2024 cross-border e-commerce starts off hot, Chinese sellers seize new year business opportunities on the SHEIN platform

The cross-border e-commerce industry has received good news at the beginning of the year. CCTV News reported that China's cross-border e-commerce sales network currently covers more than 220 countries and regions around the world, and there are more than 200,000 cross-border e-commerce independent stations. The number of overseas warehouses exceeds 2,400, with an area of ​​more than 25 million square meters. Third-party service providers such as logistics, payment, and express delivery serve tens of thousands of customers around the world.

According to relevant statistics, the export value of cross-border e-commerce in China reached an astonishing 1.83 trillion yuan last year. Since the beginning of this year, fashion accessories factories in Dongguan have received nearly a thousand orders from the United States, the Middle East, and Italy in one day. Batches of exquisite home furnishing products printed with New Year patterns are packed and shipped from Yiwu, Zhejiang. Sports shoes in Jinjiang, Fujian have launched trendy street graffiti styles ... Cross-border sellers of all sizes are vying to start, and overseas markets are sending positive signals of consuming Made in China. In 2024, cross-border e-commerce will run at an "accelerated" pace.

SHEIN's "Small Order, Quick Response" methodology enables e-commerce sellers to expand overseas efficiently

In the past year, China exported 1.83 trillion yuan worth of goods to the global market through cross-border e-commerce, an increase of 19.6%, 2.3 times the level five years ago. Entering the new year and the beginning of spring, the bonus window business opportunities opened by overseas markets to Chinese sellers continue to be released.

Currently, the growth rate of global retail e-commerce is much higher than that of offline retail, and overseas consumers are shifting their shopping to online at an accelerated pace. According to a report by Satista, a leading global research and statistics company , e-commerce sales in emerging markets such as India, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Italy have all increased by more than 10%, and global retail e-commerce sales will exceed US$6 trillion in 2024.

As online shopping becomes fashionable in the eyes of consumers in overseas emerging markets, many people have gone from attending shopping festivals a few times a year to shopping online every day or every week. The latest list released by the authoritative organization PYMNTS also shows that the Chinese cross-border platform SHEIN has topped the global shopping app rankings. This is the sixth consecutive month that SHEIN has topped the list. SHEIN's increasing market coverage and user influence overseas will bring broad opportunities for domestic cross-border sellers to go overseas in the new year.

"The overall sales in January this year were quite good. The sales of several styles have doubled compared to last year, and several items have also made it to the top of the sales list." Yin Fangfei, a SHEIN jewelry seller, used to supply goods to domestic Internet celebrities for short video promotion. She relied on mobile phone screenshots and Excel spreadsheets, arranged production based on memory and experience, or made whatever the customer asked. In the past, she always felt that there was a layer between her and the consumers. When she encountered a style that sold well, she often had to produce a large amount of goods in a short period of time, but once the trend faded, she would face the problem of overstocking and unsalability.

After joining SHEIN, she took the initiative to pay attention to overseas fashion trends and the characteristics of popular products, and referred to SHEIN's "flexible production" and "small orders and quick response" methodologies, and used the seller's digital backend to organize the production of her own factory, greatly improving the flexibility of supply.

Overseas market guidance helps overseas product innovation

The children's dress sets designed by Guangzhou seller Zhang Linlin have become a hit in the European market in late winter and early spring. With exquisite and elegant embroidery techniques, combined with gauze skirts of different colors and velvet fabrics, Zhang Linlin has made dozens of long-sleeved children's dresses that are both beautiful and warm. With the magnificent shooting background, many new products have sold hundreds of pieces as soon as they were put on the shelves. Overseas consumers showed Zhang Linlin her daughter's buyer show:

"She couldn't wait to put on her dress and started showing it off to her grandparents!"

