A post-95s generation switched to cross-border business and it took him 2 months to complete 1,000 orders per month!

In recent years, led by the entrepreneurial boom, many young people have been quietly saving money while working hard to explore reliable business opportunities, hoping to one day complete the transformation from "workers" to "big bosses."

According to the data from the "China Youth Entrepreneurship Development Report (2020)", contemporary young entrepreneurs are generally concentrated in the age group of 22-32, with college students, farmers and migrant workers as the main force, and the educational background is mainly undergraduate and junior college, and the scale of start-up capital is mostly below 100,000 yuan. When talking about the reasons for starting a business, most young people said that starting a business is to pursue a better life and to work for themselves.

Although the entrepreneurial journey is bound to be accompanied by huge psychological pressure, more than 90% of entrepreneurs have experienced a sense of accomplishment and happiness. Compared with those who only have entrepreneurial ideas but have not taken that step, they are undoubtedly ahead.

I also have a friend who was born after 1995. He only started to get involved in cross-border e-commerce two months ago, but now he has thousands of orders per month and has become the boss of several cross-border e-commerce stores. Out of curiosity about his entrepreneurial experience, I have recorded our conversation in text form. I believe that whether you have just graduated, just entered the workplace, want to do a side job, or need to make some breakthroughs and transformations at work, you can gain something from this article.

Can I be my own boss?

His name is Zhang Ping. After graduating from university in 2018 , he worked as a clerk and a salesperson. When he first entered the sales industry, he was very motivated. He visited customers rain or shine for half a year and was awarded the title of Outstanding Employee many times. However, the heavy workload left him no time to stop and summarize his experiences and lessons over the past few years, which was not conducive to self-improvement. Therefore, he began to think about changing careers, hoping to start his own business to gain more controllable time.

Due to the needs of sales work, Zhang Ping often comes into contact with some customers engaged in the cross-border e-commerce industry, and he has become good friends with some of them, which has given Zhang Ping the opportunity to explore the cross-border e-commerce industry. Through preliminary research, Zhang Ping found that some cross-border e-commerce platforms actually have a low entry threshold, and do not require a high degree of education or abundant original capital. With more research, more observation, and more learning, you can basically have the most basic market insights and store operation knowledge, so he had the idea of ​​doing cross-border e-commerce.

Zhang Ping knows that if you want to engage in cross-border e-commerce, you can't just do it. There are many issues that need to be considered, such as what kind of market to choose, what kind of store to open, and what kind of products to sell.

Due to the impact of the epidemic in 2020, the global stay-at-home economy is prevalent. Many people abroad cannot go out, so they can only buy some daily necessities through online shopping. Cross-border e-commerce has also developed rapidly. Zhang Ping's hometown is in Shenzhen, where the foreign trade atmosphere is very strong. He also has relatives doing some wholesale business of mobile phone accessories. The problem of supply can be solved directly by relatives. So what kind of market should he choose?

After a series of research, Zhang Ping set his sights on the Southeast Asian market, which is still a blue ocean, and Shopee, the most popular e-commerce platform in the local market . But as a novice with no experience in cross-border e-commerce, should he really take this step? Zhang Ping was still a little worried and had some concerns.

Can I really make money?

With such doubts, Zhang Ping searched for a lot of cross-border knowledge on the Internet and found many third-party Shopee teaching courses. However, these courses made Zhang Ping fall into deeper doubts: the quality of each course varies, and most of the whole system courses require fees. Which is the right way to open a store? How should I find a business method that suits me?

After wandering around in various cross-border e-commerce exchange groups, Zhang Ping accidentally discovered Shopee's official investment manager, which made him, who was like a "headless fly", overjoyed. After expressing his doubts, Zhang Ping, on the recommendation of the investment manager, signed up for the "Shopee Official Store Opening Training Camp" held in March this year and took a 7-day official series of courses for free. After the first two days of study, Zhang Ping followed the course step by step and submitted his long-prepared entry materials. The problems that had previously troubled Zhang Ping, such as payment, language, logistics, etc., at the overseas link level were also solved. After the 7-day course, Zhang Ping successfully opened a store on Shopee, mastered the basic operational knowledge, and took his first step in becoming a cross-border entrepreneur in Southeast Asia.

"I watched the training camp courses many times later, followed the instructor's instructions, and took notes carefully in every class. I fully believe that the harder you work and the luckier you are, the orders will not fall from the sky," said Zhang Ping.

There is no such thing as a miracle of making money as long as you settle in. After opening the store, Zhang Ping also encountered a series of operational problems such as few orders, low conversion, and low traffic . However, Zhang Ping did not get anxious or discouraged, and continued to update products, decorate the store, and optimize listings. In constant practice and summary, Zhang Ping learned to analyze the reasons for the small number of orders, and then tried to solve this problem, and gradually developed a cross-border mindset.

For example, the reason for the low click-through rate may be that the main picture is not attractive enough. In the early stage, you can try more main pictures until you find one with a high click-through rate. Sometimes you can also consider pricing. In terms of conversion rate, you can improve the conversion rate by continuously optimizing product listings, content descriptions, product pricing, etc. In this regard, persistence is the key. However, if the effect is still not good after a long period of high-frequency updates and persistent optimization of operational skills, you will also ask and learn from others.

Not long after Zhang Ping's store opened, it coincided with the Shopee platform's newly established super promotion day in the first half of the year, the 4.4 Super Value Shopping Festival. In order to catch up with the promotion traffic, Zhang Ping worked for dozens of hours without sleep and managed to complete the description and new products of hundreds of SKUs in the store. At the same time, he decorated his store for this promotion and set up several promotional activities. As a result, Zhang Ping was favored by the goddess of luck.

"I think I am quite lucky. As a new seller, I was able to encounter such a bonus traffic promotion right after opening the store. A carefully selected mobile phone air cushion holder unexpectedly became a hot-seller. On the day of April 4, we received more than 600 orders. This also gave me great confidence in my subsequent operations. My careful study and research over the past few days have all been valuable." Zhang Ping said with a smile.

Today, Zhang Ping has opened several cross-border stores with the help of his operations manager, with monthly sales exceeding 1,000 orders. At the same time, he is continuing to improve his cross-border operations capabilities, hoping to achieve another round of good results in the year-end promotion in the second half of the year ...

——————————————— Dividing line ———————————————

In March 2021, the Shopee official community held the "Shopee Official Store Opening Training Camp", which successfully incubated more than 300 sellers to settle in Shopee and started the journey of digging for gold in Southeast Asia. In order to allow more people like Zhang Ping to enter the cross-border e-commerce industry without any barriers and become their own bosses, Shopee officially launched the "Shopee Newbie Store Opening Training Camp" event in May. For the first time, four star lecturers from official certification institutions were brought together to teach on the same stage. The whole course lasts for 5 days, with 0 fees, and a total of 60 courses for you to choose from.

For more details, please see the event poster below:

How to register for the event: Scan the QR code on the poster or click: http://shopeecampaign.mikecrm.com/rlx1eSF to submit the registration form, and scan the QR code to join the group to complete the registration

Shopee Platform