Big sellers are competing to expand their business, and this channel has become a new outlet

Since the beginning of this year, the word sellers mentioned most is the poor order volume. The most direct impact of the decline in order volume and the halving of order volume on sellers is poor performance. Looking back on the situation in 2022, many sellers said that they have worked in vain in the past two years. But the reality is not so. While sticking to Amazon, many sellers have also opened up multiple growth curves, which ultimately led to the growth of overall performance. Among them are well-known big sellers such as Anker and Zebao .

Order volume cut in half, sellers explore new growth curve

"The order volume keeps falling, and I don't want to open the backend anymore," one seller said. Although the first quarter of each year is not a peak season, many sellers did not expect that this year's order volume would be so bad. There are only a few orders every day, and a halving of the order volume is already considered good. There are also many sellers whose order volume is only 10% or 20% of the past.

Looking back at the situation in 2022, the situation of sellers is also the same. A large number of sellers reported that the order volume in the peak season was not strong, and the order volume in the off-season was also extremely bleak compared with the past. The interest rates of some companies were under continuous pressure. At that time, most sellers were busy clearing inventory, and some sellers even posted on Weibo for help: "Who has access to offline supermarkets in the United States? I can sell more than a dozen cabinets of goods at a low price."

While sellers are busy clearing inventory, it also brings about a series of chain reactions. The price of inventory processing is extremely low, only 5%-10% of the selling price, which is quite painful for sellers; sellers have to hold back a large amount of inventory, resulting in limited cash flow and extremely low capital turnover of the company.

Under the pressure of multiple factors, the performance forecasts of some sellers are not good. However, there are also a group of sellers who have already started multi-channel operations in order to get rid of their dependence on Amazon and have achieved good results. One of these channels is the independent website.

At present, among the domestic listed companies, Lechuang Holdings and Anker have laid out independent stations relatively early. For Lechuang, independent stations have become a relatively important channel and growth curve for the company. In 2021, Lechuang Holdings' independent station revenue reached 527 million yuan, accounting for 18.35% of the total revenue, and the number of purchasing users was close to 250,000. For Anker, its independent station business sales in 2021 reached 390 million yuan, an increase of 83.57% year-on-year.

More cross-border sellers strengthened their layout of independent sites after Amazon banned their accounts. For example, Tongtuo Technology, Aokie and Zebao, which we are all familiar with, all started their transformation after Amazon banned their accounts. They placed independent sites in a more important position to reduce their dependence on the Amazon platform.

After adding independent stations, Zebao has achieved good results. According to the 2021 annual report data, the revenue of Zebao's self-operated independent stations was 119 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 101.06%. At the same time, the number of registered users of Zebao's independent stations is also increasing, and the independent stations of its major brands such as RAVPower, Taotronics, and VAVA are all active.

But for big sellers, setting up independent sites is just one of the curves of their performance growth. They have deeper considerations for the future: independent sites are difficult to operate, and not all cross-border e-commerce independent site businesses can achieve sustainable growth. Therefore, in addition to diversifying their layout of third-party platforms, they are also accelerating the layout of offline channels.

Offline "counterattack", a large number of sellers outperformed their competitors

Including some familiar big sellers such as Anker, Zebao, Bestec, Aoki, and Tongtuo, they are all diversifying their business focus and increasing their layout of overseas offline channels.

Taking Anker as an example, its offline channels are mainly aimed at global retail stores, regional large retail stores, etc., such as Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. Currently, Anker has more than 40,000 retail stores cooperating worldwide, covering many countries and regions including North America and Europe. In the first half of 2022, Anker's offline channel revenue was 2.099 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.39%.

Zebao mainly sells its products offline through channels such as Best Buy, Softbank, Costco and other large chain supermarkets, regional distributors and other channels. In 2021, Zebao's offline operating income was 390 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 99.37% from 200 million yuan in 2020.

It is undeniable that the overseas offline market is indeed a huge growth space for cross-border e-commerce sellers. Earlier data showed that the online market penetration rate in overseas countries such as the United States and Germany is about 20%, and it is even lower in other regions. In other words, the online and offline consumption ratio in the United States and other regions is about 2:8.

In addition, for sellers, the combination of online and offline is more beneficial to the development of their branding. Although online consumption is highly developed, offline high-end stores still have incomparable advantages. The brand characteristics and brand stories presented by offline stores are more likely to resonate with consumers, and consumers have higher trust in offline brand stores than online ones.

However, it is not easy for sellers to enter offline supermarkets in the United States, because most offline supermarkets in the United States are based on invitations, and the seller expansion cycle is relatively long. It takes a lot of time and money before sellers can settle in.

Therefore, when sellers develop offline markets, a capable assistant is particularly important. The editor learned that many sellers frequently mentioned a global commercial retail service platform called Geotailer, which had successful experience in helping baby food brands, medical device brands, etc. to layout offline channels.

Take the medical device brand HEYPEX as an example. With the help of Geotailer, in just three months, Heypex had 8 SKUs in Walmart, with sales exceeding US$300 million, and the total sales later reached US$600 million.

It is reported that Geotailer has taken several key steps to help Heypex expand its offline channels and enhance its brand influence. First, Geotailer completed the brand development and sales of Heypex within one month; second, Geotailer will also be responsible for related product development, research and packaging design; finally, they will also fully manage the brand from purchasing to distribution to all major distribution centers of supermarkets, which can be said to be a one-stop service.

Compared with other platforms, Geotailer 's services are not single, but provide a full range of services for sellers, including supply chain management, sales plan customization, packaging design, product design and development, logistics warehousing, supermarket in-store services, purchase order financing and inventory management , etc., truly achieving a full range of resource integration, and opening up offline channels for sellers in one stop. Of course, if a seller wants to develop a localized marketing strategy that suits the market, Geotailer can also provide customized services.

If there are sellers who want to join Geotailer and expand offline sales channels, they can click the QR code below or read the original text at the end of the article to fill in the registration information. The registration information includes personal information and company information. Personal information includes name and contact information; company information includes company name, product categories on sale, brand details, offline channel expansion intentions, as well as the budget for expanding channels and expected promotion effects.

After the information is submitted to the platform, Geotailer will conduct a preliminary evaluation of your information. If you pass the preliminary evaluation, the platform will contact you.

Click below to read the original text and enter the official entry channel

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