Cross-border e-commerce has gone through pains, FunPinPin helps Chinese independent website sellers to go viral

In 2020, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan, an increase of 31.1%. From January to May 2021 , the import and export volume exceeded 700 billion yuan, an increase of 36.9%. Cross-border e-commerce has increased tenfold in five years.

However, recently, the US retail giant Amazon has closed down 50,000 Chinese sellers on its platform since May on the grounds of soliciting false reviews from consumers, causing an estimated loss of more than 100 billion yuan to the domestic cross-border e-commerce industry.

At the same time, the cross-border e-commerce industry is booming and cross-border e-commerce entities are growing stronger . In order to reduce dependence on platforms, enhance independence and voice, and not be constrained by foreign e-commerce platforms, more and more cross-border e-commerce companies and sellers are going overseas through independent brand websites to gain a firm foothold.

What is an independent website? An independent website is a website built by an enterprise with an independent domain name and used to conduct e-commerce business. It is estimated that the number of independent websites in our country has reached about 200,000. In order to avoid being strangled, sellers have begun to gradually favor independent websites.

It is worth mentioning that in Shenzhen, the city most affected by the Amazon "account suspension", the government has taken frequent measures. On August 5 , the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce issued the " Notice on Organizing the Application for the 2021 Central Foreign Trade and Economic Development Special Fund Support Matters ", encouraging companies to conduct cross-border e-commerce through independent sites, and providing 2 million yuan in funding for each project. On August 13, a cross-border e-commerce company symposium was held to discuss the impact of the recent Amazon collective store closure on sellers, which can be regarded as a reassurance for companies engaged in cross-border e-commerce.

In fact , as early as July 9, 2021, the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Foreign Trade Business Forms and Models" also clearly pointed out : " Foreign trade enterprises are encouraged to build their own independent websites, and professional website building platforms are supported to optimize and improve their service capabilities. Explore the application of blockchain technology in trade segments. By 2025, a group of foreign trade segment service platform companies with strong international influence will be formed."

It is obvious that both the national and local levels are paying close attention to cross-border e-commerce, and encourage sellers to start cross-border e-commerce through independent sites.

Why is it becoming difficult for sellers on the platform to do business?

Some people say that it was caused by the tightening of platform rules from 2017 to 2018, which led to a large influx of new sellers; others say that it was caused by the increase in traffic and logistics prices due to the epidemic.

In fact, the overall growth of the Amazon platform is slowing down, especially in the North American market. The slowdown in user growth and the decrease in overall market demand are also one of the main reasons.

The relationship between platform sellers and platforms, like the relationship between all ecological organisms and their ecological owners, has now entered the stage of mutual competition from the initial mutual support.

But the reasons why it is difficult to do so are nothing more than the following: the growth of the platform during its bonus period has slowed down, competition among sellers has become increasingly fierce, large sellers have a monopoly on the market, and Amazon is a company that puts customers first .

Compared with third-party platforms, why is it encouraged to build independent sites?

The first is to reduce operating costs. With the continuous emergence of professional website building platforms, the cost of building an independent website continues to decrease, and the operation and maintenance costs are about 30% less than those of third-party platforms.

The second is to carry out precision marketing. Independent sites can enable sellers to fully grasp traffic data, fully tap the value of data, and recommend suitable audience groups for sellers, thereby significantly increasing purchase rates and repurchase rates.

The third is to enhance brand value. Independent websites can flexibly use advertising alliances, search engine optimization (such as Google), social platforms (such as Facebook) and other methods to attract traffic and enhance brand awareness.

At present, there are three types of independent station building systems on the market:

The first type is fully self-developed. This type of website construction requires relevant professionals to build web pages and write codes, which consumes a lot of manpower and financial capital. For small and medium-sized sellers, self-development is not recommended.

The second category is independent websites built based on open source software. Currently, the open source software available on the market include Mangento, OpenCert, Wordpress and WooCommerce. This type of website fully utilizes the characteristics of open source, provides the development of relevant code libraries, and is easy to seamlessly connect with third-party application systems, which can meet the expectations of most relevant operators.

The third category is independent websites developed based on SaaS systems. This type of independent website is the most commonly used one at present. For example, Shopify, FunPinPin, etc. belong to this type of independent website building system . This type of independent website building system is easy to operate in the background and has a relatively popular usage rate. At the same time, it has cooperation with some social platforms, which is conducive to promotion. It is the website building method chosen by most sellers.

In general, independent sites have considerable autonomy. They can not only collect relevant buyer data in a timely and legal manner , but also conduct detailed data analysis and redevelop customer resources and market resources for target customers, thereby enhancing sellers' understanding and expansion of the market.

With policy support, improved tools, and reduced seller costs, the "spring" of independent websites has arrived. As a new type of independent website building platform in China, FunPinPin adheres to the business philosophy of accompanying sellers to do sustainable cross-border business. By opening up the independent website ecosystem, it provides Chinese sellers with a one-stop solution from website building to marketing.

FunPinPin said it will give each independent site seller two gift packages worth 2 million yuan to help Chinese companies going overseas.

The specific benefits are as follows: Any enterprise that receives funding from the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce can obtain a single project on FunPinPin

1. 2 million commission-free quota

2. A 2 million yuan credit line for Facebook advertising, with no interest

(Note: Each enterprise can receive funding for up to two projects)

How to build an independent website?

Companies that go overseas through independent websites need to have professional talents in technology, operations, and other fields.

In terms of technology, although there are easy-to-use platforms such as FunPinPin for independent site construction, it is also necessary to modify and optimize the web pages in light of the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce product sales , and to perform long-term maintenance of the independent site data to provide better data samples for customer data analysis.

In terms of operations , due to the large cultural differences between countries, independent sites do not have a relevant customer base, and customer stickiness is not strong, so professional marketing personnel are needed to promote them.

Chinese sellers, are you ready to expand across borders?

FunPinPin

Cross-border e-commerce

Independent website