The transformation of traditional foreign trade factories into cross-border e-commerce, especially cross-border retail, is still the product itself. High quality products and strong R & D and design capabilities are the hard strength requirements for enterprises to transform into cross-border e-commerce, but good products alone are not enough. What is the difficulty for traditional manufacturing enterprises to transform into cross-border e-commerce?

This time, Wang hang, the person in charge of cross-border market, told us his understanding of cross-border e-commerce brands going to sea with his years of in-depth industry research experience. Freight forwarder

The following is a transcript of the dialogue:

1.How to view the current cross-border e-commerce industry?

Wang hang: for the cross-border e-commerce industry, the past two years are definitely a capital year. On the whole, the prosperity of cross-border e-commerce industry is inseparable from the support of policies. A series of policies such as tax relief, industry supervision and foreign trade innovation and development have brought many benefits to cross-border e-commerce and attracted a large number of capital to accelerate the layout one after another.

2. Why did cross-border e-commerce break out under the influence of the epidemic?

On the one hand, it is because of the growth of foreign trade itself. On the other hand, because the whole retail industry and even the whole world are accelerating online, the result is the acceleration of foreign trade e-commerce. The transition from traditional trade to cross-border e-commerce is still the best time to enter the market.

For the whole cross-border e-commerce industry, this year's increment will be obvious, especially the logistics supporting services, so this year's supply chain will usher in a very big challenge. Freight forwarder

At present, the whole cross-border e-commerce industry is still moving in a good direction, and video e-commerce and live e-commerce are also slowly rising. In terms of the overall environment, including the formal entry into force of RCEP, it marks the official departure of the free trade zone with the largest population, the largest economic and trade scale and the most development potential in the world, which will bring new development opportunities to China's free trade zone. In addition, since the establishment of the first cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone in 2015, there have been 132 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones in China so far.

With the overall economic downturn at home and abroad, cross-border e-commerce has greatly reduced the transaction costs between producers and global consumers by forming a more virtual and digital sales network, making more enterprises enjoy the dividends of globalization. From a strategic perspective, the development of cross-border e-commerce is not only conducive to the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry, but also closely related to the country's important strategy of stabilizing foreign trade, which is a strong support for the growth of foreign trade.

On the whole, it is a big change from traditional foreign trade to cross-border e-commerce. In this process, the cost of sellers will rise a lot, especially the cost of product technology, logistics and overseas warehouse, which is a challenge for new sellers.

3. What cross-border changes do you feel from 2021 to 2022?

Wang hang: from 2021 to 2022, cross-border e-commerce actually changed a lot:

First, the overall shift to branding. We have seen a large number of sellers selling goods before. Since last year, patoson and many big sellers were judged by Amazon, big sellers have been greatly affected by the title issue, which also led many small and medium-sized sellers to go up the brand. Small and medium-sized sellers pay more attention to branding. Now the cross-border e-commerce track continues to receive heavy capital injection, the cross-border e-commerce SaaS service providers are booming, and there are more and more SaaS service providers for cross-border e-commerce players. Then, the seller's station construction cost is very low, so it can better do independent station marketing and brand going to sea. Freight forwarder

Second, the degree of specialization of the supply chain is higher. The cost of the seller's overseas warehouse in 2021 is very high. How to optimize the cost structure of the supply chain, how to layout the overseas warehouse, how to arrange the goods preparation cycle, and how to choose a better supply chain channel. Whether from the supply chain channel of the product end or the channel of the logistics provider, the seller may comprehensively consider n suppliers, Sellers' demand for this specialization of the supply chain will be higher and higher.

Third, compliance. Why did the financial compliance of the products applied for in the United States last year, including not only the large proportion of compliant products, but also the compliant products in the United States this year? Chinese sellers will gradually turn to compliance, and big sales are now moving towards compliance, and excellent fiscal and tax talents are popular.

4. What should cross-border sellers pay attention to in "selection"? What are the conditions for creating a popular model?

Wang hang: selection is difficult for small and medium-sized sellers, but now there are many software analysis tools from service providers to help select products. The most important thing is to avoid the mature categories of large sellers.

Second, small and medium-sized sellers or novice sellers should focus on the weight of products and whether the packaging is suitable for transportation, whether by air or sea, and the storage cost of overseas warehouses.

