With over 260,000 SKUs, Chinese online shopping platforms are conquering the North American market

With the development of global trade, Chinese brands are gradually going global. The export of Chinese culture represented by Liziqi has also contributed to the overseas expansion of Chinese products. While domestic sales are increasing, Chinese products are becoming more and more influential in overseas markets.

Did the e-commerce platform originate from Lao Gan Ma? Chinese products are exported overseas

Recently, Yami, the largest Asian shopping platform in North America, received US$50 million in financing. The funds will be used to strengthen supply chain construction, expand product range, etc., further enhance the competitiveness of Asian products in the US market, and help domestic products go overseas.

The origin of Yamibuy was a bottle of Lao Gan Ma. The founder and CEO Zhou You is a Chinese. When he was studying in the United States, he had to drive two hours to a nearby Chinese supermarket to buy a bottle of Lao Gan Ma, which was time-consuming and laborious. Thinking that other international students would also have this problem, he took this opportunity to establish the Yamibuy e-commerce platform in 2013, specializing in providing distinctive Asian products and promoting the spread of Chinese culture in the United States .

At the beginning of its development, the platform was mainly focused on snacks, which is also its largest category at present, accounting for about 50% of its revenue . Since then, with the continuous growth of users, Yami has gradually expanded to other categories, including snacks and beverages, instant food, maternal and child products, household goods, kitchen appliances, skin care and beauty, etc. At present, the number of SKUs on the platform has exceeded 260,000, and there are more than 4,000 cooperative brands.

The initial consumers of the Yami platform were mainly international students and Asians in the United States, especially Chinese. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau in 2021, the number of local Asians has increased by 81% since 2000. Asian Americans have become the fastest growing consumer group in the United States, and the Asian American consumer market is valued at $1.2 trillion.

In 2021, Yamibuy had more than 2 million registered users in the United States , with annual sales of over 100 million U.S. dollars. Among them, the number of non-Chinese users accounted for more than 15%, and the growth rate has exceeded that of Chinese users. Yamibuy is bringing Chinese products into the daily consumption of local people.

With the overall prosperity of the e-commerce market, Yami will also accelerate its development pace and strive to build a "Yami Brand" Internet ecosystem covering the entire United States , not only providing people with the convenience of online shopping, but also extending the convenience to everyone's food, clothing, housing and transportation, truly creating value for users.

Since its establishment, Yamibuy has created many outstanding records: In January 2014, the platform achieved a daily order volume of over 1,000, and sales in April reached one million US dollars; in June 2015, Yamibuy opened sellers to join, developed third-party seller business, and transformed into a comprehensive e-commerce platform; in June 2016, it won the "2016 Outstanding Asian Enterprise Award" issued by Los Angeles Business Magazine. In September 2016, the platform's monthly sales exceeded five million US dollars.

As the largest Asian e-commerce platform in North America, Yamibuy has also played the role of a bridge to promote the export of Chinese products. For example, domestic Internet celebrity brands such as Li Ziqi, Santonban, and Yuanqi Forest have all used this platform to go overseas and achieved good sales results. In particular, TikTok has also promoted cultural exchanges between countries, and Chinese specialties are becoming a new trend in overseas consumption.

At first, Yami mainly sold Chinese brands, but now it has gradually added brands from Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia . Earlier this year, Yami set up an office in Japan to expand its exploration of local brands and plans to go deeper into the Southeast Asian market.

In addition to Yamibuy, other Chinese e-commerce platforms are also gradually gaining a foothold overseas.

E-commerce platforms founded by Chinese have become rising stars

Compared with other large e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Walmart, the market size of such platforms has yet to expand, but they are popular among overseas consumers due to their market and category specificity. For example, Newegg in the United States and Made.com in the United Kingdom are currently the "darlings" of foreign consumers, but they differ in sales categories and markets.

The well-known Newegg was founded by Chinese entrepreneur Fred Chang in 2001. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, USA , and its platform mainly sells 3C products such as electronics, computers, and communications . The founder chose "Newegg" as the company's name because he hoped to achieve a transformation in the retail industry through e-commerce .

Data shows that Newegg has more than 40 million stable customers in the North American market , and its market foundation is solid. In the first half of 2021, Newegg's net sales increased from US$862.7 million to US$1.2069 billion, and its gross profit reached US$166.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 33.9%. Its net income was US$21.6 million, an increase of 14%, which is very strong.

Another company worth noting is Made.com , a British e-commerce company that is preparing for an IPO . One of the founders of Made.com is Chinese. The company's sales model is similar to that of fast-moving consumer goods brands , and its products also include furniture such as sofas, beds, and tables.

It is understood that the products on this platform are not the buy-now-ship model of previous e-commerce platforms , but take a different approach, first posting furniture design drawings online , and then let consumers vote on their favorite furniture before placing orders, similar to pre-sales . However, the products need to wait until the order volume meets the minimum production requirements before placing production orders with Chinese factories.

Since many intermediate links are eliminated and product prices are low, Made.com 's revenue has increased year by year . According to Made.com's 2021 performance report, due to the rapid growth in sales in the second half of 2021, Made.com's annual revenue reached 434 million pounds (about 3.754 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 38%. The platform has more than 1.3 million active customers and the average order price reached 246 pounds.

In addition to foreign consumers, overseas Chinese also have many "family members" as users of e-commerce platforms founded by Chinese . Influenced by emotional factors, overseas Chinese have also become the main consumer group of such e-commerce platforms. According to relevant statistics, at an annual growth rate of 10%-30%, the global Chinese consumer market will reach 3.8-12.5 trillion US dollars in 2021, and national trend brands are one of the most popular products.

However, in the context of fierce competition in the overseas e-commerce market, the above-mentioned platforms realized that in addition to expanding their consumer groups, they must also continuously expand their own scale, so they have begun their own capitalization process one after another.

Newegg, a North American e-commerce giant, successfully landed on the Nasdaq in May 2021 and became a US listed company with a market value of more than US$4.8 billion at the time. Made.com also conducted its initial public offering in June last year . Capitalization has become an "accelerator" for large e-commerce platforms to expand their market size and carry out corporate transformation .

Compared with comprehensive e-commerce platforms, the main features of this type of e-commerce platform are that the market is not generalized, but focuses on one or several markets (mostly in Europe and the United States), and the products are targeted at consumer groups, such as Newegg, which mainly sells to technology and Internet enthusiasts. The sales model is distinctive, such as Made.com's fast-moving consumer model, which lays the foundation for the same group that may or is trying to create e-commerce in the future.

At present, the export of Chinese products and brands overseas has become a development trend, and at the same time, e-commerce and Chinese consumer markets founded by overseas Chinese are also growing simultaneously. In the face of these development opportunities, sellers can consider these platforms and consumers when entering the international market, and make good plans through multi-faceted evaluations.

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