Breaking news! Another platform is permanently shut down

Due to fierce competition, many platforms have "fallen silently"!

The development prospects of cross-border e-commerce are beyond doubt. Every year, new sellers actively enter this market, and new platforms continue to emerge. However, as the competition in cross-border e-commerce becomes increasingly fierce, not only sellers are in a fierce competition, but also platforms are fighting fiercely. The latest news shows that another platform has been permanently shut down.

XShoppy , an independent website building platform, is shut down permanently! Youkeshu once sold goods there

Recently, there is news that XShoppy has officially stopped service permanently on March 31, 2023, and the platform has gradually shut down XShoppy's server storage resources. Sellers are reminded that if there are store pictures stored in XShoppy, they need to download the store pictures locally in time to prevent the storage resource pictures from being unable to be opened after the shutdown.

The news was verified to be true. In January this year, XShoppy's official public account stopped updating.

When it comes to independent website building platforms, many people in the industry may first think of Shopify. In fact, there are a number of more localized self-built website platforms in China, and XShoppy is one of them. It is reported that in January 2019, the cross-border independent website ecological platform XShoppy was officially named and launched. In April 2019, the cross-border independent website ecological platform XShoppy 1.0 was launched and opened for registration. In July 2020, XShoppy 2.0 was launched, and the cloud stack ecological chain was successfully opened.

XShoppy is not just a simple website building tool, it also has its own independent website ecosystem. It is committed to opening up the overall closed loop from product-website building-promotion-payment-warehousing-logistics, providing cross-border sellers with a one-stop cross-border independent website solution. As of August 2022, the XShoppy R&D team has more than 100 people, the number of registered stores on the platform has exceeded 50,000, and the monthly GMV has exceeded 100 million US dollars. Even the listed big seller Youkeshu once opened a store on XShoppy to sell goods.

It is not difficult to find that XShoppy was launched at a time when cross-border e-commerce was developing rapidly, and independent sites also became very popular during this period. XShoppy can be said to have reaped the dividends of the times.

However, XShoppy did encounter many obstacles in its development. How to restrain platform sellers and avoid violations have always been huge challenges faced by major independent station SaaS website building platforms, and XShoppy is no exception. It is understood that in the process of development, in order to crack down on illegal sellers and rectify the platform environment, XShoppy has adopted a series of risk control measures to monitor sellers' violations. It also connects to big data query systems such as trademarks, patents, and copyrights, and uses massive data to verify infringements. As of April 2021, the XShoppy platform has closed more than 3,700 illegal stores.

The development of a platform is closely related to the sellers. XShoppy obviously realized this and rectified the illegal sellers, but XShoppy still fell silently. We don’t know the specific reasons, but this also reflects the cruel competition in the independent station track.

In terms of independent website building platforms, sellers have many options. In addition to the well-known Shopify , there are also BigCommerce , Wix , Squarespace , Magento , Smoolis , GoDaddy , Square Online , 3dcart , Weebly and other platforms. This has undoubtedly increased the competition among various platforms. Sellers tend to choose more well-known and stable platforms. If a new platform does not have an absolute advantage, it may be difficult to attract a large number of sellers. In addition, from the overall environment, although the independent station channel has become large-scale, there is still a certain gap compared with third-party platforms. Third-party platforms have also formed a siege against independent station building platforms.

Multiple third-party e-commerce platforms have shut down or laid off a large number of employees!

In fact, in addition to the fierce competition between independent website building platforms, the competition between third-party e-commerce platforms is also very cruel, and many of them are closed every year. Recently, Vivre Deco, Zilingo, JD Indonesia and Thailand have successively announced the closure of their sites, and many platforms have announced large-scale layoffs.

1. Zilingo confirms bankruptcy liquidation

Due to its inability to continue operating due to debt, Singapore's fashion e-commerce platform Zilingo officially entered the liquidation stage in January this year.

Perhaps many Chinese sellers are familiar with Zilingo and have even entered this platform. As an e-commerce platform focusing on the Southeast Asian market, it has two business models: B2B and B2C. It mainly sells fashion and lifestyle products, so it is called the Southeast Asian version of "Little Red Book".

Such a unique platform has naturally had its glory days. As of February 2019, Zilingo has received nearly US$300 million in investment from institutions such as Sequoia Capital and Temasek Holdings, with a maximum valuation of nearly US$1 billion.

After that, the Zilingo platform has been hit by "bad news" one after another. In April 2020, Zilingo laid off 5% of its more than 900 employees worldwide. A company spokesperson said this was a strategic adjustment. In May 2022, Zilingo announced the dismissal of its co-founder and former CEO Ankiti Bose, which exacerbated the dispute over accounting operations.

2. Financial difficulties , Vivre Deco filed for bankruptcy

In March this year , due to financial difficulties , the Romanian e-commerce platform "Vivre Deco" announced that it had filed for bankruptcy. According to the current bankruptcy liquidation procedures, it may soon go bankrupt . This outcome is actually predictable.

As an old e-commerce platform founded in 2012 , Vivre Deco has a clear positioning. It mainly operates furniture and home decoration brands, and its business covers 9 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland and Greece. Although its performance soared during the epidemic in 2020, its revenue has begun to decline sharply since 2021. In the first half of 2022, Vivre Deco's net loss has expanded from 17.03 million lei in the same period to 18.64 million lei (1 lei is close to 1.5 yuan).

As early as November 7, 2022, Vivre Deco had submitted a preliminary restructuring and debt payment plan, and modified the restructuring plan after negotiations with the debtors .

3. JD.com Indonesia and Thailand sites have been shut down

All services of JD.com Indonesia ( JD.ID) have been terminated on March 31, 2023. JD.com Thailand has also suspended all services since March 3, 2023. The brand's official stores stopped accepting orders at 23:59 on February 15, and other stores were closed at 23:59 on March 3, 2023.

It is reported that JD.com will shift its focus to establishing international supply and logistics chains.

This is not the first time that JD.com's e-commerce platform has encountered difficulties in its overseas expansion. As early as 2021, JD.com announced that it would stop operating the existing businesses of the English site www.joybuy.com and the Russian site www.jd.ru, and announced that it would upgrade them to cross-border B2B transaction and service platforms ; In June 2022, JD Global Trade was launched, and Joybuy reopened operations as a B2B transaction and service platform. In less than half a year, JD International again issued a notice to suspend platform operations for upgrades, and urged suppliers to strive to ship within 3 days, and consumers can return and refund within 30 days.

In addition to the above platforms, in fact, there are many platforms whose cross-border roads are not smooth. They have sounded the alarm for the cross-border e-commerce industry. Opportunities and challenges always coexist on the cross-border road.