“National” cross-border e-commerce: major domestic brands collectively go overseas, ByteDance launches a cross-border export APP!

The competition in the field of cross-border e-commerce exports has escalated into a visible war!

In the first half of 2021, the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in mainland China reached 886.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%. Among them, Guangzhou alone has more than 30,000 cross-border e-commerce companies.

“I heard that people who work on Amazon are making tons of money. Do you think I can do the same?”

When cross-border e-commerce enters the homes of ordinary people, even the 50-year-old uncle at the entrance of the village is ready to join. In the era of cross-border e-commerce for all, cross-border e-commerce exports have already attracted many "giants". Yien.com learned that since this year, ByteDance, JD.com, Alibaba, Tencent, etc. have increased their efforts to layout overseas markets:

Fanno, an independent export e-commerce APP mall under ByteDance, has officially been launched. At the same time, TikTok Shopping, an e-commerce system launched by ByteDance that integrates sales and advertising functions , has now opened registration channels for the UK market.

Alibaba, which has three overseas "weapons" in its hands , namely Lazada, AliExpress and International Station, has set its sights on the fast fashion track. It is reported that Alibaba has launched an APP called "allyLikes" and a corresponding website, targeting women who focus on buying clothes.

Alibaba's old rival Tencent has also entered the cross-border business. Compared with Alibaba's full-chain development of cross-border transactions such as selling goods, logistics and payment, Tencent is more of a "water seller". In November this year, Tencent Cloud officially released a one-stop solution for cross-border e-commerce, covering 11 cross-border e-commerce business links including product selection, website building, finance, logistics, customs declaration, tax refund, and marketing. This means that Tencent, which has always participated in the cross-border industry only as an investor, is going to make money in the cross-border e-commerce field.

At the same time, domestic e-commerce giant JD.com also wants to get a piece of the cross-border pie. JD.com has always been known as the "Chinese version of Amazon". Coincidentally, its layout in the cross-border field is also inextricably linked to Amazon. Recently, an insider revealed that JD.com is acquiring Amazon stores and will gradually launch its own brand, namely Jingzao, in the future.

In addition to platforms and capital, well-known domestic brands, such as Semir, Antarctic Man, XGIMI Technology, Konka, Bear Electric Appliances and other "big brothers" in various subcategories have collectively gone overseas...

When the most powerful people in the country gather in overseas markets, what kind of lively scene will the cross-border e-commerce export track be like?

ByteDance's latest overseas expansion: TikTok Shop and Fanno platform

ByteDance’s overseas e-commerce empire is gradually building higher.

On December 22, TikTok Shop officially announced that it will be fully open to Chinese sellers. All sellers can immediately settle in and open their own TikTok Shop.

According to Yien.com, TikTok Shop will first open the UK market to Chinese sellers, then gradually expand to the European market , and plans to explore the Southeast Asian market from Q1 2022. Sellers can sell all categories of goods, covering 3C digital products, beauty and personal care, clothing accessories, shoes and bags, furniture and living, plush toys, holiday gifts, etc. Sellers can choose to promote through Promote self-service, or through the new bidding advertising solution provided by the TikTok Ads Manager platform to enhance product exposure, clicks and purchases.

As TikTok launched its cross-border e-commerce app overseas, TikTok's domestic rival, Kuaishou, has also accelerated its layout in cross-border e-commerce.

Kwai, the overseas version of Kuaishou, chose live streaming e-commerce as a track to enter cross-border e-commerce and give full play to its advantages. Some time ago, Kwai cooperated with CasasBahia, the largest home appliance department store retailer in Brazil, and Xiaomi fitness wristband AmazFit to test live streaming e-commerce. The purpose is to take the lead in the live streaming e-commerce field in Brazil. Mariana Sensini, director of Kwai Brazil, said : "Using live streaming to showcase products, attract consumers and make sales is a new trend in global e-commerce. We are very happy to start this business in Brazil."

As domestic Internet and e-commerce companies have joined the cross-border e-commerce market , it is reasonable for Kuaishou to expand its e-commerce business overseas . However, compared with Douyin, Kuaishou's overseas live e-commerce development seems to be much slower.

In June this year , TikTok Shop has begun inviting top sellers and DTC brands in mainland China /Hong Kong to participate in the test . TikTok said that the GMV of merchants settled in is continuing to grow rapidly . For example, during the Black Friday promotion, the daily GMV of clothing brand Cider increased by more than 3 times, the brand's new customer repurchase in a single month reached more than $1,000, and the cumulative live broadcast fans increased by 720%.

According to data from Cloudflar, a cloud infrastructure company that tracks internet traffic , TikTok became the world's most visited internet site in 2021, surpassing last year's leader, Alphabet's Google . TikTok has more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide , over one million outstanding content creators , and has long been ranked first in global app market downloads .

