Amazing! A new cross-border customer achieved monthly sales of 10 million in two months

Europe is one of the must-fight places for cross-border sellers. Last year, many European countries cancelled COVID-19 prevention measures, and with Brexit, the e-commerce volume faced the challenge of shrinking, but the actual situation is that the growth rate of European e-commerce turnover in 2021 will still reach 16%. The European Chamber of Commerce predicts that by 2030, online sales in Europe will account for an average of 30% of retail turnover, with huge room for growth.

Among the many local markets, some sellers avoid the highly competitive UK and choose France as their first overseas destination, and they are doing very well.

New sellers in France have an average monthly sales of 1 million euros

Li Yanming is a Hong Kong businessman who used to run offline retail stores. At the end of last year, he began to plan to do cross-border e-commerce business, because the company he worked for before had a cooperation with Rakuten France, and the platform's complete functions and large number of customers left a good impression on Li Yanming. So he chose France as his first stop to enter Europe and settled in Rakuten France in April this year.

This store mainly sells 3C electronics and digital products authorized by many big brands. In June, the platform launched the summer promotion, and the store's performance soared, with monthly sales of nearly 1.5 million euros, equivalent to more than 10 million yuan.

3C is one of the best-selling categories on the platform. Li Yanming said that there is a certain demand for electronic products in the market. The brand products sold by his company are well-known and can easily open up the market. At the same time, these products are mostly high-priced, so the cumulative sales are relatively large.

Due to the large number of competitors, Li Yanming's company has also adjusted its prices appropriately, taking the route of small profits but quick turnover. In its stores, the prices of products are mostly between 200 euros and 1,200 euros.

Currently, the store has an average monthly sales of about 1 million euros and more than 5,000 orders. The company has not yet laid out other overseas markets or sales channels. As a new cross-border enterprise, this performance is of great value.

In addition to the product's inherent halo, Li Yanming's company also put a lot of thought into the business operation. "My team and I have experience in sales in Europe, and we know that logistics is a very important factor. In the past year, there have been many problems such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and logistics costs have risen, so recently we have put most of our stock in Rakuten's overseas warehouses, which is an operation in terms of business."

Taking timeliness into consideration is also a key consideration. Li Yanming said that it takes at least one week for the product to be delivered from its domestic warehouse to the customer, and if there is a delay, it will take more than two weeks. French consumers have high requirements for delivery time after placing an order, and it is difficult for them to accept such a long delivery time, especially for high-value products. In addition, long-distance transportation may also cause product packaging to be damaged, causing customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, he chose to use Rakuten's overseas warehouse in France as a logistics method.

After the goods are prepared in the overseas warehouse, the local delivery time is shortened, the probability of package damage is reduced, and customer satisfaction is significantly improved, with a favorable rate of 4.5. Some buyers give five-star reviews, praising the fast delivery of the package. And because it is automatic delivery, he can focus his attention and time on other more important business decisions.

Summer promotion performance exceeded last year, and Rakuten France saw significant growth in many categories

Due to the ongoing epidemic and inflation, overall consumption in Europe and the United States is sluggish, but Rakuten France's 2022 summer promotion performed unexpectedly.

This year, the platform's sales during the promotion exceeded those in 2021 and 2019, with small appliances and HiFi becoming the categories with the strongest growth during the summer promotion. In addition, PC monitors, intercoms, mobile phones, calculators, and wearable electronic devices also saw hot sales. Affected by the start of the school season, calculator sales during the summer promotion month increased by 132%.

( Rakuten summer sale sales in France 2019-2022)

In the hot summer, sales of "heat-proof" products such as garden swimming pools, patio furniture, and pergolas have soared during the summer promotion; as epidemic prevention measures are relaxed, people are going out of their homes, and the popularity of outdoor products such as foldable bicycles, roof boxes, and tents has also rebounded. A phenomenon different from previous years is that due to the risk of natural gas supply interruption in France this winter, some consumers have stockpiled electric heating products during the summer promotion, and heating supplies have become the focus of many sellers.

Rakuten France has many promotional activities with good results, which is what attracted Li Yanming. Thanks to the summer promotion, its store, which was just opened for two months, achieved sales of 10 million yuan, which is the result of a combination of factors.

Li Yanming mentioned that the sales team of Rakuten France is easy to work with. "In some platforms I have worked on before, the consulting manager may not respond for three or four days. In contrast, the sales team of Rakuten is more proactive. We communicate every day to discuss sales direction and store improvements. They also give some customer service-related feedback and cooperate regularly to promote."

As one of the top 10 platforms in Europe, Rakuten France has more than 12 million members, and its unique Club R program has created extremely strong user stickiness.

Every time a member shops on the platform, he or she can get platform points up to 20% of the amount of his or her spending, which can be used as electronic currency for the next purchase. Rakuten France also has the Club R Everywhere program, which cooperates with more than 1,000 official websites of consumer brands such as Adidas, Samsung, and H&M. Members who join the Club R program can also get Rakuten super points when they shop on other platforms, which can be used to purchase daily consumer goods on the platform. This has attracted a large number of users to become buyers of online sellers.

The peak season will come with new sellers

As usual, November and December are the key months for the platform, and this is also the peak season that Li Yanming looks forward to the most in a year. He plans to prepare stocks based on cash flow. If funds are sufficient, the peak season stock will be 1.5-2 times that of ordinary months. At the same time, the transportation time should be shortened to speed up capital turnover. After that, he will keep up with the platform's rhythm to carry out holiday promotions such as Black Friday, and appropriately lower prices to cope with competition from other platforms and sellers.

After less than half a year of operation, Li Yanming confirmed the potential of French e-commerce. "The sales volume in the UK is larger than that in France, but so is the competition, so we decided to enter the French market at that time." Judging from the sales situation and profit margin, this is a market worth cultivating in the long term.

In 2019, the transaction volume of French e-commerce exceeded 100 billion euros, making it the second largest e-commerce market in Europe, attracting more cross-border sellers. Li Yanming said that French users pay less attention to the origin of products, but more attention to product quality and design. They are more sensitive to package delivery time and message reply time, so sellers need to pay attention to customer service.

Rakuten France offers a lot of support to new sellers, so it’s a good entry point.

The editor learned that in order to allow new sellers to have a good harvest during this year's Black Friday and Christmas season, the platform provides the following entry support. Only sellers who register their intention to join before September 30 can enjoy monthly fee reductions - 3 months of 199 euros/month for the Extend package, or 2 months of 499 euros/month for the Absolute package, and warehousing and delivery fee reductions - 2 months of warehousing fees and 200 delivery fees within two months are exempted.

From the sales point of view, the overall market sales in the first half of this year are weak, but the rigid consumption demand of consumers in the year will be released in November and December during the World Cup, Black Friday and Christmas, and the end of the year will usher in a sales feast. Sellers can enter the warehouse quickly after opening overseas warehouses and catch up with the sales train in the peak season. (Click "Read the original text" to view all seller packages)

From the sales point of view, the overall market sales in the first half of this year are weak, but the rigid consumption demand of consumers in the year will be released in the World Cup, Black Friday and Christmas in November and December, and there will be a sales feast at the end of the year. Sellers can quickly go online and enter the warehouse after opening overseas warehouses at this time to catch up with the sales train in the peak season.

Scan the QR code below to register your intention to move in and participate in the platform live broadcast on September 21 to resolve any questions you may have before moving in.

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