Being cheated by the factory and the popular products failed! Cross-border sales staged a comeback against the wind

In recent years, the number of sellers on major cross-border e-commerce platforms has increased dramatically, and competition has become increasingly fierce. In addition, the policies of third-party platforms are changing. In order to disperse the risks of operating a single platform, more and more sellers have begun to deploy multiple channels and transform into independent websites.

Yien.com interviewed Wu Jiayang, the founder of Hangzhou Chuanliu. Combining his more than 20 years of overseas marketing experience, he shared his experience in sellers transforming into independent sites and detonating traffic.

At the beginning of the transformation to an independent website, the big names were badly cheated by the factory!

Wu Jiayang, who used to work as an SEO manager for Amazon and Alibaba , actually had the idea of ​​starting a business very early. He chose independent websites because his previous job was to direct traffic to websites at Alibaba and Amazon, which was naturally suitable for independent websites.

Although he had extensive experience in overseas marketing in the industry, Wu Jiayang still encountered many difficulties in the process of transforming to an independent website.

He admitted that the integration of the supply chain was actually the most difficult, rather than the operation and traffic generation of the front end of the website. Because the founders of Chuanliu all came from the Internet industry, their strength was traffic generation, but dealing with factories in the early stages was more difficult. Because the factory might make a random quotation, even if the deposit was paid, it might delay the shipment without reason, or even sell the goods to its old customers first. At the same time, he also encountered the situation of overseas warehouse returns.

Therefore, Wu Jiayang recommends that sellers who plan to set up independent websites must have a full grasp of the characteristics of their products, customize the style of the entire website according to the characteristics of the products, and then customize their own marketing channels and a series of services they need, such as payment, overseas warehouses, etc.

At the same time, it is also necessary to consider the shopping habits of customers in the target market, and then configure the processes of each link of the entire independent station upstream and downstream according to your own characteristics. In addition, when choosing a service provider, try to choose some big and old service providers, and do not cooperate with some new service providers to avoid stepping on thunder.

Independent website sellers earn $200 million in annual sales from niche categories

Product selection is also a very important part of platform sellers’ transformation to independent websites.

Wu Jiayang said that the product selection on independent sites is actually very different from that on the Amazon platform, because the entire cost structure on independent sites is completely different from that of Amazon.

Because the main costs of the Amazon platform are product costs, warehousing and logistics commissions, and Amazon's various advertising fees, etc., while the main costs of independent sites are advertising and marketing costs. The highest advertising costs on the Amazon platform may account for about 30%-35%, while the advertising and marketing costs of independent sites usually account for more than 55%-60%. This may cause a certain deviation in product pricing. Products that are hot-selling on Amazon may not sell well on independent sites, or the same product will lose money if sold according to Amazon's pricing. At the same time, the warehousing and logistics costs of independent sites are relatively cheap compared to Amazon, and independent sites do not have commissions, but these cannot make up for the excessively high marketing costs.

The difference in platforms also determines the difference in product selection. When selecting products, independent website sellers must pay attention to the uniqueness of the products, so as to give consumers a memorable point and bring them a unique shopping experience.

Wu Jiayang once learned about a Chinese seller who sells beehives. This product belongs to a relatively niche sub-category, and the website only sells one product, which is beehives. Moreover, the website has only 40 to 50 products, but the seller's annual sales can exceed 200 million US dollars, and the profit can reach 20%.

In fact, it is easier for sellers to create their own popular products in these segmented categories.

Break through the traffic dilemma of independent stations!

For many independent website sellers, the biggest challenge in the early stage of operation is often "traffic diversion". Unlike other platforms that have their own traffic, independent websites require sellers to divert traffic from other channels.

When talking about traffic diversion, Wu Jiayang said that a large number of independent website sellers who have recently entered the market actually have a very basic understanding of overseas traffic. For example, when it comes to independent website traffic diversion, everyone only knows about Google ads, Facebook ads, etc. Most sellers do not understand native ads.

In addition, for example, online influencers bring goods based on sales share, and this form is rarely used by independent website sellers. Of course, there are problems with insufficient knowledge accumulation and operational difficulties. However, this requires the sellers to take the initiative to overcome it. If sellers want to make money by simply buying some goods on 1688, building a website and investing in Google and Facebook ads, this is no longer realistic and unlikely. Therefore, in the early stages of operating an independent website, you must take the initiative to learn and have a full understanding of the overseas traffic ecology. In terms of the choice of traffic channels, try to choose some traffic channels that are not so competitive, to achieve your own profits as soon as possible, and avoid some unnecessary competition from the traffic.

In general, you need to have a certain amount of knowledge about traffic at the beginning, as well as certain practical experience in operations, and then avoid competition for traffic when choosing channels.

If independent website sellers want to achieve sustained growth, they need to overcome many difficulties.

Wu Jiayang believes that operating an independent website has different strategies at different stages, which is actually much more complicated than Amazon. Because Amazon basically has one strategy, focusing on product rankings in the early stage, which is relatively simple and crude, but an independent website is divided into three cycles.

The first is the cold start period, when RY must be able to break even and quickly increase product sales. At this time, you also need to understand how to generate traffic, understand website operations, and understand how to interact with customers, which is relatively difficult.

The second stage is the rapid growth period, during which you must understand your own product strategy. During the rapid growth period, if the seller has very few products, it will not be able to support the rapid growth of the entire independent station. The sales of the independent station are positively correlated with the product volume, and 20% of the products will be made into hot products.

The third stage is the stable period, which is the stage when all the functions of the independent station are completed and productized.

The cold start period, growth period and stabilization period of the independent war, each stage has a very different way of playing, which is the core difficulty threshold.

On April 11, at the 2023 Sixth Cross-border E-commerce Network Marketing Conference hosted by Ennet, Wu Jiayang will bring a wonderful sharing on the theme of "New Ways to Go Global with Independent Stations in Emerging Markets (Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America)", and give corresponding suggestions to peers and sellers based on his own experience. You can scan the QR code below to register for this conference and listen to Wu Jiayang's sharing face to face.

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