Jinhua young entrepreneurs closely followed the "going global trend" and opened a SHEIN online store with sales of 28 million yuan in half a year

The recent competition in domestic e-commerce can be described in one word: "white-hot". This is especially true for Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, where "factories" and "e-commerce" are everywhere. The intensity of the game for the existing market has increased.

However, the media also found that in Jinhua, many young entrepreneurs chose to avoid this competitive edge and responded to the call of the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant units to "go global", aiming to do cross-border e-commerce from the beginning. They opened online stores on cross-border platforms such as SHEIN and focused on researching products that meet overseas needs, thus opening up new sales space. During the interview, it was learned that some Jinhua sellers could even sell more than 30,000 pieces of summer and autumn hot-selling products developed for overseas markets in a month. Some people have accumulated sales of more than 28 million yuan in just half a year.

Reverse operation breaks into the new blue ocean, cross-border e-commerce becomes the first choice for young entrepreneurs in Jinhua

On one hand, the global consumer market is getting younger, with Generation Z (usually people born between 1995 and 2009) emerging as more influential consumer decision-makers. On the other hand, the supply side of China's manufacturing industry is getting younger. From the Pearl River Delta in the south to the Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Bay Rim in the north, more and more young people have become the "first generation" of cross-border e-commerce. The young phoenix is ​​more powerful than the old phoenix, and they have successively taken on the heavy burden of the transformation of high-quality development of the industry. They know how to use cross-border e-commerce platforms to innovate channels and expand global sales of products. Some people born after 1995 have even become "pioneers" in the transformation of old factories.

In the view of Liu Yang, a young man born after 1995 who has received several years of professional e-commerce college education , the domestic manufacturing industry has accumulated a strong foundation over the years and still has significant competitive advantages in the international market, especially in his hometown of Jinhua, where production, sales, logistics and warehousing resources are close at hand, which will undoubtedly save a lot of turnover costs. Once the right product track is found, it will be easier to achieve explosive growth.

Some people start their own business on a whim, while others have been planning for a long time. Liu Yang's fate of starting a business began with "school assignment". Liu Yang, who had just entered college as a freshman, was assigned to the school's newly opened "entrepreneurship class". Regardless of whether he was a good boss or not, the pressure of "opening a store to get credits" made him step into the e-commerce industry one step ahead of others, and the threshold of the more complex cross-border e-commerce.

"Although many of my classmates have chosen to open domestic online stores, I don't like to do what others are already doing. I like to try new things," said Liu Yang.

While strolling in Yiwu Trade City, Liu Yang was attracted by the colorful electric toys: "Maybe I didn't play with them enough when I was a child, so I wanted to buy remote-controlled toys and flying toys to try them out myself first."

Although he started out on the traditional American e-commerce website Amazon, when talking about his experience of opening a store on the newly emerging cross-border e-commerce platform SHEIN last year, Liu Yang's biggest feeling was "many young people" and "fast orders."

"Sales opened up immediately. In the second month after the store opened at the end of last year, we sold more than 800,000 yuan. Last month, we sold more than 5 million yuan, and the cumulative sales volume is more than 28 million yuan." According to Liu Yang, his goal this year is to achieve a monthly income of one million US dollars as soon as possible.

As a trade seller with some overseas operation experience, Liu Yang's most regretful investment was that he wanted to build his own overseas warehouse. However, overseas warehouses can only sell in the United States, and the market cannot be fully opened. This thankless attempt made him complain bitterly. Fortunately, SHEIN provides sellers with a mature resource-based operation empowerment solution. Not only did the problem of warehousing and logistics in more than 150 overseas markets get solved at once, but Liu Yang's expertise in product selection and operation was also released.

Through the SHEIN team's cross-border compliance guidance, Liu Yang made up for a lot of industry knowledge that he originally lacked: "We make toys, quality and compliance are very important. SHEIN understands the preferences and standards of different overseas markets better than we do, so we are no longer too worried about business pitfalls."

As a leader in the global toy manufacturing industry, Chinese toys have long occupied about 70% of the global market share, with annual exports of up to US$17 billion. However, unlike the single domestic market, different parts of the world have different regulations and entry barriers for toy imports based on consumer health and safety considerations, and the rules often change. Taking Europe as an example, sellers of electric toys usually have to sign a declaration of conformity DOC, a test certificate, a six-sided drawing, etc. In the Korean market, KC certification is required... These have directly led to an increase in cross-border compliance risks and brought challenges to cross-border practitioners.

With the assistance of SHEIN employees, Liu Yang prepared quality inspection certificates and other materials for his products early on. SHEIN also conducts random checks on product quality and pushes policy and regulatory changes in different national markets to sellers to eliminate operational risks caused by information asymmetry to the greatest extent.

The changing overseas demand has given rise to the development of "flexible productivity" in factories

As the old saying goes, "Practice makes perfect." In the past, only repeated trial and error could give you a chance to get a good idea of ​​the market's taste. But Zhou Weiliang's way of exploring the market is different from most people's. This has to mention the flexible manufacturing and "small orders and quick response" that SHEIN relies on for its success and are recognized and emulated by the industry.

Zhou Weiliang's father has been engaged in clothing manufacturing in Yiwu. Compared with the fiercely competitive and highly saturated clothing industry, the strong demand for pet products overseas gave Zhou Weiliang a brand new entrepreneurial opportunity: using the family's existing experience to develop new products.

Zhou Weiliang, who already has experience in clothing manufacturing, is no stranger to "small orders and quick response", which was originally a major "magic weapon" for SHEIN's independent brand to win the overseas market. Especially since SHEIN deepened its development platform model and deepened its cooperation with industrial belts last year, the methodology and concept of "small orders and quick response" and flexible manufacturing have also spread from the clothing industry to more industrial belts.

