How does the "Chinese Power" of cross-border e-commerce shape the "new foreign trade"

An E LEGOO brand 3D printer developed by a Shenzhen company received a lot of praise from overseas consumers when it was first launched on Amazon, and its sales this year exceeded 500 million yuan; Orolay, a local down jacket brand founded by a young man born in the 1980s, has become the "Amazon Coat" that is popular on the streets of New York, and has been the best-selling item in the down jacket category on Amazon for three consecutive years; Hangzhou Bangtang's female thermometers and other household scene products designed and developed for women's health once had a daily order volume of nearly 20,000 on Amazon during the epidemic.

In the past few years, with the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, more and more new Chinese companies have opened up a new foreign trade channel through product research and development, innovation, upgrading and the creation of independent brands, and continue to refresh the new image of "Made in China" overseas. On Amazon, various hot-selling categories such as consumer electronics, home furnishings, clothing, sports, and even relatively niche categories such as pet supplies continue to emerge with high-quality Chinese products and independent brands. In 2020, under the influence of the epidemic, Chinese sellers have shown more insight into consumer needs and the ability to flexibly adjust and optimize product selection, providing global consumers with a large number of related products such as epidemic prevention, medical health, remote office, kitchenware, indoor sports, etc.

While benefiting from the dividends brought by policies and the digital economy, Chinese companies going overseas are constantly promoting the development of new foreign trade formats. Although the epidemic has brought shocks to the global economy and consumer market, cross-border e-commerce, as a new driving force for foreign trade, has injected strong momentum into the rapid recovery of China's foreign trade. According to preliminary customs statistics, in 2020, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan, an increase of 31.1%, of which exports reached 1.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 40.1%.

Tearing off the label of "OEM" , Chinese sellers rely on product strength to "stand out"

Cross-border e-commerce has transitioned from wild growth to intensive cultivation. On Amazon, which emphasizes "product is king", Chinese sellers have gradually realized that the low-price wholesale model will eventually decline, and to achieve long-term development in the future, they must focus on upgrading their own products and brands. The prerequisite for product success is to be willing to work hard on research and development.

Chris, the founder of E LEGOO , has been engaged in foreign trade wholesale business for many years. The limitations of the traditional foreign trade model made him realize that transformation is imminent. Before successfully launching the 3D printer, he started by setting up a research and development team to do research and development related to programming electronic hardware. The proportion of R&D personnel in his company accounts for more than 30%. In order to realize the creation of a "smart future" for products and provide consumers with a way of life where they can freely make everything at will, they not only analyze the products of excellent peers in the market, but also directly buy products from overseas for research and polish their own products. Since 3D printers are an emerging technical industry, overseas industry K OLs are very professional players. It is very valuable to predict the direction of the industry from their opinions . Chris 's team will keep in touch with industry big Vs from time to time to obtain their feedback on product needs and apply them to actual research and development. It took Chris 's team nearly a year from the establishment of the product R&D department to the official launch of the first product .

Before the popular O rolay down jacket swept the streets of New York, the founder of the O rolay brand, Qiu Jiawei, and his wife spent two years to improve the craftsmanship, fabrics and products of this down jacket more than a dozen times. In order to create a popular product, the two "husband and wife" founders decided to lose 50% of their income and remove more than 100 down jackets from the shelves, leaving only the best-selling one and repeatedly polishing its details, and finally the " Amazon Coat" was born .

When the E LEGOO brand 3D printer was sold on Amazon's North American site for a year in 2016, achieving the top sales in the programming electronic hardware category, and the O rolay popular down jackets became popular in the streets of Europe and the United States in 2018, they quickly turned their attention to product upgrades and iterations, continued to consolidate product differentiation, and innovated and developed segmented categories to maintain their advantages.

As a fashion brand, Orolay needs to launch new products at a fast pace and ensure the accuracy of new products. In addition to continuously increasing investment in design and R&D, improving professional design teams and pattern maker teams, Orolay collects real-time feedback from a large number of users on Amazon, digs out more insights and product optimization directions, and relies on trend intelligence regularly provided by Amazon, which has become a "shortcut" for Orolay to quickly iterate its products . In the view of its founder Qiu Jiawei, consumers' evaluations of various issues such as size, color, workmanship, zippers, etc. can be effectively fed back into the optimization of processes and supply chains, so as to make products that better meet consumer needs. Today, in addition to popular single products, Orolay has increased the number of horizontal product developments, and through the establishment of its own flexible supply chain, it has stocked the smallest unit of products to achieve the greatest purpose of selecting styles that customers like.

While E LEGOO is paying attention to feedback from industry leaders and the dynamics of industry competitors, customer feedback has also become a driving force for the continuous optimization and iteration of its products. Shortly after its new Mars 2 Pro product was launched, some customers reported that the printed screen lacked a layer of protection, causing the screen to be easily scratched. They immediately chose to stop production and, without changing the existing general structure, applied a new layer of protective film to improve the customer experience.