Zhang Linlin is an expert in children's clothing and formal wear. Since she joined the SHEIN platform a year ago , she has been selling these unique children's clothing overseas. Zhang Linlin told the media: "Foreigners pay more attention to the sense of ceremony, like to celebrate various festivals and like to get together, so they will buy these gorgeous and grand dresses for their children." Compared with other platforms, SHEIN targets more than 100 overseas consumer markets with diverse styles, which creates many possibilities for innovation and experimentation for her products. She said: "We can cover different festival times in different countries to develop and design products, not just during the Spring Festival. After cross-border operations, there is a peak season almost all year round."

Luo Hao, a sneaker seller from Jinjiang, feels the same way. His store now sells more than 1,000 pairs of shoes on SHEIN on average every day. Luo Hao said that the goal for 2024 is to "add another zero" after 1,000, so that cross-border sales will continue to reach new highs.

When the cooperation started, Luo Hao felt that he didn't understand a lot. From the delivery process to preparing goods for shipment, SHEIN's buyers slowly guided him through everything. Luo Hao believes that opening a store on the SHEIN platform can also help him improve his design ability and product quality. His design team will carefully study the materials, colors, and elements of popular shoes overseas, and he even taught himself the style of street graffiti illustrations to give sports shoes and skateboard shoes a new look. At the same time, Luo Hao began to try to customize latex insoles and exquisite shoe boxes with better resilience and higher comfort.

It is reported that Luo Hao's four factories are gearing up for the goals set for this year. The huge cross-border business opportunities have inspired him to continuously innovate products and improve quality. The production capacity of the four factories can hardly cope with the current growing overseas orders.

The "one-stop" empowerment system of cross-border e-commerce platforms is accelerating

At present, China's cross-border e-commerce sales network covers more than 220 countries and regions around the world, with more than 2,400 overseas warehouses covering an area of ​​more than 25 million square meters. Third-party service providers such as logistics, payment, and express delivery serve hundreds of thousands of customers around the world. These overseas infrastructures help sellers share the fruits of the times.

Moreover, as the vanguard in promoting economic development, not only have local governments introduced a number of welfare policies to help the cross-border e-commerce industry accelerate its development, but the "one-stop" empowerment system provided by cross-border e-commerce platforms to cross-border e-commerce sellers is also being built at an accelerated pace.

"Initially, our inventory estimates were conservative and we underestimated SHEIN's rapid sales," said a Zhejiang seller who has opened a store on SHEIN. "Since then, we have improved our inventory control. To meet demand, we have designed and launched hundreds of new styles specifically for SHEIN."

The seller found that consumers on SHEIN are usually younger and more fashion- conscious than typical consumers on traditional e-commerce platforms . “So from a market perspective, this also poses a challenge to us . ” He believes that fortunately, SHEIN employees provided the factory with a lot of guidance on overseas consumer trends, which has been a great help to the company . Only when sellers know how to improve production accuracy and product quality according to the actual needs of overseas markets can they continue to win the hearts of consumers.

In addition, in some industrial belts where sellers on the SHEIN platform gather, SHEIN employees will provide guidance or support for product photography to local sellers, and also organize professional training for some local e-commerce photographers. When sellers cooperate with photographers in the support plan, they only need to provide products and tell the other party to emphasize the desired picture style. There is no need to abstractly describe what feeling you want or how to match the scenery. The other party can quickly take photos that meet the corresponding style and meet the aesthetics of overseas consumers.

Not only do sellers make a lot of money, but for consumers, SHEIN's shopping website has also become their "happy home": whether it is a dress that adds beauty, accessories that set off social networks, or new and unique treasures that can stun friends on April Fools' Day and Halloween... the types of products they can buy from the SHEIN platform are becoming more and more diverse. Statistics from overseas institutions show that among American fashion online shoppers, 70% are familiar with SHEIN, and almost one-third of them say they like this Chinese company founded in 2008. Judging from usage share and social popularity indicators, SHEIN has won the preference of most American fashion online shoppers.

"If you pay attention to the number of young consumers attracted by SHEIN, you will find that it has been loved by tens of millions of people. What's more exciting is that even if you can only attract one-tenth or one percent of them, you have won," a founder of a cross-border brand told the media.

Cross-border e-commerce

SHEIN

Seller