The roses on the road to overseas expansion: export cross-border e-commerce, see the rise of "her" power

A sweeping robot with a simple and beautiful design was loved by many foreign consumers as soon as it was launched on Amazon, becoming a hit on Prime Day ; the seemingly simple curtains, after careful research and development, have the functions of shading, sound insulation, and anti-smog, giving traditional home furnishings the label of "technology"; changing the mindset and relying on cross-border e-commerce to become a traditional foreign trade Chinese brand has opened up a "new" channel for business development .

In the past few years, China's export cross-border e-commerce industry has experienced a development stage from "wild growth" to "intensive cultivation". In this process, many Chinese-made products have become popular overseas, from consumer electronics, home furniture, sports and outdoor, clothing and apparel, to remote office and medical health. These "Made in China" products have gained a large number of overseas fans with innovative product design, excellent product quality, and considerate customer service, refreshing the world's understanding of Chinese manufacturing. However, many people may not know that there are many female entrepreneurs and managers behind these products and brands that have gone abroad. They formulate strategies, participate in research and development, manage operations, and have been on the front line for a long time, interpreting a series of wonderful stories of going overseas. Recently, a survey of Amazon's third-party sellers worldwide also showed that more than 40% of global sellers are women-owned businesses . Today we will learn about the stories of these outstanding Chinese female seller representatives.

Women and men think alike: Seizing the blue ocean opportunity of cross-border e-commerce

It seems to be an inevitable trend for trade to move from offline to online. After working steadily for many years in an established foreign trade company like Tianjin Mechanical and Electrical , Mao Xiaoou, the head of cross-border e-commerce, came into contact with online exports and began to test the waters in 2016 as the company developed. At the end of 2019 , Tianjin Mechanical and Electrical's furniture export business went overseas through Amazon Global Store. In order to keep up with the "e-commerce speed", Mao Xiaoou led her department to plan and prepare in advance. In May 2020 , a garden furniture that had been stocked at the beginning of the year caught the needs of European and American consumers to renovate their gardens during the epidemic in a timely manner. Mao Xiaoou and her team also ushered in the first peak of orders and won the Best Seller of the category that month as a dark horse .

After giving birth to her second baby, Grace , the founder of Sitang, took the initiative to seek change and began to think about transformation. In 2015 , she and her husband gradually transferred the traditional curtain foreign trade business that they had been doing for more than ten years to online. In the early stage of transformation, there was a shortage of talents. Grace and her husband were in charge of operations and production respectively, and they spent an unforgettable time of learning and growing. After 5 years of development, Sitang, which seized the bonus period of cross-border e-commerce, has been thriving on Amazon, and its main curtain products have become the sales champion of the category that it is proud of.

Coredy 's founder, Hu Xilin , has been involved in cross- border e-commerce since she graduated from university in 2006. So when she decided to start her own business making sweeping robots, cross-border e-commerce naturally became her preferred business model. Since Hu Xilin and her team have extensive experience in cross-border e-commerce, Coredy quickly entered a smooth operation phase after entering Amazon US at the end of 2018. In addition, Coredy experienced rapid growth in 2019, and its sales during Prime Day in 2020 reached 100 times the average daily sales . Today, the young Coredy has ranked among the top three Chinese sweeping robot brands going overseas.

Coredy robot vacuum cleaner

Perhaps their ways of entering the cross-border e-commerce field are different, but when talking about the original intention of this choice, their views are surprisingly similar, that is: they have seen the huge potential for the development of cross-border e-commerce and hope that their products can seize the opportunity and occupy a place in this blue ocean.

Do everything to the extreme, polish products and services with care and patience    

The ancients took ten years to sharpen a sword. In order to "grind" out good products, these three female "bosses" have also taken research and development and design to the extreme.

Grace , who has experience in the financial industry , puts her efforts into product launch before fully understanding the characteristics of local competitors and consumer preferences, and then finds her own advantages. In order to polish the product, she reads user feedback almost one by one, finds their needs and pain points, and also incorporates user complaints into the direction of product upgrades. Therefore, under the "toughening" of consumer feedback , NICETOWN curtains are constantly upgraded in terms of functions: 100 % shading, super sound insulation, professional anti -haze ..., gradually becoming the "high-tech" curtains in the minds of consumers.

Coredy , which has made a surprise attack in the category of sweeping robots, has chosen a combination of "first-class products + first-class customer service". While maintaining its high appearance and high cost-effectiveness, Coredy completes a product iteration every two or three months to match consumer demand. This speed of product update is rare among similar product selections. In daily work, Hu Xilin often does things herself, rushes to the front line, leads the team to work meticulously and efficiently, and personally provides customer service when there is a shortage of manpower. Coredy 's customer service is also something that Hu Xilin is very proud of. Although it involves overseas sales, the entire process from receiving a customer's call, sending it to an overseas warehouse for inspection and repair, to the customer receiving the repaired product, usually does not exceed 2 weeks. This ultimate after-sales experience has also won Coredy a lot of fans.

"There is no shortcut to cross-border e-commerce", this is probably Mao Xiaoou's deepest feeling since the transformation. In traditional trade, selling is the end point, while cross-border e-commerce has to face end consumers one by one. Therefore, in her opinion, after-sales service is a very important link. Mao Xiaoou and her team work hard to change their thinking, study customer psychology, and take serving customers well as the ultimate goal. She firmly believes that as long as you think about the problem from the perspective of the customer, the considerate after-sales service can also drive the pre-sales in reverse, and finally form a virtuous circle.

Use tenacity, carefulness and patience to unite the team and stand out from the crowd

Five years ago, Grace was still a novice in cross-border e-commerce. In the early days when the company had not yet had enough staff, she studied new terms such as ASIN, SKU, and UPC by herself every day . As a mother of two children and a business manager who started a new business, Grace worked hard to learn by herself, participated in training, and studied Amazon's operating skills, while recruiting and building a complete cross-border e-commerce operating team. Today, NICETOWN has become a leader in the curtain category on Amazon.

In Shenzhen, talent resources are extremely sought-after, but Hu Xilin has a stable team. In her opinion, female management teams have unique advantages because they are delicate and can understand employees by putting themselves in their shoes, which she calls "empathy." She likes to interview every job applicant in person to understand their experience and feelings in their previous job, so as to achieve more meticulous management.

Mao Xiaoou could have chosen to work step by step. But when the new position in the cross-border e-commerce department came, she accepted the change of career with confidence. From traditional foreign trade to cross-border e-commerce, she made all-round changes from thinking mode to after-sales service. The inherent processes and systems also allowed her to figure out a set of "preparedness for everything" approach, opening up a new business development path in traditional foreign trade.

Perseverance, "her" power continues to sail far

In the next three to five years, Hu Xilin hopes that Coredy will become a brand that wins the favor and trust of consumers in the category of sweepers. In order to achieve this goal, she has decided not to distribute dividends this year, but to invest the proceeds into operations and go all out. NICETOWN has become the category champion in North America, Europe and other markets, and has covered Amazon sites including the Middle East, Singapore and Japan, and is getting closer to the goal of spreading the NICETOWN brand around the world. Mao Xiaoou and her team are also working day and night to make traditional brands go abroad and be reborn.

In fact, the three female sellers have the same vision, a more ambitious vision, which is to make Chinese brands go global and let the world recognize Made in China.

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