790,000 SKUs are going for IPO! The big seller is "curing" Amazon addiction

It is not uncommon for cross-border e-commerce companies to rush for IPOs. Since Anker Innovations successfully listed on the ChiNext, more and more cross-border e-commerce giants have begun to seek IPOs in the A-share market . Cross-border e-commerce giants such as Santai Holdings , Suntech Power, and Zhiou Technology have all rushed into the IPO path .

However , the road to IPO is not easy. It took two or three years, multiple inquiries, and various problems in the early stage of operation had to be solved one by one. Take San Tai Shares as an example. Its GEM IPO review status was repeatedly shown as " suspended ". Recently, after updating its financial materials, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange resumed its review .

An average of 838 new products are developed every day . Shenzhen Stock Exchange resumes review of San Tai Shares' IPO application

Previously, because the financial information recorded in the IPO application documents had expired and needed to be supplemented and submitted, in accordance with relevant regulations, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange suspended the issuance and listing review of Shenzhen Santai E-Commerce Co., Ltd. ( hereinafter referred to as " Santai Co., Ltd. " ) .

After completing the update of financial information recently , the Shenzhen Stock Exchange resumed the review of Santai Shares ' issuance and listing.

Due to a number of administrative penalties during the reporting period, including late tax declarations and high-risk system vulnerabilities, and the widespread practice of "fake orders and fake reviews" by cross-border sellers, which led to the blocking of accounts by platforms such as Amazon, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange also had many questions about Santai Shares, which led to its IPO being repeatedly suspended since it submitted its listing application in June last year.

In fact, this is not the first time that San Tai Co., Ltd. has been listed. In 2016, San Tai Co., Ltd. was also listed on the New Third Board. After completing its asset restructuring, it did not switch to the A-share market until last year.

As a large- scale distribution company, Santai ’s sales categories cover 5 major categories and 17 subcategories, including fashion, tools and accessories, home life, digital technology, and hobbies, with nearly 100 subcategories. Its sales channels include more than 20 global and regional e-commerce platforms, covering consumers in more than 200 countries.

According to its updated financial data, from 2019 to the first half of 2022 , the number of SKUs that Santai shares still sells on various platforms is 656,300, 599,700, 669,400, and 793,700 , respectively . Among them, the average number of SKUs removed from the shelves and eliminated every day is 302, 437, 309, and 152, respectively, while the average number of newly developed SKUs every day is 648, 283, 500, and 838, respectively .

More than 800 products are developed in one day , so the bonus period of the hit products is getting shorter and shorter, but this is the characteristic of the sellers who distribute goods. In order to develop market bonus products faster and more accurately, San Tai Co., Ltd. is also paying more and more attention to the construction of the technology platform.

It is understood that in the past three years, the number of information technology personnel in Santai Co., Ltd. accounted for an average of 21.98% . The company divided new product development into multiple links such as product selection, supplier selection, sample procurement, information editing, and shelving . The assembly line -like operation has greatly accelerated the speed of new product development.

There are also many suppliers required for the development of a large number of new products . It is understood that the company has more than 10,000 active suppliers , and its procurement model includes both online and offline channels, and online procurement is mainly completed through 1688 .

In addition to selling products on e-commerce platforms, in 2009 Santai Co., Ltd. also developed cross-border logistics business , achieving a large degree of integration in sales and delivery .

The sales share of San Tai Shares on Amazon has been declining year by year

Last year , Amazon's " account ban wave " was vigorous , and many sellers engaged in cross-border e-commerce business were affected. Now, Amazon attaches more and more importance to compliance operations, and the intensity of its crackdowns is getting stronger and stronger.

Although Santai Holdings has not been affected by the Amazon account ban wave , its latest financial data shows that the proportion of Santai Holdings' sales on Amazon is declining.

In this regard, San Tai shares said that the decline in Amazon's share year by year is due to the expansion of new business growth points such as Southeast Asia and other regions, as well as the vigorous development of Wish, AliExpress and other platforms. This may be a reflection of its intention to reduce its dependence on Amazon.

