Cross-border e-commerce has entered the deep water zone, and all the sellers who break the circle are playing this card

Playing the "trust" card has become the key for Chinese companies to succeed overseas .

my country's cross-border e-commerce has developed rapidly, and the scale of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports has increased tenfold in five years, reaching 2.1 trillion yuan in 2022. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, my country's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.1 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 16%. Related companies have also increased. Tianyancha data shows that there are currently more than 67,000 cross-border e-commerce related companies in my country, of which more than 8,380 were newly registered in the first half of this year, an increase of 30% compared with the same period last year.

This series of data shows that the overseas market has great potential, but also indicates that the overseas market is becoming more and more crowded. As competition becomes increasingly fierce, there is a question that sellers have to consider: how to stand out from the crowd of competitors.

Cross-border industries are entering deep waters, and overseas companies are in urgent need of breakthroughs

Talking about the cross-border e-commerce market ten years ago, some people said: "You can make money as soon as you come in." Although there is some exaggeration, it is not difficult to see its benefits.

However, the era of wild growth of cross-border e-commerce has gone, and the industry has entered a deep water zone. Privacy and compliance issues have become prominent, advertising ROI growth has slowed down, and low-price strategies have become ineffective. The impact of the fading dividends of the times can be clearly seen in listed cross-border e-commerce companies.

For example, "Kaibeitong", known as the first A-share cross-border e-commerce stock, reached its peak performance in 2018 (21.534 billion yuan), and has been declining for many years since then. In 2022, its revenue was 7.254 billion yuan, only one-third of its peak.

Not only that, there have also been new changes on the consumer side. A survey shows that 72% of consumers said they would consider more when consuming than before, and 40% of consumers said they would consume less impulsively. Consumers are no longer suffering from having less, but are trapped by having more. Consumption decisions have become more cautious, and impulsive consumption is decreasing.

Opportunities also exist. We have found that 73% of users have tried new brands in the past 12 months, which provides an excellent opportunity for Chinese overseas brands to "break the circle" and enter the vision of global users. Facing cautious consumers, overseas companies can only achieve growth by winning their trust.

In the process of making consumption decisions, users increasingly rely on videos to obtain information and help them make decisions. Data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, 50% of consumers said they had watched relevant videos of the product/brand before making consumption decisions, an increase of 47% over the same period in 2019. Videos play a key role in influencing consumer intentions, and their influence is growing year by year.

This means that high-quality video interaction will become the best way for companies to win the trust of consumers. Through video advertising, companies can effectively communicate with consumers with high intentions, build user trust, and achieve real profit growth.

However, with so many overseas video platforms, where can Chinese companies achieve the best marketing results with the least effort? YouTube is the only choice.

As the world's largest and most mainstream video sharing platform, YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users and a huge traffic pool. Most importantly, YouTube is the world's second largest search engine, and is twice as likely to be used to find product and brand information as any other video platform and social media. In other words, users on YouTube have a very strong intention and do not watch aimlessly. In addition to "passively" gaining inspiration, they will also "actively" search for information that helps them make consumption decisions.

400,000 views quickly accumulated, and some companies have tasted the sweetness of YouTube

With the explosion of video social media, why does YouTube always take the lead in user trust? The reason is that it meets the diverse needs of users:

On the one hand, it satisfies diverse content preferences, from mainstream to niche. The YouTube platform covers the most popular content in the world and is the place where the world's hottest cultural trends and the most important moments take place. Users regard it as an archive of cultural trends, and continue to participate in these moments, while also engaging in heated discussions about these cultures and trends. This set of survey data is enough to show users' love and dependence on it: 58% of users believe that YouTube is the place where important trends and important moments take place, 68% of users believe that without YouTube they would miss many important events, and 76% of users say that YouTube is the best platform for them to get different perspectives on a topic.

At the same time, from mobile phones to large screens, adapting to viewing scenarios from single to multiple people, YouTube has the most comprehensive cross-screen experience, which can meet users' different viewing scenarios. Whether listening to music alone, watching shorts videos, or sitting in front of the TV with family and friends, YouTube has truly become a part of users' lives.

YouTube has always not only met users' diverse viewing needs, but also provided overseas companies with opportunities to create deep connections with target users. If companies want to effectively unlock these users, they can take the following approaches:

1. Use AI-enabled advertising on YouTube to precisely reach users and present the information they need most to the right people at the right time.

Users' viewing behavior on YouTube is complex. Coupled with the surge in video viewing options and changes in the way people consume content, it is very difficult to find the right audience and attract their attention through relevant content. AI-enabled YouTube marketing solutions can solve this problem. At different stages of user "cognition-consideration-conversion", AI-enabled marketing can help overseas companies gain insight into the motivations of target users and accurately push advertising formats that best meet users' current needs. Overseas companies can choose the most suitable products based on their own marketing goals.

Promote conversion, increase consideration, build awareness, what marketing solutions does YouTube have at different stages? Long press/scan the QR code below to learn more.

Second, use popular content and important moments on YouTube to create buzz for brands and products. Keep up with global trends on the platform and effectively "show presence" for brands and products. Whether the target audience of the company is fashion gurus, fans of technology products or gamers, YouTube Select will help companies place ads on the most popular video content watched by the target audience to ensure maximum reach.

3. Establish your own official channel on YouTube and attract more traffic through content marketing. Many companies with a keen sense of smell have already laid out YouTube to unlock highly interactive traffic, and some of them have already tasted the sweetness. Last year, a video of the batch processing process of a Chinese umbrella factory suddenly became popular on YouTube, prying more than 400,000 views in a short period of time. The video does not have a cool editing method or unique content, but it is simply a record, but it has received a lot of attention. Looking at its comments, many users said that the production process was very interesting and enjoyable, and some even asked for the factory's contact information.

At present, a realistic problem that Chinese companies going overseas have to face is that established overseas brands/consumers do not think that Chinese brands are as good value for money as overseas brands. In order to establish a brand image among global audiences, companies must build trust. By building brand assets on a trusted platform like YouTube, companies can reach relevant new audiences and establish meaningful connections. Aren’t you planning yet?