Overseas brands have received tens of millions of dollars in investment, and Xu Yangtian is optimistic about this track!

With its light weight, high added value and high repurchase rate, accessories have become the "darling" of the overseas market. In this category, it is common for products that cost only a few cents to be sold to foreigners across borders and transformed into fashion items worth hundreds of yuan. In addition, this category requires relatively little capital investment and low technical requirements, so it has become a popular choice for many overseas sellers.

Over the years, many well-known brands such as Jeulia, Bamoer, Soufeel, and Totwoo have emerged in this field . However, among the overseas jewelry sellers, the vast majority still adopt the distribution model, that is, looking for sources of goods in China and then selling them overseas at low prices. Although this model does not have the pressure of originality, the problem of product homogeneity is extremely serious. In addition, the entry threshold of this category is already low, and the competition among sellers is particularly fierce.

Unique design innovation and fast product launch are key factors for sellers to stand out in the fierce competition. However, in the traditional jewelry business, this is exactly what sellers lack. Because design innovation requires a lot of time, energy and money, and fast product launch requires sellers to have efficient supply chain management capabilities. At the same time, they also need to establish a sound market research mechanism to accurately grasp the changes in consumer preferences.

The rapid development of AI technology has brought new possibilities. In the past, the design process could only rely on manpower, which was not only inefficient, but also the designer's creativity was easily affected by personal experience and thinking limitations. Today, AI can generate a large number of design solutions in a short period of time, providing designers with a rich source of inspiration.

China has a mature jewelry industry supply chain, with strong capabilities and cost advantages in manufacturing, and can provide a wide variety of jewelry products with reliable quality. For example, the South China production base, mainly in Guangdong, and the production bases mainly in Fujian and Zhejiang, can provide jewelry sellers with a variety of product choices and support for large-scale mass production.

By combining AI technology with the world's most advantageous supply chain, domestic jewelry brands going overseas are likely to create a new competitive landscape.

In the $800 billion race, AI opens up new possibilities

As we all know, the current financing environment for enterprises is very difficult. However, not long ago, Stepin, a jewelry brand going global, completed an angel round of financing of tens of millions of yuan. And a new round of financing has already started. Capital is profit-seeking. When a certain field or project has good development prospects and profit potential, capital will flow in quickly. So, what exactly is the reason that prompted capital to "take a fancy" to Stepin?

Perhaps it is its innovative application of AI technology.

As a part of the fashion industry, jewelry has the important feature of keeping up with fashion trends. Fashion trends change very quickly, and consumers' aesthetic concepts are constantly updated. In order to meet consumers' pursuit of fashion, jewelry brands need to continuously launch new styles and designs.

The application of AI technology can provide strong support for the rapid launch of new accessories, such as creative generation, personalized design, and design optimization in the design stage, process simplification, quality control, material selection, and cost control in the production stage, and trend prediction and precision marketing in the marketing stage .

At present, the application of AI within Stepin is reflected in the design process: generalizing ideas and generating relatively basic 3D models for designers to fine-tune. This greatly improves the efficiency of the design end, thereby significantly shortening the entire delivery cycle.

With the support of AI in the design end, Stepin has achieved a scale of 100+ new products by a single person in June this year. It is reported that its next step will focus on improving the accuracy and availability of the model. In an interview with the media, Stepin founder Ronnie Zhou said that when the availability level of AI reaches 7 to 8 points, they may only need about a week from creativity to delivery.

The clever application of AI in design has brought Stepin a unique competitive advantage. At present, with this significant advantage, Stepin is doing very well in the two major channels of TikTok and Temu, with monthly sales approaching one million US dollars.

Data from Grand View Research shows that it will reach US$280 billion in 2022 and as high as US$835 billion in 2023, and is expected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate of 5.4% over the next five years.

Such a huge market size and good growth trend have undoubtedly brought huge development opportunities to many jewelry sellers. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the jewelry industry is ushering in a profound change, opening up new possibilities for jewelry exports.

Product innovation and design, brand building and marketing, supply chain optimization and logistics management have always been the three axes for jewelry to go overseas. Today, "product innovation and design" has obviously been given more powerful power and more possibilities.

AI can quickly generate a variety of creative solutions in the design process, greatly improving design efficiency and allowing sellers to launch new jewelry styles more frequently to meet consumers' constant pursuit of fashion. With the help of AI, sellers can also grasp market trends and consumer needs more accurately. By analyzing massive amounts of data, AI can provide sellers with detailed information on popular styles, consumer preferences, and market dynamics in different regions, allowing them to design and develop products in a targeted manner.

With precise market positioning, multiple brands have emerged from the niche markets

Although competition in the jewelry industry has always been fierce, there are also many details that can be explored. For example, you can play the emotional card, add "metaphysics", go for a retro style, specialize in a niche circle, or even work hard on the production process.

