Sellers in the industry are busy going overseas, betting on long-termism with flexible supply on the SHEIN platform

The era of wild growth of cross-border e-commerce came to an end in 2022, and the industry entered a new stage of more mature and stable development. Cross-border sellers are generally optimistic about continued growth in 2024. On the one hand, the inflation level in the European and American markets continues to cool down; on the other hand, shipping costs continue to decline, port efficiency improves, and sellers' logistics troubles are greatly reduced. In addition, with the relaxation of domestic epidemic control policies, uncertainties have been relatively reduced.

As a number of cross-border e-commerce companies continue to increase their investment in business expansion, sellers in industrial belts have found the golden key to open the international market on platforms such as SHEIN.

Find the golden key to open the international market at SHEIN

Cosmetic contact lenses, cartoon stationery, wigs ... these unexpected niche products are creating a consumption boom abroad. Tens of millions of social networking site influencers buy and share these Chinese fashion items, just like discovering a fashion "new world"

Seller Cheng Ao first heard the term "beautified contact lenses" ten years ago. He had no knowledge of cosmetics and could not fully understand why some people liked to put colored transparent soft films in their eyes. But from a business perspective, he realized that the transportation cost of cosmetic contact lenses is low, the repurchase rate is high and the demand is large. Coupled with the prevalence of the "appearance economy", the potential of this niche track in the global market cannot be underestimated.

Colored contact lenses are the common name for colored contact lenses. In addition to correcting vision, colored contact lenses can also enlarge, brighten, change eye color, and even play roles. Compared with eye shadow that is difficult to "discard" for several years, colored contact lenses can allow consumers to quickly show their unique personality and beauty at a very low cost. Especially in the overseas market, a large number of young boys and girls who pursue fashion advocate niche subculture aesthetics. For example, in styles such as Gothic and Lolita, uniquely designed colored contact lenses are an indispensable must-have.

Cheng Ao had tried overseas markets a long time ago. It was not until he officially joined the SHEIN platform in June this year that he felt like "a good horse finally meets a good horse trainer": "Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared, and our advantage is that we have sufficient supply and a wide variety of styles." Cross-border companies like SHEIN are also continuously increasing their business. The SHEIN platform provides sellers with different overseas cooperation models. Through the platform's "agent operation" cooperation model, Cheng Ao saved a lot of preliminary work that needed to be deployed and invested. Sales exceeded US $ 450,000 within three months of the launch of the new product: "We knew SHEIN was popular, but we didn't expect it to be so popular!"

The agency operation model provides sellers with one-stop empowerment services including product operation, warehousing, logistics, customer service, and after-sales . Even cross-border "novices" who lack overseas third-party platform sales and operations have the opportunity to enter the competition calmly. It is worth noting that in addition to the resources and experience accumulated by the platform itself, the S HEIN team's understanding and grasp of fashion trends can help sellers gain insight into consumer preferences on the platform, allowing new sellers' new products to quickly go viral.

For example, as early as September this year, the S HEIN team shared Halloween-related elements and color schemes with sellers. This festival, in which Western consumers are keen on cosplay, is the perfect time for contact lens sellers to make efforts. " SHEIN's buyers gave us some overseas trends and asked us to pay attention to Halloween elements and styles. As a result, all the new Halloween styles we tested were sold out . " By collecting comments and feedback from consumers on the S HEIN platform, Cheng Ao found the "golden key" to open the overseas market. Not only can he sell the goods, but he can also truly understand the rhythm and preferences of the overseas market and truly expand his business.

The show of overseas brands: Grasping users means seizing the future

For sellers with mature production capacity and rich experience, the S HEIN platform provides a cross-border channel for fast sales and easy transactions. For companies that hope to go overseas as brands, S HEIN is more like a large-scale show, projecting the brand effect on Chinese-made products. "Can I create my own brand on the SHEIN platform?" This is the first question Chang Ruoran asked SHEIN buyers. What Chang Ruoran didn't expect was that S HEIN not only welcomed independent brands to settle in, but also helped her brand complete the upgrade from start-up to in-depth overseas market: from stores to products, to packaging design and visual presentation, her logo is printed on every picture of every bag.

Although he had received orders from overseas customers before, Chang Ruoran always felt that he "did not understand the overseas market well enough". Traditional foreign trade orders did not allow sellers to directly obtain feedback from consumers, which made Chang Ruoran, who wanted to build a brand, often feel passive.