Currently, the number of stores that Santai Co., Ltd. has on Amazon remains at 10, which is the same as in 2019. The difference is that in 2019, only 2 of its Amazon stores were owned, and the other 8 were third-party stores. It was not until last year that it made large-scale acquisitions of third-party stores on various platforms and turned them into its own. Currently, it has 10 owned stores on Amazon, AliExpress, Wish and other platforms, totaling 93 stores.

From the latest version of financial data, it can be seen that in 2019, San Tai's sales on Amazon accounted for 47.78% of the total sales , which then dropped sharply to 29.06% in 2020, rebounded to 35.88% in 2021, and fell to 33.21% in the first half of this year . At the same time, its sales share on platforms such as AliExpress and Shopee has increased year by year, from 4.29% and 1.02% in 2019 to 12.82% and 15.18% in the first half of this year, respectively.

For a long time, the vast majority of cross-border sellers have been too dependent on third-party platforms , mainly Amazon , which caused them to suffer serious damage in last year's account blocking wave .

Take Zebao as an example. Since its revenue on Amazon accounts for more than 90% of its total revenue , many of its brands were blocked during the account blocking wave last year, causing severe damage to the performance of Zebao and its parent company Xinghui Shares . The financial report shows that Xinghui Shares' revenue in 2021 fell by 33.74% year-on-year, with a net loss of 1.524 billion yuan, of which the revenue of cross-border e-commerce business fell by 46.02% year-on-year. Until this year, performance growth has not returned to the right track .

Kuaishou, Youkeshu, and Tongtuo Technology have also been greatly affected by the Amazon ban . Although Santai shares have not been affected, Amazon's supervision is becoming increasingly strict, so it is normal for it to exert its strength on other platforms.

The brand image of the mass-market type is weak, and the user stickiness is low

Due to the low requirements for product selection and operational capabilities, the early distribution model was very popular among cross-border sellers. Take Youkeshu as an example. In 2020 , its SKUs on sale once reached 1 million, and the number of stores on Amazon, eBay, and Wish platforms totaled 3,873 .

Because these products are broad in categories and closely follow hot-selling items, they do not have their own brand effect and consumer stickiness is not strong.

Taking Santai Co., Ltd. as an example, according to the results of IT verification, the vast majority of the company's e-commerce customers only place orders once on the same platform, and the proportion of customers who place orders more than five times in previous years (2019-2022) is only 0.69%, 0.54%, 0.51% and 0.26% . Obviously, due to the lack of branding, the possibility of consumers repurchasing is extremely low.

Moreover, neglecting brand building is one of the main reasons why these big sellers stumbled in the account ban wave and continued to suffer losses in subsequent performance . Due to reliance on a single third-party platform , they failed to establish brand awareness in the market , which led to increased customer loss. Of course, fake reviews and fake orders are also manifestations of these big sellers not paying attention to protecting their brand image.

At present, these mass-market sellers are in urgent need of " transformation " and shaping their brand image through diversified distribution channels, improving product productivity and user stickiness . Previously, Anker Innovations became one of the few survivors in the Amazon account ban wave because it transformed early .

Nowadays , Lechuang, Anker Innovations, Zibuyu and other A-share companies have established their own brands on Amazon and successfully opened up the European and American markets . They have also laid out independent station businesses , which have become important sales channels and growth curves for the company . Taking Lechuang as an example, its independent station revenue reached 527 million yuan in 2021 , accounting for 18.35% of total revenue .

In addition, Savitech, which passed the review in June this year, has focused on " branding " since 2016. Its prospectus shows that during the reporting period, Savitech has incubated 50 self-owned brands with revenues exceeding 10 million yuan , including 19 brands such as men's clothing brand Coofandy, underwear brand Avidlove, and sports equipment brand ANCHEER, all with revenues exceeding 100 million yuan.

The road to branding is long and arduous, and large-scale sellers still face many challenges if they want to gain a foothold in overseas markets. However, it is expected that more and more cross-border e-commerce companies will focus on brand building in the future .

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