Today, some brands have stood out in these segments. With their precise grasp of specific styles and innovative designs, they have occupied a place in the market and injected new vitality into the development of the accessories industry.

For example, Soufeel, which was once invested by SHEIN founder Xu Yangtian, has successfully won a large number of overseas consumers with its unique concept of "commemoration". Soufeel positions its products as anniversary jewelry, and its product line covers jewelry products for different occasions such as commemorating maternal love, pets, birthdays, and friends. Commemorative pendants are its featured products, and consumers can customize photos, which are both personalized and commemorative.

Therefore, the emotional atmosphere of Soufeel's independent website is also very strong.

Soufeel was founded in 2009, entered the European and American markets in 2011, and then expanded to Southeast Asia and other regions. It has been sold to more than 150 countries and regions around the world and has millions of loyal users. In the European and American markets, Soufeel took only 6 months to grow from 0 to 1 million US dollars and achieved a break-even.

In terms of marketing, it has established brand accounts on social media such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. It has nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram and 94,000 followers on Facebook. However, it has relatively few followers on TikTok, only 12,000. The promotion characteristics of different platforms are different. For example, on Facebook, it mainly promotes new products, while on Instagram, it focuses on maintaining the brand image and tone.

According to similarweb data, direct search traffic accounts for 58.49% of all traffic sources on its independent website. This is enough to prove that after years of hard work, Soufeel has gained a high reputation.

Unlike Soufeel, the Xi'an brand Jeulia is mainly positioned as a "niche luxury brand for young people". It focuses on originality and insists on pure hand-made products, forming a staggered competition with its competitors with unique designs and high-quality production.

Its product line is rich, covering necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and other categories, and is segmented and expanded according to different scenes and groups. For example, 14 scenes are segmented according to birthdays, parties, festivals, etc. to meet the diversified fashion needs of users in different life scenes; in the gift-giving scene, different audiences are segmented, such as family, friends, couples, mothers and babies.

Statistics show that Jeulia's annual sales volume reaches 8 million units, with annual revenue reaching US$30 million (approximately RMB 213 million).

Jeulia has also attracted a large number of fans on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. As of press time, Jeulia's official Facebook account has received 2.32 million likes. Among all social traffic, Facebook ranks second, accounting for 25.58% (data source: similarweb).

Jeulia has an excellent reputation among consumers . It was reported that among the 217,000 customer reviews accumulated on Jeulia's official website, more than 200,000 were five-star reviews.

Compared with Soufeel and Jeulia, Aporro's consumer group is more niche. Aporro is a jewelry fashion brand, and its main audience is American users who love hip-hop culture. Its style is unique, and its design reveals a street style, which does not conform to the aesthetics of Chinese people, but is very consistent with the popular niche culture in the West.

The brand was founded in 2017 and achieved monthly sales of 400,000 US dollars only three years after its establishment. In its fourth year, it has gained nearly one million fans around the world.

Many overseas celebrities are fans of this brand, including American pop queen Billie Eilish, OG rapper TYGA, and hip-hop queen Vinida, all of whom have worn Aporro accessories.

Like Aporro, Totwoo, a brand from Beijing, is also taking the niche route. It focuses on couple bracelets and incorporates the concept of smart into them. In North America, the online sales of Totwoo smart couple bracelets are far ahead of traditional couple bracelets in the same price range.

Overseas, Totwoo has achieved the best results among Chinese jewelry brands and has defeated well-known jewelry brands such as Swarovski and Pandora.

As the world's first fashion smart jewelry brand that integrates jewelry craftsmanship and smart technology, Totwoo has achieved good sales results and brand influence in overseas markets through unique product design and functions, as well as effective marketing strategies.

If Totwoo incorporates "smart technology", then Cocococrystal incorporates "metaphysics". In recent years, Cocococrystal, which specializes in crystal stone products, has achieved rapid success overseas by relying on the traffic of the TikTok platform. It is reported that Cocococrystal entered the TikTok Shop at the end of last year and opened a brand store. In a very short period of time, it sold more than 20,000 products.

Relying on multiple industrial clusters, jewelry exports are reaching new heights

China has hundreds of distinctive industrial belts, which are like solid foundations, strongly supporting cross-border e-commerce enterprises to bravely move towards the vast overseas market. These industrial belts cover a wide variety of product areas, from traditional manufacturing to emerging creative industries, from daily consumer goods to high-end technology products, providing a steady stream of high-quality goods for cross-border e-commerce enterprises.