Third, whether the source supply chain can be found is also an important factor for the familiarity with the industrial belt of the categories involved.

There are many conditions for explosive models. From the initial product analysis, to the improvement of products, to the operation on Amazon, and the mutual cooperation between stations outside the station, it does not mean that explosive models can be made by casually putting a product on the shelf. Creating explosive models in the early stage requires a lot of cost and manpower.

5. Recently, cross-border e-commerce brand marketing seems to be very hot. Is there any new growth point?

Wang hang: more and more people are engaged in the cross-border e-commerce boom, including entrepreneurs who sell millions in foreign trade live broadcasting for half a year, and live broadcasting platforms that promote the cross-border e-commerce business of live broadcasting + SaaS while promoting live broadcasting to the sea.

Therefore, in 2022, both novice sellers and old sellers want to find a new performance growth point and try live e-commerce and video e-commerce tracks. Novice sellers, doing live e-commerce is a very good idea.

6. How do small and medium-sized sellers deal with the selection and layout of overseas warehouses?

Wang hang: pay attention to the warehouse cost and shipping cost. For example, last year, E-sports chairs were very popular in the overseas market. Some sellers sold about 4000 E-sports chairs a year. At the beginning, they prepared more than 2000 goods and sold them out. Later, they prepared 5000 goods. As a result, the goods were pressed on the overseas warehouse and could not be sold. After the explosion of this product, a large number of sellers were preparing E-sports chairs, resulting in too much backlog in the overseas warehouse, large volume and high packaging cost, The operating cost comes up in an instant. Once the judgment is wrong, the cost of overseas warehouse is very huge. In addition, the cost of shipping is rising, especially during the two years of the epidemic.

7. How to view the development trend of cross-border e-commerce in Shenzhen?

Wang hang: Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce has a good development trend, and its total transaction volume shows an upward trend year by year. Under the background of the continuous downturn of traditional foreign trade transactions, Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce has achieved contrarian growth, and its proportion in import and export transactions has gradually increased. It is worth mentioning that the sellers in Shenzhen and Fujian have their own characteristics. The sellers in Fujian are more innovative. Before doing independent station promotion, now doing tiktok content marketing, many sellers still do well. Relatively speaking, the sellers in Shenzhen are more used to eating the dividends of large platforms such as Amazon and are more like sellers with mature playing methods. This may be related to the selection of products, Shenzhen focuses more on consumer electronic products going to sea. Freight forwarder

8. Which direction do you think there are more opportunities in the future?

Wang hang: live video and live video and live e-commerce are the biggest opportunities. In the future, new sellers and incremental markets will definitely be on emerging e-commerce platforms and localized e-commerce platforms.

9. What do you think of traditional manufacturers starting to layout cross-border e-commerce business?

Wang hang: many manufacturers only do OEM before the transformation. Now they also start to do their own brands, "two legs" walking. This is a process of thinking transformation. In fact, the bosses of many foreign trade factories are about 40 or 50 years old. They need more time and accumulation of knowledge to change their thinking. Generally speaking, when a factory makes cross-border e-commerce transformation or self owned brand, it may be that the "second generation" and "third generation" of the factory are leading the operation. These successors have a broader vision and are more sensitive to the market. Some of them are overseas returnees or highly educated talents who know more about the consumption habits of the new generation of overseas young consumers.

The common practice of transforming traditional foreign trade factories into cross-border e-commerce is to ensure their large orders to stabilize production on the premise of the original large B2B traditional foreign trade. On this premise, try to do cross-border B2C retail. The attraction of cross-border e-commerce to factory sellers will gradually strengthen. In the long run, cross-border retail e-commerce enables factories and many brands to stand on the same starting line, and allows factory products to directly face the consumer market, so as to shape and spread their own brand image. Moreover, in terms of the overall environment, cross-border trade is also slowly turning to cross-border e-commerce, which is a general trend.

Of course, the layout of traditional foreign trade factories and cross-border e-commerce is not enough only to have products, but also to have products and after-sales service supporting facilities that meet consumers' preferences. The traditional foreign trade mode is that the purchaser orders and the manufacturer produces the products. Whether the products are suitable for the local market is the decision of the purchaser. Now, factory sellers need to develop products, brand marketing and promotion by themselves to do cross-border e-commerce.

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