A large number of sellers regret following the trend and joining the new platform!

Jumping from one pit to another ...

The anxiety of most cross-border sellers comes from putting all their eggs in one basket. Therefore, everyone chooses to deploy on multiple platforms to relieve their anxiety.

Amazon is the most popular e-commerce platform at present. Are other platforms other than Amazon more attractive? According to feedback from insiders, Meikeduo, OZON , Wayfair, Coupang , Japan Rakuten, Cdiscount, Jumia, Etsy and other platforms have attracted a large number of Chinese sellers. Compared with Amazon, these platforms are slightly niche, but their rumored ability to attract money should not be underestimated.

However, it is found that some people make money, but many lose money, and no matter which platform, there are many complaints ...

By entering the niche platform, a large number of sellers are making a fortune!

Etsy is an American website that sells handmade crafts online. The website has gathered a large number of influential and appealing handmade art designers.

Rivera, a seller from Florida, USA, accidentally discovered the Etsy platform. Since then, his life has turned around and he now earns six figures from sales on Etsy every year .

It is understood that Rivera accidentally discovered a video on YouTube about the on-demand printing side business , mainly designing products such as T-shirts or mugs .

Rivera was immediately curious, so he began to learn about and settle on the Etsy platform, mainly designing neutral-colored organic candles with "witty" labels . The products are widely loved by consumers and have received more than 5,000 reviews on Etsy . In 2023, Rivera's sales in the Etsy store were approximately US$462,000 . Excluding fees paid to the platform, marketing fees, and expenses spent on Printify services , about 30% to 50% of each sale was profit .

“I’m making more than I’ve ever made and doing less than I’ve ever done,” said Rivera, who typically works just 20 minutes a day and occasionally two hours .

This is just the tip of the iceberg of how Etsy makes money. In recent years, a large number of Chinese sellers have opened stores on the Etsy platform to make money, and many have annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan. Since Etsy is famous for selling handicrafts, consumers look at the design rather than the price, so the platform sellers live a very comfortable life, and the profit of many products is 50% or more.

Meikeduo is also one of the popular e-commerce platforms for sellers. Meikeduo is a Latin American e-commerce giant, covering 18 sites in Mexico, Brazil , Chile , Colombia, etc. , with a monthly traffic of 642 million and 320 million buyers, nearly half of the total population of Latin America .

A group of Chinese sellers who had already set up shop on Meikeduo in the early years have successfully occupied a position and become the top sellers on the platform. Now they can be said to be making a fortune quietly. An insider said that some people have achieved sales of over 100 million yuan in about a year.

Coupang , Rakuten, Cdiscount, Jumia and other platforms are also full of Chinese sellers. These platforms have their own strengths and successfully carry the beautiful expectations of many sellers:

The boss mainly deals with Japan's Rakuten, and only does a boutique model in one category, which has become the top three in the subcategory.

The OZON platform is growing very quickly, especially the local stores, which have huge sales.
Wayfair is suitable for home furnishing sellers, and the company now has annual sales of over 100 million.

Allegro platform products received orders on the first day of listing, and sales quadrupled in three months.

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"I went bankrupt while doing it!" Sellers keep falling into traps on niche platforms

However, due to the characteristics of the market, culture, and business environment of each e-commerce platform, it is always difficult for Chinese sellers to get a full picture of it.

Yi En Jun learned that the income data of new sellers on the Russian e-commerce Wildberries showed that almost half of the sellers had a monthly income of less than 10,000 rubles after one year of entry, and only 10% of new sellers could achieve a monthly income of one million rubles. Similar situations exist on other platforms. Although many niche platforms are hot, there are also many pitfalls on niche platforms, and countless cross-border sellers have stepped on thunder and lost money.

The Etsy platform is highly profitable, but the premise for sellers to make money is that their stores are alive. In recent years, Etsy has been closing down Chinese sellers' stores, and this year's wave of account closures has intensified. "Registering an Etsy store is simply too difficult to climb to heaven," according to feedback from Etsy sellers. Not only are newly opened stores closed, but even stores that have been operating for several years are also unable to escape the fate. Many sellers have been operating old stores for four or five years, but they were closed down.

Even if the store survives by chance, the seller will face the situation of products being constantly removed from the platform. One seller complained that all the products in the store were designed by himself and he also had the copyright, but even so, they were removed from the shelves for violating policies.

Registration on Russia's OZON platform is relatively simple, but sellers believe that the platform is still imperfect and it is easy to report errors. They have changed the information more than a dozen times but still report errors. The unit price and profit of the products are very low. Sometimes the order volume looks very gratifying, but it is a bit difficult to calculate the profit. In addition, compared with local store accounts, cross-border accounts have almost no advantages.

Meikeduo was once called a blue ocean platform, but insiders believe that this platform is developing into a red ocean. The two sites with relatively high traffic, Mexico and Brazil, each have their own shortcomings. For example, the Mexico site is FULL, which makes people cry without tears. It is difficult to enter the warehouse , difficult to ship , and expensive to ship . "The goods from November last year have not been scheduled to arrive at the warehouse yet," complained a seller. The Brazilian site has tax issues, and the cost of the early operation stage will be much higher than that of Mexico.

The Cdiscount platform also has many negative reviews, especially around 2019, when sellers generally complained that the official efficiency was too low, and that it took several days to reply to a case, or no reply at all; and that the platform was constantly buggy, such as the product creation process always stuck on the loading page (recharge les produits).

The complaints about the Wayfair platform are also related to the system. There is a clear gap compared to Amazon. Many sellers said that just listing products is driving them crazy. In addition, Wayfair requires sellers to have very strong overseas warehouse processing capabilities, and has relatively high requirements for products and overseas teams. Newbies without competitive advantages should be careful. Moreover, Wayfair strictly checks duplicate listings, so it is not suitable for sellers who sell goods in bulk. Boutique sellers will be relatively popular.

After following the trend and joining these platforms, many sellers quit halfway through.

A Meikeduo seller operates in the Mexican market and recently sold his account and left. According to him, he has been in business for nearly three years, mainly selling low-priced products and following the model of small profits but quick turnover. However, the business is getting bigger and bigger, but the profit is getting lower and lower, and the product profit cycle has ended.

Another operator said that the company is rich and powerful, having worked for Coupang, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, etc. Basically, if someone says something is profitable, the boss will get involved, and in the end it often ends up failing...

"If a company has supply chain and financial advantages, it can try to build more platforms. Otherwise, it is best to choose a suitable platform and dig deeper. Blindly following the trend and entering a new platform will only expose its own shortcomings," said an industry insider.