After opening a store on SHEIN last year , the training and empowerment provided by SHEIN for industrial belt sellers like Zhou Weiliang inspired the latter. Zhou Weiliang almost "copied" this model to his own supply chain, starting with digital production management, first using digital equipment to arrange production according to the consumption schedule of raw materials - not only did the production efficiency increase several times, but it also successfully reduced the loss of raw materials. He continued to "let go" of small orders to test models: for each new model developed, he would first produce 50 pieces, observe sales feedback for a week, and then arrange subsequent large orders based on this. A factory with digital capabilities is like having a brain installed, which facilitates the timely scheduling of production capacity. Now, even in the most prosperous period, he can easily complete the market's additional orders in just two days.

Another "second generation" in Jinhua, Wu Jinsong, also inherited the factory from the older generation and employs more than 180 people. After running a SHEIN store, he found that African customers only wanted large sizes, while customers in the Middle East and South America only wanted one size, and the demands were very different. After doing "small orders and quick response", his products and inventory can be flexibly adjusted dynamically according to market conditions, and the inventory is always low, unlike his elders who only focused on production and fell into the cycle of " stocking a wave of goods , making a wave of money , and accumulating a batch of inventory " .

"SHEIN's advantage also lies in its digital support for production-oriented sellers. The operation logic and sales order status of the seller page are very clear. Other similar platforms don't know how much they have sold, but the backend management tools provided by the SHEIN platform are more in line with the needs and thinking of sellers." Wu Jinsong said.

In addition to helping to flexibly match changes in market demand, popular products that are screened out through "small orders and quick response" and repeated testing usually have a longer "life cycle."

Zhou Weiliang began to feel that cross-border e-commerce had become a very interesting thing: "A product that has passed its popular season in one region may suddenly become popular in the next region, and the life cycle of a product in the global market can be extended." On his product list , a "donut round nest" has been a hot seller since it went on sale , with more than 30,000 units sold in the past month .

The change in development ideas and the pressure from the competitive situation, as well as the fact that they have seen people around them opening SHEIN stores overseas and making money, have led to reports that many Jinhua bosses who are good at making products are asking people for information, asking friends for introductions, or joining the team of "opening a SHEIN online store" by participating in exhibitions and investment promotion meetings.

The demand for going overseas is booming. Recently, SHEIN launched the 2024 Industrial Belt Investment Plan. It is expected that more than 150 offline exchanges will be held this year, and more than ten landing activities will be held in Jinhua alone. SHEIN continues to go deep into the front line of the industrial belt, popularize cross-border e-commerce information to domestic enterprises and brands, and is committed to helping small and medium-sized enterprises lower the threshold and better set sail for overseas expansion.

Based on the advantages of sellers, precise overseas expansion and professional division of labor with their own strengths

Despite the strong industrial foundation, even in Jinhua and nearby old manufacturing leading cities such as Ningbo and Wenzhou, many small and medium-sized enterprises still lack sufficient awareness or have shortcomings in their capabilities in building "brand power".

During the interview, a young manager of a home decoration products factory provided a common view: "Many of our local bosses know that they are good at making goods, so they just keep doing what they are good at. If they can't do it, they simply don't think about the brand."

"Only know how to make products, but not build brands" is still affecting many operators. This mindset has its rationality and limitations. However, in the long run, only by forming a fertile soil for cultivating brands can Jinhua transform from a "manufacturing city" to a "cross-border e-commerce powerhouse", which requires both increasing revenue and innovative upgrading of corporate brands. The two complement each other.

Currently on the SHEIN platform, whether they are good at making products or want to build brands, sellers in different industries can choose different overseas cooperation models according to their own advantages. "At present, cross-border e-commerce is a 'rigid need' for our company's transformation and development." Liu Yang believes, "In addition, we decided to build a brand to have more added value, better repurchase rate and fan base. Brand is a barrier. Therefore, I will continue to work hard to create a more innovative and competitive product portfolio, build a good store reputation and then develop the brand. This is a direction worth striving for. For this, I need more professional staffing." It is understood that Liu Yang has established a production team of dozens of people and a 6-person e-commerce operation team to fully support the large number of orders and rapid development brought by SHEIN stores.

In March this year , the China International Electronic Commerce Center of the Ministry of Commerce released the "China E-commerce Talent Development Report", pointing out that the e-commerce industry has put forward higher requirements for the development of a multi-level talent training system. Li Mingtao, chief e-commerce expert of the China International Electronic Commerce Center, also emphasized that new formats are the main areas of growth in demand for e-commerce talents, and there is a large talent gap in industries such as live e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce, which has reached 15 million.

The large talent gap further proves the continued popularity of the cross-border e-commerce industry. According to statistics, Jinhua currently has only 31,000 digital high-skilled talents. Jinhua is also accelerating the construction of a high-quality development city for the digital economy and carrying out a number of digital transformation projects. High-skilled talents must not only adapt to the development needs of the digital economy, but will also become the key to the transformation and upgrading of local industrial belts.

All these favorable factors indicate that for companies that are pursuing long-termism, cross-border e-commerce is not a short-term profit outlet, but should be seen as a force for sustainable development. This is also the value of cross-border e-commerce platforms such as SHEIN. By helping sellers overcome geographical, cultural, and experience barriers, they can accurately find their own international customer base and provide more convenient solutions for the global trade of Chinese products.

SHEIN

Entrepreneur

Open a shop