Backed by TikTok , which has many advantages , TikTok Shop has set the goal of "global products, global buying and selling" . " TikTok e-commerce will enter major global markets in the next five years and will reach a scale of hundreds of billions of US dollars . " said Bob, vice president of ByteDance and head of e-commerce business .

The birth of TikTok Shop is an important chess piece for ByteDance to expand into the global market. In addition to TikTok Shop, ByteDance's ambition to occupy the global market also includes Fanno.

In November, ByteDance launched an independent e-commerce app store Fanno on the iOS App Store. In terms of product selection, Fanno offers a variety of categories including clothing, 3C accessories, fashion accessories, beauty products, children's toys, pet products, home furnishings, outdoor and fitness products, with clothing being the largest category.

The page is mainly divided into four modules: "Black Friday Promotion Zone", "New User 1 Euro Reward Zone", "Hot Selling Zone", and "Recommendations for You". Many hot-selling products on the entire platform have large discounts ranging from 40% to 60%, and the prices of the products are mostly between 1 euro and 16 euros. As of December 2021, Fanno is mainly open to the European market, including five countries: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It is not difficult to see that low prices have become Fanno's stepping stone to open up the European market .

Both Fanno and TikTok Shop are products of ByteDance's overseas market expansion. They both set their initial markets in Europe. Why Europe? The European market is the platform with the most cross-border e-commerce sellers, except North America. Research data shows that the total sales of e-commerce in Europe are expected to reach 396 billion euros this year . Since e-commerce platforms account for about half of e-commerce sales, the total sales of European e-commerce platforms are about 120 billion to 150 billion euros.

Based on consumer preferences, the top five most popular e-commerce platforms in Europe are Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Asos, and Wish. AliExpress, which failed to rank among the top five, also wants to gain more market share in Europe.

Alibaba announced that it will use AliExpress as its main growth engine in the European market in 2022. "AliExpress has a bad reputation in France due to its low product prices, but Alibaba is investing heavily to change this image. At the same time, Alibaba is also investing heavily in its logistics subsidiary to compete with Amazon in Europe by opening 7 logistics centers."

Platforms such as AliExpress are eyeing the European market, and established e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay have already established a firm foothold in the European market. If Fanno and TikTok Shop want to successfully get a piece of the pie by entering Europe at this time, they must have their own unique advantages.

TikTok Shop is backed by TikTok's global traffic of 1 billion monthly active users. The birth of one hit after another also proves that TikTok has become a new purchasing habit for global consumers. With TikTok paving the way, TikTok Shop's e-commerce journey will be much smoother.

What is Fanno's magic weapon to win by surprise? At present, Fanno's advantage is that it is backed by ByteDance, the "financial sponsor", and the product price is more attractive. Fanno's strategic approach is to seize the market with low prices to cultivate consumer shopping habits. When you open the APP, the 0.1 euros that come into view are really puzzling: With such a low price, can the seller still make a profit? Sellers who have registered on the platform said that the price at the front end of the platform is not the real price of the merchant , but the platform gives consumers a discount . We can call this operation a "10 billion pound subsidy."

Rather than being a major advantage of Fanno, the low-price strategy is a common weapon used by all platforms and sellers to grab more market share. This is because lower prices lead to more demand, which in turn generates more purchasing power, thereby reducing procurement prices, which can then be converted into lower product prices.

In the international market, it is very popular due to its low price . However, with the continuous increase in logistics and other costs , the low-price strategy has become an important factor hindering the development of cross-border e-commerce.

In 2021, Europe's VAT regulations underwent major changes, and the cost of container freight between Europe and China also increased by nearly 10 euros. Against this background, a large number of sellers on platforms such as AliExpress and Amazon are caught in a dilemma between sales and profits. " If we don't sacrifice profits to maintain sales growth, we will lose price-sensitive customers. " The sellers are in such a situation, and the platforms are not having an easy time either. If Fanno wants to compete with Amazon, it cannot rely solely on low prices.

From the operational requirements for sellers, Fanno currently does not support sellers’ behaviors in many aspects of pre-sales and after-sales services. At present, the platform will handle pre-sales and after-sales customer service in a unified manner, withhold VAT on behalf of sellers, and does not support sellers to place advertisements on the site by themselves. Instead, the platform’s user growth team is responsible for advertising placement. The logistics method also adopts the platform collection model. After the order is generated, the seller needs to mark the shipment in the background within 2 days, and the official logistics service provider will come to pick up the goods and send them to overseas customers.

