AliExpress's "semi-hosting" has become a new opportunity for cross-border e-commerce, and many merchants with "monthly income of 10,000 orders" have emerged

AliExpress's "semi-hosting" has become a new opportunity for cross-border e-commerce, and many merchants with "monthly income of 10,000 orders" have emerged

The latest opportunities for cross-border e-commerce in 2024 have emerged.

Since the beginning of the year, AliExpress has continuously increased the investment in "semi-trust", including a number of real cash subsidies. Analysts said that after full trust, the way out for the platform's self-operated sellers (POP sellers) has always attracted much attention, and "semi-trust" is an upgrade of logistics services for these sellers, helping sellers to quickly make up for their shortcomings. With heavy investment, "semi-trust" is expected to become a new outlet this year .

"AliExpress has been issuing announcements for a week in a row, and each announcement is about spending money and providing subsidies, with the main focus being on semi-trusteeship , " said an AliExpress seller from Yiwu.

It is reported that the recent investment directions of AliExpress include:

1. Commission reduction : Semi-managed goods entering the warehouse are 100% free of charge, and JIT delivery can also enjoy a 50% commission reduction ;

2. On-time delivery subsidy : If you deliver on time during the Spring Festival , you will enjoy a subsidy of up to 2 yuan per order;

3. Advance loan for "underwriting" : semi-trusted popular products are put into storage, and 60 % of the loan is made in advance ;

4. Exemption from a series of warehouse fees : For semi-managed goods entering the warehouse, there is no charge for door-to-door collection, no warehouse operation fees, and no warehouse rent.

(AliExpress semi-hosted Spring Festival subsidy measures)

In the view of many AliExpress sellers, this series of actions by the platform sends a clear signal, which is that it hopes to use semi-hosting to upgrade the sellers' logistics standards, reduce the previous low-quality and inefficient logistics fulfillment services as much as possible, and avoid affecting order growth.

Last year, full hosting emerged and became the "standard configuration" of cross-border e-commerce platforms, but not all merchants are suitable for full hosting. AliExpress obviously does not want to give up this group of traditional POP sellers. The main "gap" between POP sellers and full hosting sellers lies in logistics services, so semi-hosting is used to solve problems in the logistics link and to bring the platforms together with a unified mindset.

In terms of form and operation, there is no difference between semi-hosted merchants and third-party merchants , and the ownership of goods and operation rights still belong to the merchants . The only change is that when the goods are released, they are published using semi-hosted templates.

According to previous media reports, many AliExpress merchants' semi-hosted products have achieved rapid sales growth, and the number of semi-hosted inquiries has increased five times month-on-month .

Chushou Technology is a merchant that joined semi-hosting during the trial operation period. Previously, it adopted the traditional business model on AliExpress. After hearing that semi-hosting was specifically designed to solve logistics problems for traditional cross-border sellers, Chen Mingshun immediately decided to join. In just three months, semi-hosting achieved daily sales of over 10,000 orders.

In Chen Mingshun's view, any new model of an e-commerce platform has a window period of several months for the outside world to understand it. This opportunity is for those merchants who act quickly. The faster they act, the faster they will receive orders. "Semi-hosting is not as complicated as imagined. It is just to upgrade the logistics for merchants, and everything else is the same."

(AliExpress semi-hosting brought growth, and many merchants increased their inventory)

The upcoming Spring Festival has also become the first "small test" for semi-managed logistics services . In order to help merchants "win without effort" during the Spring Festival and steadily receive overseas orders, Cainiao announced that it will jointly launch multiple warehouse entry guarantees with AliExpress to start the Spring Festival cross-border logistics defense war.

Relying on semi-hosting services, during the preparation period for this year's Spring Festival, the inventory volume of Cainiao and AliExpress's preferred warehouses increased by 600% year-on-year .

A tool accessories merchant on AliExpress said that after joining the semi-hosting service, traffic and transactions increased significantly, especially in January, when the number of orders was 2 to 3 times the original. Merchants are promoting more goods to enter the semi-hosting service, actively preparing stocks, and increasing warehousing efforts.

AliExpress

Semi-hosting