Cultivate a keen sense of smell, and niche products can tap into the "blue ocean" market

When product design, technological innovation and iteration speed have become the key to the success or failure of a cross-border e-commerce company , while finding the right product positioning and focusing on product development, the insight into consumer needs and the ability to quickly adjust product selection have become particularly important. The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in the past few years has enabled many Chinese sellers to gradually develop a more sensitive "sense of smell" and dig out the "blue ocean" of niche and emerging fields in different tracks.

You may not imagine that a large Chinese-style bedside lamp priced four times higher than the market price can be popular with consumers on Amazon Australia and enter the top 100 small categories ; a cat toilet product can become the best-selling item in the category on Amazon Japan. The increased attention to health driven by the epidemic and the outbreak of the "stay-at-home economy" have also created a large number of cross-border e-commerce companies that dare to innovate and explore and successfully seize opportunities.

The Hangzhou Bangtang team, which was originally an engineer, keenly turned its attention to the rising "her economy" at the beginning of its business , developed products around women's health, and launched products through data-based methods to study users' interests and pain points. Taking the thermometer product as an example, founder Adam conducted in-depth research on a large number of user samples and found that the needs of female users in different countries and different scenarios vary greatly, and the culture, user characteristics and consumption habits of different countries are different. Based on this differentiation , he quickly adjusted the product and marketing strategy and successfully entered the European and American markets. His team also constantly adjusts the direction of the product based on user feedback. For example, for the female thermometer, users said that they did not like the sound of successful temperature measurement, so they added a function to adjust the sound to give each user the best experience when using it.

During the epidemic, the two categories of health and home that Hangzhou Bangtang focused on achieved rapid growth, and the sales of its main home scene products increased significantly. At one point, the number of orders per day on Amazon reached nearly 20,000.

Based on keen market insights, new growth points can be found for products, and niche categories can also leverage huge markets by entering the market "quickly, accurately and ruthlessly" .

Multisite layout   + Brand Marketing Building Global Brands

While consolidating product strength, more and more cross-border e-commerce companies are also constantly building global brands by improving their global layout and three-dimensional brand marketing strategies.

After the success of the E LEGOO brand in the US at the end of 2016 , it gradually opened sites in Japan, Europe and other places. By this year, it has entered almost all Amazon sites . Since Amazon Business was opened to Chinese sellers in 2015, E LEGOO also entered as soon as possible , further expanding its brand influence among corporate customers such as educational institutions, commercial institutions, and medical institutions .

After Orolay sold well in the United States, it also took advantage of the opportunity to expand into Europe, Japan and other countries, and built overseas storage centers, combining with Amazon FBA to better meet the needs of local consumers.

Hangzhou Bangtang has 2 million users, covering North America and Europe.

On the basis of making full use of Amazon's on-site brand marketing tools, cross-border e-commerce companies are also constantly exploring the establishment of flexible off-site marketing models and interactions with target consumers. For example, O rolay seized the wave of the Internet celebrity economy and sought cooperation with Internet celebrities through a dedicated platform. They asked Internet celebrities to wear the latest models and take photos at different landmarks such as snow-capped mountains, rivers, and valleys, and interact with fans on social media; E LEGOO operated through overseas social media and groups to stimulate user interest in the form of popular science content.

The dual drive of products and brands has continuously created the effect of 1+1>2 , and has also made it more possible for China's excellent independent brands to go global. The higher premium and attraction to overseas consumers brought by the brand effect are difficult to achieve under the traditional foreign trade model.

New transformations give rise to new changes, and "China Power" shapes "new foreign trade"

Cindy Tai , Vice President of Amazon and Head of Amazon Global Selling in Asia Pacific , said: " From early trade exports to cultivating independent brands, from passively waiting for orders to actively developing products, from OEM at the back end of the industry chain to directly facing global consumers to create popular products, the " Chinese power " that is gradually rising on cross-border e-commerce platforms is constantly promoting new changes in foreign trade around the optimization and upgrading of product strength and brand strength, and also provides a reference for more Chinese companies going overseas. "

2021 is the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Under the general environment of China's continued opening up, stabilizing foreign trade and giving new impetus to China's economy will still be one of the core strategies for economic development . In the 14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 Vision Goal Suggestions that have been released by many provinces , they have successively mentioned making full use of the new generation of information technology, enhancing new Internet formats, new models, and new business practices, and accelerating the development of cross-border e-commerce.

Favorable policies and the dividends of the digital economy have created an important period of opportunity for Chinese companies going overseas . However, as the saying goes, "the iron must be hard to forge", the process of Chinese companies going overseas constantly cultivating their "internal strength" in products and brands will also promote China's foreign trade into a new stage, that is, from "going out" to "going in", and accelerate the localization process in the host country.

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