Selling 300,000 in a single month! Sellers in the industry belt frequently receive huge orders on Shopee

According to the data from the General Administration of Customs, in the first half of 2023, China's automobile exports reached 2.341 million units, surpassing Japan for the first time and becoming the world's largest automobile exporter. China's automobile industry is developing rapidly, and the auto parts industry is also entering the fast lane. During the same period, the export value of auto parts reached 300.43 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21%, which is one of the few commodities in the list of key commodities that achieved double-digit growth.

Behind the data carnival is the rapid rise of a large number of cross-border enterprises in the industrial belt. In Ruian, Wenzhou, known as the capital of China's auto parts, local industrial belt enterprises rely on the "cross-border e-commerce + industrial belt" model and take advantage of Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, to seek greater business opportunities in multiple markets in Southeast Asia.

From a small workshop to an auto parts kingdom with an output value of 100 billion yuan, Rui'an's industrial belt has unlimited business opportunities overseas

When talking about auto parts, we have to mention Ruian, a national-level auto parts production base. Relying on this dominant industry, Ruian has developed from an initial small workshop into an auto parts kingdom with an output value of hundreds of billions. Its products have also expanded from the initial screws to cover the entire auto parts industry chain.

Some people say that Ruian's auto parts industry started with a screw. Looking at the development path of Ruian's auto parts industry, this is indeed the case. China Ruiming Holdings was initially a small workshop mainly engaged in OEM production with only 5 workers. Now it has developed into a group enterprise with an annual output value of 1 billion yuan and more than 2,000 employees. Zhejiang Yahoo Auto Parts Co., Ltd. had only 2 machine tools and 5 employees when it first started its business, but now it has become a company with an annual output value of over 700 million yuan... There are many similar cases, which are also a vivid portrayal of the development of Ruian's auto parts industry.

After more than 50 years of development and hard work, Ruian has completed the transformation from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing". At present, there are more than 6,000 auto parts manufacturers in Ruian, with more than 5,000 auto parts varieties. After successfully gaining a foothold in China, local industrial belt sellers began to set their sights on the larger overseas market.

According to data from Grandview Research, the global auto parts market has a compound annual growth rate of 15%, with a trillion-dollar business opportunity. Southeast Asia has captured a large number of sellers with its strong growth in e-commerce and strong car modification culture, becoming the preferred market for sellers in the Ruian industrial belt to go overseas.

A deeper look at the auto and motorcycle parts categories in Southeast Asia shows that markets such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand all have high car or motorcycle ownership , and are growing strongly. Taking Malaysia as an example, Statista data shows that Malaysia has 28.12 million cars, and the local population has high spending power and has developed online consumption habits, so there is huge potential to be developed.

Thousands of orders a day, industry sellers stride into Southeast Asia

Slightly different from sellers who directly go global online, sellers in industrial belts mostly started out offline and then moved online based on development prospects and other factors. Wang Yixin, a benchmark seller from Zhejiang Dingyun Information Technology Co., Ltd., who has 10 years of cross-border experience in auto parts, mentioned: "Before 2010, the company was mainly engaged in B2B business. Realizing the possibilities of the C-end and the potential of the rapid development of the Internet, it turned its attention to the online."

After switching to online, the company focused on modified headlights and other products, with an average monthly order volume of about 20,000. Coincidentally, in Ruian, many sellers in the industrial belt rely on local resources to shift their business focus to online. The official auto parts category manager of Shopee mentioned that there are many sellers specializing in cross-border foreign trade of auto parts. After switching to the Shopee platform, they can sell thousands of orders every day. And they choose to focus on small accessories with good sales. Take the motorcycle oil changer sold by a seller on the platform as an example. The average price is more than 300 yuan. Although the customer unit price is high, the order volume is considerable. Basically, 600 orders can be sold every day. Some sellers even have such sales in just one or two years.

It is not enough to just choose the right category. It is also necessary to streamline SKUs and diversify product sales methods. "After a seller who originally sold European and American car equipment switched to the Southeast Asian market, a single store achieved a monthly sales of nearly 300,000 with 24 SKUs," said the official auto and motorcycle accessories category manager of Shopee. For products such as motorcycle carburetors and spark plugs, they use a variety of sales methods such as combination and single sales to increase product sales while also earning money from Southeast Asian consumers.

Focusing on small accessories in the auto and motorcycle parts category, the sellers in the Ruian Industrial Belt adopt a small, exquisite, and combined product selling method. Relying on the mature local supply chain, the sellers have successfully entered the Southeast Asian market with this strategy and successfully completed the transformation from foreign trade sellers to online sellers.

The auto and motorcycle parts category is booming, and Shopee's hot-selling products are here

A careful study reveals that there are two main reasons why the Ruian industrial belt sellers have been able to achieve rapid development overseas. One is that the global e-commerce market for auto parts and motorcycles has a high growth rate, with an annual compound growth rate of 15%. The other is that the transaction volume of the Shopee platform has been growing steadily and rapidly. The year-on-year growth of auto parts and motorcycle parts products has continued to accelerate, becoming one of the subcategories that the platform will focus on developing in 2023.

Shopee product selection data shows that among the main subcategories, spare parts tools, decoration storage, vehicle equipment, cleaning and care products have shown significant growth, among which vehicle equipment and decoration storage products are the best-selling in Southeast Asia. On the platform, whether it is interior seat covers, mobile phone holders, exterior sticker modification films, rear-view accessories, or motorcycle helmets and other spare parts products, sales are good. In addition, due to the prevalence of motorcycles in Southeast Asia, with an average of 1 to 2 motorcycles per person, there is a great demand for motorcycle-related products, such as small umbrellas that can protect against rain and sun; mobile phone holders with rain covers, and even small umbrellas designed for mobile phones.

Another popular sales direction is the peripheral products of popular models. Previously, after a certain car brand was launched in Thailand, the peripheral car accessories, key sets and other products were sold out after being put on the platform. Due to different habits in different regions, the hot-selling products are also different, such as the hot-selling seat covers in the Philippines, the hot-selling colorful fluorescent stickers in Thailand, and the popular luminous valve cores. Sellers can also refer to them to select products.

Overall, Southeast Asia's auto and motorcycle parts market has multiple advantages such as broad prospects, rapid growth, and small demand differences, while Ruian's industrial belt sellers have industrial belt and supply chain advantages. Combining the two, it is not difficult to see that it is no coincidence that auto and motorcycle parts sellers in Ruian's industrial belt can frequently receive orders on Shopee.

Industrial belt sellers

Shopee

Southeast Asia