Annual sales exceed 100 million! Cross-border sellers increase branding

Brand is not only the link between products and consumers, but also a powerful tool for cross-border sellers to outperform their peers.

According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports (including B2B) reached 2.11 trillion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%. Among them, exports reached 1.55 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.7%. The steady development of cross-border e-commerce has gradually become an important tool to help stabilize the basic foreign trade situation. The country's multiple policy supports have helped the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce. Recently, the Central Economic Work Conference has proposed again that exports should continue to play a supporting role in the economy.  

In the post-epidemic era, the global e-commerce industry, which has slowed down, still has huge opportunities. The penetration rate of the overseas e-commerce industry is far behind that of the domestic market. The Internet penetration rate is lower than that of the Chinese market, but the growth rate is higher than that of the domestic market, indicating that there is a lot of room for growth in the future. For example, the United States, a hot export market, will still maintain a growth trend of more than 12% in the next four years. Chinese players, whose domestic growth momentum has gradually peaked, have regarded overseas markets as their second growth curve.

Cross-border upstarts compete with established giants, and it is the right time for brands to go global

Many players are competing for the overseas market. In addition to the stable performance of established cross-border sellers, a group of newcomers are also emerging, stunning cross-border sellers. Summarizing the success rules of excellent sellers, we can find that cross-border e-commerce has entered the stage of intensive cultivation. "Going fast" does not necessarily mean "going far", and the final victory often belongs to those who insist on long-term branding!

On the one hand, cross-border "newcomers" such as Cider are accelerating their overseas expansion, while on the other hand, veteran players such as Anker Innovations are holding on to their positions. In the fierce competition, cross-border e-commerce is accelerating into the "real" brand stage with brand competitiveness as the core. The past single and extensive sales thinking is gradually unable to adapt to market survival. At the same time, the national level is also promoting the transformation of China's manufacturing to China's creation, China's speed to China's quality, and China's products to China's brands.

Driven by the market and policies, brand has become a prerequisite for the long-term development of cross-border sellers, and upgrading strategies is urgent. Many distribution sellers have also survived the market pain after switching to the brand track, and the annual compound growth rate has continued to rise. It is understood that the sales share of branded products of Savi, which is rushing to go public, has increased from 73.92% in 2019 to 97.23% in 2021. The operating income of 20 brands has exceeded 100 million yuan, accounting for 74.69% of the sales revenue of goods. [ Data source: Savi Times: Prospectus for the Initial Public Offering and Listing on the Growth Enterprise Market (Registration Draft) ]

There are many similar excellent brand sellers, and the global influence of Chinese market brands continues to rise. The list released by Google and Kantar shows that more than 20 cross-border e-commerce industry brands from the fields of home gardening, online fashion, smart devices, etc. have successfully made the list of Kantar BrandZ Top 50 Global Brands in the Chinese Market in 2022. The overall brand power has increased by 6%, and the growth in developed markets is particularly strong, with an average increase of 9% in brand power scores.

Independent website plus third-party platform dual-track operation has become the standard for brand sellers, breaking through the development dilemma has become the key

Those brands that are able to sell well all over the world must have a strong brand and a multi-channel sales layout. Therefore, the dual-track operation model of third-party platform boutique stores + brand independent stations has become the cutting-edge model in the current development stage. Third-party platforms achieve the goal of expanding sales channels by expanding the user range, while independent stations are the main battlefield for brand image display. Independent stations build brands, and third-party platforms do sales. The two complement each other and achieve long-term growth.

It cannot be ignored that brand building is not achieved overnight, but a process of continuous optimization, which requires sellers to stick to it for a long time in a complex environment. However, many Chinese brands often give up halfway due to some difficulties and challenges in the process of going overseas. In summary, strong product power but insufficient brand power, failure to make strategies and layouts from the long-term perspective of brand building, lack of research and insight into the local market and target consumers, social content ignoring the communication of brand personality but leaning towards product and promotional information, product recommendations relying on Internet celebrities and bloggers resulting in insufficient stamina of integrated marketing, lack of marketing operators and teams with international experience, and insufficient attention to multiculturalism, values, race, and gender are the 7 most common factors that cause brands to be "trapped" in going overseas.

Only by breaking through the difficulties of brand development can cross-border sellers go further. This not only requires enough efforts on their own, but also requires appropriate help from "external forces". It is not advisable to bury your head in isolation and work in isolation!

LilySilk, a light luxury brand that focuses on home furnishings and clothing, has been developing its global presence since 2010. At the beginning of its overseas expansion, it adopted the DTC independent site model to focus on niche categories. The brand now has sites in 13 countries, serving users in more than 150 countries and regions.

It is understood that Google has provided a lot of help to LilySilk in key aspects of brand building such as obtaining user insights, optimizing creative ideas, and media placement. The results of the Brand Lift Survey show that compared with the same scale of advertising in the first half of 2022, LilySilk's brand consideration has increased by 116% and the brand word search volume has also shown a significant increase. Based on the measurement results, thanks to the brand's video ads on YouTube in November 2022, LilySilk's brand word search volume increased by 28%. More searches reflect the growth of user demand and also bring more conversion opportunities to business results. (Source: Google Marketing Official Account)

To accelerate the establishment of global influence for Chinese brands, Google supports more than 1,000 emerging brands in the Chinese market to go global!

Google has been taking action to help Chinese companies break through growth and set sail for a long journey! Based on the original industry segmentation, the direct customer department of Google Ads China has officially reorganized the fashion and beauty team into two business teams: new consumer brand overseas expansion and native cross-border overseas expansion. They focus on supporting the overseas expansion business of mature brands in the domestic market and the overseas growth business of native cross-border brands, respectively, to provide customers with more in-depth and customized services and solutions. In addition, the 2022 Google Overseas Summit also focused on the release of the Google Weaving Sail project to empower the growth of Chinese brands.

With the mission of strategically empowering Chinese brands, promoting brand growth through technology, and systematically building industry perspectives, Google hopes to support 20+ potential overseas tracks in the next 3-5 years, support 1,000+ emerging brands in the Chinese market to go overseas, and accelerate the establishment of global influence of Chinese brands. Currently, the team serves clients including domestic leading brands in the fashion apparel, beauty and personal care industries.

The Zhifan Project has opened up the entire chain of going global for Chinese brands by linking the ecological support system, accelerating the brand's all-round overseas capabilities, based on Google's core user insights, and enabling brands to formulate long-term and short-term brand strategies. Specifically, the Zhifan Project will provide exclusive service content in four aspects : overseas resource activation, brand growth strategy, user strategy empowerment, and product strategy iteration.

The overseas resource launch service includes three points: all-round brand overseas ecosystem insight support, nine independent station capability ecosystem partner links, and capability improvement services for three different stages: 0-1, 1-10, and 10-100.

The brand growth strategy service includes omni-channel brand-exclusive growth plans and insight services, one-on-one brand workshop services exclusive to key customers , and financial support for brand material testing.

The user strategy empowerment service includes KOL/KOC omni-channel matrix seeding and breaking circle strategies, as well as customized track analysis and in-depth data insights of overseas users.

Product strategy iteration services include three aspects: support from star products to product matrix strategy, deep data insights into product trends, and product localization strategy support .

In summary, it is an inevitable trend for brands to go global! Whether it is a big domestic brand or every small and medium-sized seller with a brand dream, they need to think deeply about how to respond to new demands and changes, seize new opportunities and build strong brand assets. With the help of projects such as Google Weaving Sail, there will definitely be more Chinese brands blooming overseas!