There are many well-known jewelry industry belts in China. The following are some representative areas:

Yiwu: This is one of the world's largest production bases for popular accessories. Yiwu's accessories industry belt has a rich variety of products, including brooches, necklaces, head flowers, bracelets, etc., with hundreds of thousands of varieties. Not only are there many varieties, but its R&D and design innovation capabilities are also at the forefront of the country and even the world, and the industry is significantly concentrated. According to incomplete statistics, Yiwu currently has more than 8,000 accessories manufacturers and trading companies, including more than 3,000 various accessories production and processing factories, and its products are sold to more than 100 countries and regions.

Guangzhou: The jewelry industry is mainly concentrated in Baiyun, Panyu, Nansha and other areas, forming an industrial cluster. Among them, Panyu has the most influential jewelry production and processing base in the country. Guangzhou's jewelry industry covers various types of jewelry, including jewelry, watches, glasses, etc. Guangzhou and surrounding areas can easily obtain various metals, gems, pearls and other raw materials, providing a solid foundation for jewelry production. For example, Panyu Jewelry Industry Belt has great advantages in raw material supply. This industry belt concentrates a large number of jewelry manufacturers, design companies, traders and sales channels, forming a complete industrial chain.

Qingdao: Together with Yiwu and Guangzhou, it forms a "three-legged tripod" pattern in China's jewelry industry and has a relatively mature jewelry industry. Qingdao's jewelry industry emerged in the 1990s, and there are currently thousands of companies engaged in the industry. Qingdao's jewelry processing is mainly based on foreign trade exports, initially driven by Korean-funded enterprises. There are various types of jewelry, such as necklaces, earrings, rings, etc. Many well-known jewelry brands come from OEM factories here. The product quality and craftsmanship are internationally competitive.

Dongguan: Centered on Chang'an Town. Chang'an Town is famous for its powerful jewelry industry and is known as the jewelry capital of China . As the birthplace of China's jewelry industry, the town has rich experience in industrial processing and serving the global market. The first generation of enterprises in Dongguan's jewelry industry belt are mainly Taiwanese and Hong Kong-funded enterprises, which mainly focus on processing with supplied materials and OEM orders, and have obvious outward-looking characteristics. At present, Dongguan's jewelry industry has made great breakthroughs in stainless steel jewelry. There are hundreds of companies specializing in stainless steel jewelry, and a stainless steel jewelry industry belt centered on Chang'an is being formed. In the future, innovative models and innovative products may be the development direction of Dongguan's jewelry industry.

Zhuji: The world's largest freshwater pearl production and sales center, with freshwater pearl trading volume accounting for 73% of the world and 80% of the country. Shanxiahu Town, as the core area, has contributed a huge share. The product variety here is extremely rich. Not only does it have freshwater pearls of various qualities, shapes and colors, but its jewelry styles are also rich and diverse, which can fully meet the diverse needs and unique preferences of different consumers. Zhuji's industrial chain is very complete, covering the entire industrial chain from pearl farming to research and development, processing, design packaging and sales transactions. From the initial pearl farming to the production of exquisite finished products, plus the hardware packaging accessories and other related industries are well-equipped. In addition, there are large professional markets such as the East China International Jewelry City, which can provide customers with "one-stop" quality services for production, processing and sales.

Fujian: A number of distinctive processing distribution centers have been formed. For example, Shangtang Silver Jewelry Town in Putian is one of the silver jewelry industry bases in Fujian Province and the second largest silver jewelry wholesale market in the country. It has the titles of "China's Silver Jewelry Capital" and "China's First Silver Jewelry Town". Beigao Gold Jewelry City is an important gathering place for the gold jewelry industry, attracting many companies to settle in. The development of Fujian's fashion jewelry industry belt has benefited from the local geographical advantages and government support. The government has introduced a series of support policies, including financial support, tax incentives, and talent training, which have attracted a large number of outstanding designers and craftsmen to join the industry and promoted the continuous growth of the industry.

These industrial belts have formed distinctive and competitive jewelry industry clusters by relying on local advantages, such as raw material supply, production technology, human resources, etc. Of course, there are also some smaller or specific jewelry industry clusters in other parts of the country.

In conclusion: the accessories category is a hot area in cross-border e-commerce, but novice sellers should still consider carefully before entering the market. On the one hand, many large brands and mature sellers have been deeply involved in this field for many years, occupying a large market share and customer resources. They often have obvious advantages in product design, supply chain management, brand building, marketing promotion, etc. In such a competitive environment, it is difficult for novice sellers to compete with them, and they face huge challenges if they want to stand out and gain enough market share.

On the other hand, product homogeneity is serious. The styles and materials of accessories are relatively easy to imitate and copy, resulting in a very prominent phenomenon of product homogeneity in the market. For novice sellers, it is difficult to make breakthroughs in product differentiation and to create products with unique selling points and competitive advantages to attract consumers to buy.

Stepin

Soufeel