Sellers still face many restrictions during operations, indicating that compared with mature platforms such as AliExpress and Amazon, Fanno is still in its growth stage, but ByteDance is taking many measures to fundamentally solve problems such as supply chain, logistics, and operations. In August this year, ByteDance invested in a comprehensive logistics service provider, Zongteng Group. In about three months, ByteDance invested another US$10 million in iMile, a Middle Eastern e-commerce logistics company. According to industry insiders, ByteDance's team will increase cooperation with SaaS companies in the future .

Fanno is not open for investment at present, and only invites merchants to join. It is predictable that as the Fanno platform gradually matures, it is only a matter of time before it opens for investment. Will you join then? As soon as the news of Fanno's launch came out, a large number of cross-border sellers were eager to join, while complaining that the "international version of Pinduoduo" has come , and Fanno will not go far. Similar voices emerge in an endless stream, but the story is still developing. It is too early to predict the ending of Fanno now . We might as well look forward to ByteDance, which has launched new actions in the cross-border field , to bring new expectations to the already mature and stable European market.

Fast fashion track of cross-border e-commerce export: more and more "Sheins" are born!

Alibaba started its cross-border business earlier than ByteDance and has more experience. However, Alibaba does not seem to be satisfied with the status quo.

Alibaba has launched an app called "allyLikes" and a corresponding website, which is deployed in the North American and European markets and focuses on women's clothing purchases. Opening the allyLikes website and application, you can find that its product categories include new series, clothing, dresses, tops, bottoms, underwear, accessories and other options, with prices ranging from a few dollars for a T-shirt to more than 30 dollars for a leather jacket.

Users can select style, size and other information according to their preferences, and then they can match related products. After selecting the products and paying, allyLikes will deliver them to users within two weeks. In order to attract users to trade, users can enjoy a 3 euro discount on their first order on allyLikes, and free delivery for orders over 19 euros.

allyLikes has opened accounts on FaceBook and Instagram, and has accumulated more than 30,000 fans. On these social media, allyLikes will also cooperate with Internet celebrities (influential people) to sponsor products and provide them with additional benefits such as 50% commission to promote brands and increase sales.

The various sales models of the allyLikes platform are hard not to remind people of Shein. In other words, Alibaba is also targeting the big cake of fast fashion cross-border e-commerce.

Alibaba is not the only one who is optimistic about the future of fast fashion. In 2020, Zhang Xiaopei , the co-founder and CTO of Chehaoduo Group , founded "Quanliang Quansu" after leaving the company. Before the "Quanliang Quansu" project was named, it received an angel round investment of about US$30 million, with a post-investment valuation of US$150 million.

In June 2021, Quanta and Full Speed ​​completed a US$100 million Series A financing round with investors including Capital Today, Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital , Shanxing Capital, and 5Y Capital.

A fast fashion export cross-border e-commerce brand similar to Shein, it is positioned at full speed and in full volume to become the "Chinese version of ZARA", transferring the country's excess clothing supply chain capacity overseas, with an extremely fast inventory turnover rate, and mainly selling fashionable women's clothing with a price tag of less than US$20 or even less than US$5.

FOMMOS, a cross-border e-commerce project launched by Antarctic E-Commerce , is also targeting the fast fashion sector. In October of this year , FOMMOS, a cross-border e-commerce platform under Antarctic E-Commerce , was officially launched . Antarctic E-Commerce stated that in the next five years, it will focus on the two main lines of "brand + consumer goods", combine "digital + supply chain", reach "users + channels", and focus on expanding six major business lines, and the cross-border independent platform will be one of the six key business lines in the future. FOMMOS , which is benchmarked against Shein , was complained by cross-border sellers as soon as it was launched: " I don't see any advantages. Compared with burning money? I'm afraid you can't win ", " Can't you be a little innovative ? The interface is almost copied one to one, is it interesting? "...

It is understandable that doubts arise!

More and more platforms similar to Shein have emerged. After Shein, a "giant" in the fast fashion field, was created, many domestic "giants" rushed to the fast fashion beach, just to create the next Shein. However, many entrants who want to compete with Shein just copy Shein. Is this method really feasible? The outcome may not be optimistic. When fast fashion cross-border e-commerce platforms also roll up, entrants still have to think seriously whether the Shein model is the only way for fast fashion .

JD.com, Tencent and others enter the market: the competition between water sellers and goods sellers is escalating

More and more Chinese people are working on cross-border e-commerce platforms, which shows that competition between platforms has begun to intensify. The competition between Chinese sellers has long been upgraded and iterated, with capital fighting in a fierce battle. Among them, there is no shortage of capital that has complete logistics, product selection and other supply chain resources, such as JD.com.

The world's most SHEIN in 2021

Internet e-commerce

Cross-border e-commerce