It was revealed that a certain big seller of office supplies may be forcibly cleared out due to default on rent!

The epidemic in Shenzhen has affected the lives of workers. Pictures of workers carrying luggage and computers to work are circulating on the Internet. Some workers joked, "I can run away, but if I have to carry the host, nothing can affect my money."

However, during the epidemic, some things were happening in the cross-border circle. A big seller was exposed for defaulting on rent, which attracted the attention and heated discussions of people in the industry . At the same time, there were also big sellers who spent hundreds of millions to purchase real estate.

A big seller was exposed for owing 33,000 yuan in rent

According to reports, the property management company will terminate the lease because the company owed the property management company a total of 33,218.81 yuan in rent, management fees, and utility fees from February 1 to March 7 this year , and failed to pay in time despite repeated collection. The property management company’s announcement showed that the two parties signed a lease contract on June 1 last year . According to the terms of the contract, the company was required to pay off the outstanding debt within the specified time, otherwise it would be deemed to have agreed to the items in the house being cleared as garbage.

After the news came out, people in the industry were talking about it. An insider said that the office area was about 300 square meters, and it was probably provided by the company specifically for a department. Now this operation seems to be a decision to directly change the "position".

From a certain perspective, the company's silent "withdrawal" may be a reflection of the turmoil in the industry. Since the account blocking wave, many companies in the industry have been affected or hit to varying degrees, with news of " XX company giving up its lease ", " XX company laying off employees and disbanding ", and " XX company leaving the building " coming one after another.

The industry turmoil has made sellers nervous, and for those "shaky" companies, rising rents have become the "last straw".

It is understood that since the beginning of the year, many cross-border companies in Bantian and South China City have successively sublet or terminated their leases, with the area ranging from a few hundred square meters to several thousand square meters. A company in Bantian Street, Shenzhen, wrote in a sublease advertisement, "200 square meters of office building in Bantian Street for sublease, rent of 10,000 yuan, and it will expire in more than a year. If you are interested, please contact us."

As the base camp of domestic e-commerce, Shenzhen's rising rents have brought certain pressure to many companies and sellers. According to sellers' feedback, many companies in the industrial parks in Huaqiangbei have chosen to relocate due to the increase in office rents.

Last September, after experiencing the impact of the account blocking wave, the industry reported that a Shenzhen cross-border seller chose to cancel the lease of an office of more than 4,000 square meters due to heavy losses. Another seller revealed that another billion-level Shenzhen seller was considering canceling the lease of a 6,000 square meter office after the account blocking wave.

Due to the inability to afford office rent, some cross-border companies have announced bankruptcy or relocation. In fact, in addition to office rent, the increase in housing costs is also one of the reasons why many sellers feel "under great pressure".

In January this year, Shenzhen announced that the city's rent increased by 1.0% month-on-month. The city's residential rent was 71.1 yuan per square meter per month. Nanshan was the area with the highest rent in the city, at 113.3 yuan per square meter per month. The rents in the six districts of Futian, Nanshan, Yantian, Baoan, Longgang and Longhua all increased.

A Shenzhen seller who has been in the business for nearly seven years said that the speed at which he makes money can never keep up with the increase in housing prices. After working hard for so many years, his life is still not guaranteed, and the monthly rent is also a considerable expense.

As operating costs continue to increase, the cross-border e-commerce track is becoming more and more crowded. In order to gain a foothold in the industry, some companies have begun to do big things quietly.

Amid rising costs, Anke spent 470 million yuan on real estate

As mentioned above, in response to the current situation of rising rent prices in Shenzhen, many large cross-border companies have chosen to terminate their leases to cut costs, but Anker, which is also a big seller, seems to be taking an unusual approach. In the latest announcement released by Anker, Anker is increasing its investment in the Shenzhen Product Technology R&D Center upgrade project, and will add 360 million yuan this time . Together with the original investment of 460 million yuan, Anker's total investment has reached 820 million yuan.

The editor found that of the 360 ​​million yuan of Anker's latest additional investment in the R&D center, 320 million yuan was spent on the purchase of real estate for the R&D center. Based on Anker's total investment in the R&D center, the cost of real estate purchase is as high as 470 million yuan, accounting for 57% of the total investment in the R&D center.

Although Anker's external explanation was the rising real estate prices in Shenzhen and the need to expand R&D talent, it is undeniable that Anker used the excess funds to purchase R&D buildings. In addition to its own strong strength, it is also maintaining the value of its industry in a pragmatic way .

But for many sellers, rent is only part of their costs, and there is also a certain proportion of seller operating costs. According to the survey data of a certain institution, 90% of Amazon sellers have rising operating costs in 2021, of which 21% have an operating cost increase of more than 50%.

The account suspension and the increase in Amazon's fees are all driving up sellers' operating costs. As costs rise, sellers are undoubtedly most affected by the reduction in revenue. Some sellers admit that only products with high profit margins can make a profit, otherwise the profits will not cover the expenses. The fact that a big seller's profit margin dropped by 20% in the same period in June 2021 is a good example.

The costs of logistics, raw materials, etc. have increased significantly; there are more wolves than meat; the demand for categories has shrunk; under the influence of the epidemic, port congestion, logistics delays and other multiple realistic factors, the profit margins of cross-border sellers have been further compressed. Some pessimistic Amazon sellers said that most of them are in a passive state, and they are so overwhelmed that they are ready to transform and quit.

Some sellers also said that they need to take a long-term view. The North American market is large, but it cannot withstand the large number of sellers. Not to mention the high advertising costs, the internal competition is frightening and the competition is too fierce. In contrast, although the European and Japanese sites are not as large as the North American sites, the competition, advertising costs and sellers' profit margins are relatively healthy.

In reality, many sellers have begun to change their minds and turn their attention to other markets, especially Japan, which is adjacent to China. Compared with the European and American markets, Japan has higher advantages in logistics efficiency and costs. In addition, Japan's GDP, which ranks among the top in the world , its high proportion of the Internet, and its middle and high-income groups are all attracting the attention of sellers.

In general, as sellers' costs are raised and profits are squeezed, transformation and relocation have become their important plans. However, it is undeniable that in the process of transformation and relocation, sellers should also pay attention to the undercurrents and reefs around them when exploring the blue ocean market; when operating on the platform, they should abide by the platform rules and policies and not cross the platform red line in order to occupy their own place in the cross-border circle.

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