okay for a few products to be defective. However, in a cross-border retail platform, such a defect means 100% product quality to consumers. problems should be taken seriously and differentiated.
Finally, the traditional logistics method of foreign trade is mainly sea transportation. Because of the large number of orders, sea transportation is the cheapest transportation method. The Amazon platform has its own overseas warehouse. The first batch of goods is test data and If the market responds, the quantity is small, and air transportation is often used. Sea transportation will only be used when product sales are stable. This is also a way of thinking that needs to change.