After the epidemic prevention was relaxed, the sales performance soared after the listing, but it was criticized for the price increase and became a hot topic...

As domestic epidemic prevention policies were relaxed, sellers suddenly found that the people and things around them had changed. Some cross-border people were struggling with "positive test results", while others who had just tested positive had returned to work without stopping.

Along with this change, people's attitude towards their bodies has also changed. After antigens, Huaqingwen, and N95 masks, another hot item has come to the market - the blood oximeter. Brother Kan accidentally discovered that there is a little-known cross-border billion-dollar seller hidden in this market segment.

However, "fame brings trouble". While the performance of this cross-border retailer soared, it was caught up in a "price hike storm" and was even scolded by netizens and became a hot topic.

The demand for blood oximeters has increased 670 times!

Are cross-border sellers taking the opportunity to maliciously raise prices?

Recently, the topic of "silent hypoxia" has aroused strong concern among netizens.

"Special groups should always have a blood oximeter at home", the voice of many experts unexpectedly became the most powerful slogan to promote products. For a time, the sales of medical devices such as blood oximeters and oxygen concentrators soared, and many brands were directly sold out. Data shows that the search volume for blood oximeters in December increased by 670 times compared with November, and the search volume for home oxygen concentrators in December also increased by 33 times compared with the previous month.

The market is in short supply, and many medical device manufacturers have benefited from it. Among them, one brand, Yuwell, has attracted my attention. According to JD.com, 129,000 blood oximeters from Yuwell have been sold in the past 30 days. What is less known is that Yuwell's medical products are also hot-selling on Amazon , and one of its electronic blood pressure monitors has accumulated more than 5,000 reviews! It can be regarded as a cross-border hit!

Screenshot of Amazon website

However, "Yuyue" has recently been caught up in a storm of "malicious price increases".

Today, a cross-border seller broke the news: a Yuyue oximeter bought last year cost only 169 yuan, but now it has risen to 299 yuan. After investigation, Brother Kan found that the "Yuyue price increase" incident has caused quite a stir online. Previously, a consumer said on the Black Cat complaint platform that the price of the Yuyue flagship store oximeter rose from 89 yuan three months ago to 339 yuan on December 27. Subsequently, a reporter called the head of the Yuyue Medical Brand Department and the customer service number of the Yuyue Group's official website many times, but no one answered.

In addition to being questioned for malicious price increases, some netizens revealed that the Yuyue oxygen concentrator they bought at full price was recalled by the manufacturer before it was delivered, and when they wanted to buy it again, they found that the price had doubled. As the price increase controversy spread, the brand owner "Yuyue Medical" was scolded by netizens and became a hot search.

Subsequently, Yuyue staff contacted the netizen and after several communications, they found that the incident was actually a misunderstanding: the manufacturer's staff mistakenly sent the wrong goods; in addition, there was no malicious price increase for the blood oximeter, but the price of the raw materials increased , and the selling price in offline pharmacies has always been above 300.

Weibo screenshot

How lucrative is the medical device market?

The profits of two cross-border sellers both declined

According to industry insiders, including the cost of obtaining a medical device license, the cost of a finger-clip oximeter is only a few dozen yuan. If this is true, then this is another highly profitable industry. Let's take a look at the revenue of two cross-border sellers in the medical device market.

According to Yuyue Medical 's 2022 third quarter report, the company achieved a total revenue of 5.116 billion yuan in the first three quarters, a net profit of 959 million yuan after deducting non-operating income, and a gross profit margin of 47.23% for its main business income. Although both revenue and net profit have declined compared with the same period last year, in absolute terms, Yuyue Medical's performance is still impressive, with a net profit of nearly 1 billion yuan, far surpassing many of the well-known listed companies.

According to the semi-annual report, Yuyue Medical's overseas business revenue in the first half of 2022 was 407 million yuan , accounting for 11.45% of the total revenue, a decrease of 43.38% from the same period last year, and the gross profit margin was 35.15% , a year-on-year decrease of 8.39%. In addition, in 2021, Yuyue Medical's overseas business revenue reached 1.626 billion yuan.

Source: Juchao Information Network

When talking about the cross-border medical device industry, we must mention another listed big seller-Kangtai Medical. According to the company's third-quarter report, in the first three quarters, Kangtai Medical achieved revenue of 462 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.75%; net profit after deducting non-recurring items was 172 million yuan , a year-on-year decrease of 38.56%. Similar to Yuyue Medical, although both revenue and net profit have declined, net income is still considerable. In contrast, Kangtai Medical's overseas sales account for a higher proportion. According to financial reports, Kangtai Medical's overseas sales accounted for 77.71% and 80.92% in 2020 and 2021, respectively. It can be inferred that the company's overseas revenue in 2021 was 735 million yuan .

In terms of gross profit margin, Kangtai Medical's blood oxygen, monitoring, and ECG products have gross profit margins of 39.3%, 59.92%, and 57.34%, respectively. The latter two have quite impressive gross profit margins.

Source: Juchao Information Network

Can products that have been sold in bulk with fake orders also be listed?

There is great potential in the big health market!

In the post-epidemic era, after experiencing the baptism of fighting the virus, global consumers' health awareness has been greatly improved. In addition to the explosive growth of the medical device industry, the sports and fitness industry is also one of the beneficiaries.

Not long ago, Jiangsu Kangliyuan, the parent company of JX Fitness, a well-known fitness equipment brand on Amazon, submitted a listing prospectus to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's Growth Enterprise Market and officially went public. It is reported that Kangliyuan, founded in 1998, has been deeply involved in the export of fitness equipment for more than 20 years.

What is eye-catching is Kangliyuan's gross profit margin. According to the prospectus, the company's gross profit margin for overseas online direct sales in 2021 reached 74.24% ! Open the Amazon website, many products of Kangliyuan's JX Fitness brand have obtained the Amazon's choice label. It is reported that from 2019 to June 2022, the number of customers who purchased products in Kangliyuan's Amazon store was 14,883, 92,519, 88,391, and 37,461 respectively.

Screenshot of Amazon website

However, what is less known is that Kangliyuan has also engaged in "fake orders". From 2018 to 2020, Kangliyuan's fake orders on platforms such as Tmall and JD.com were 8.1441 million yuan, 20.9577 million yuan, and 6.5909 million yuan respectively, with a total of about 35.6927 million yuan in three years .

It is of great benefit to admit mistakes and make improvements. Kangliyuan is also well aware of the harm of "brushing orders". It subsequently rectified the practice of brushing orders and introduced strict systems to prevent such violations from happening again.

The three big sellers mentioned in today's article have one thing in common, that is, they have been deeply involved in the industry for many years and attach great importance to product research and development. Taking Yuyue Medical as an example, the R&D expenses in the first half of 2022 were 258 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40.04%. It has established 10 major R&D centers and 7 major production bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Germany, Italy and other places, forming a complete global R&D, production, marketing and service network.

In today's era of increasingly transparent data, only by returning to products and building core competitiveness can cross-border sellers succeed in their overseas expansion journey for a long time.