It was not until she joined the SHEIN platform that Chang Ruoran felt that she had entered the "fashion circle". "We may test 30-40 styles on the SHEIN platform in a month, and they can cover different countries and regions. It attracts us to constantly innovate new styles." Even for popular styles, Chang Ruoran will continue to optimize the bulk products. For example, whether the opening of the bag is big enough, whether the hidden buckle is tight enough, whether the shoulder strap can be longer, and even the color of the edge oil and zipper cloth will be adjusted according to user reviews.

A large number of girls from all over the world can give Chang Ruoran the "user feedback" she wants in a very short time. Combined with the SHEIN team's capture and empowerment of trends, it helps Chang polish her products and designs to be more mature. The reason why SHEIN is so familiar with the trends in the global market is inseparable from its long-term intensive cultivation of overseas markets.

By serving consumers in more than 150 countries and regions overseas, S HEIN not only connects with consumers within the site, but also interacts frequently with fashion-enthusiastic fans around the world on social media platforms outside the site.

According to the latest survey results released by Piper Sandler, a research organization , SHEIN ranked second (12%) among Piper Sandler's most popular shopping websites for young Americans, and fourth (3%) among young Americans' most popular clothing brands. Chinese sellers and brands like Cheng Ao and Chang Ruoran can also benefit from SHEIN 's overseas fashion influence.

The direction of industrial upgrading: betting on long-termism with "flexible supply"

"The styles that are popular in China are not so popular abroad." Stationery seller Wang Qihua did not know what the overseas market was like at first. SHEIN buyers sent suggestions on styles, from the color, pattern and style of the selected products to the important festivals overseas, Wang Qihua began to build a basic concept of the overseas market.

He replaced the products with more colorful and lively cartoons, promoted popular products during the "back to school season" activities, added distinctive style elements during events such as Halloween and Christmas, and gradually kept up with the user preferences and rhythm of overseas platforms: "We now have the most American customers on our platform. Many of them are young students or recent graduates. They have their own rich aesthetic sense for stationery. They want good-looking things, but they can't be too expensive."

With a basic understanding of overseas users, Wang Qihua's real transformation lies in opening and testing models in a targeted manner based on the characteristics of platform users. He closely follows the trend of buyers to select products, and then returns orders and effectively prepares stocks based on the sales trend feedback of the platform. This flexible supply model has not only been developed and applied in SHEIN's self-operated clothing supply chain sector, but has also been deepened into more industries through SHEIN's empowerment in the platform model. Wang Qihua, who owns his own factory, has maximized the advantages of a flexible supply chain. Less than half a year after joining the SHEIN platform, Wang Qihua's products were able to achieve a daily sales order volume of 1,000-2,000 on the platform.

Especially during the "back to school season" and the "Black Friday" shopping carnival, sellers who can predict market demand can accurately stock up, neither too much nor too little, so as not to lose money due to production not keeping up, nor to waste due to excessive stocking. Wang Qihua initially only stocked two weeks of goods, and then gradually increased the stock to 4-6 weeks. He was originally nervous and sold all the goods: "I don't have a clue when I try to figure it out on my own. If I don't stock up enough, I'm afraid of backlogs. It's much more reassuring to have someone with me." Later, combined with the sales trends on the SHEIN platform, more stock was prepared for potential hot-selling products, and the production rhythm was flexibly adjusted according to sales data feedback. In the busiest sales season, monthly sales exceeded US$ 900,000 , nearly 100 times more than in the early days of settlement.

For small commodity sellers like Wang Qihua, the value of cooperating with S HEIN is far more than just adding a sales channel. It is also about truly grasping the balance between the supply side and the demand side, and completing the flexible digital upgrade "painlessly". When SHEIN's self-operated model runs through the "small order and quick response" model, this methodology has spread from the clothing industry to more manufacturing industries, and is being continuously copied, learned, upgraded and iterated. It is gradually becoming the common internal strength of "Made in China", allowing high-quality and cost-effective products to be continuously created and produced.

In the wave of going overseas, there is no shortage of speculators who follow the trend to make quick money, but what is lacking are those who stick to the original intention of the product and pursue long-termism. The market will examine the value and strength of Made in China with a fair eye.

SHEIN

Flexible supply

Long-termism