As Black Friday approaches, sellers rush to join SHEIN platform

As October approaches , the peak season for the global retail market is approaching, with grand shopping festivals such as Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday and Christmas coming up. Chinese products have taken up an increasingly important market share during overseas shopping seasons, and driven by high inflation in the European and American markets, Chinese products are increasingly favored by overseas consumers.

It is reported that, especially since July and August this year , new cross-border sellers who want to "go overseas to have a look" have been more active than in previous years. Some of them are already well-known brands, and some come from traditional Chinese manufacturing industries. They hope to catch the last overseas ship of the year before the "Black Friday" promotion by settling in overseas platforms such as SHEIN, and actively prepare to win the " first pot of gold " in overseas markets .

Domestic "sea-going groups" are busy preparing for battle

The overseas consumer market has huge potential , and e-commerce consumption is growing rapidly. The "Black Friday Cyber ​​Monday" promotion has maintained a growth trend in recent years , boosting the confidence of merchants who have already gone overseas or are planning to go overseas . Taking the US market as an example, according to the forecast of Adobe Analytics , a well-known data analysis platform , US online shopping sales will reach US$221.8 billion during this shopping season (November 1 to December 31). According to the latest forecast of Deloitte, a well-known overseas consulting firm , e-commerce channel sales will achieve an annual growth of 10.3%-12.8% during the holiday season at the end of 2023, reaching US$278 billion to US$284 billion - this forecast figure is almost equivalent to the full network transaction capacity of four domestic "Double 11" promotions.

Among the many ways to go overseas, going overseas through cross-border e-commerce platforms is currently a popular option among China's cross-border sellers . Participating in the "Black Friday Cyber ​​Monday" is also recognized by the entire network as the most powerful performance springboard of the year . It is an important opportunity to quickly test and train sellers ' product and brand strength in competing in the international market , and it is a must-win for cross-border trade.

SHEIN initially started out as its own clothing brand. Over the years, it has built up a large young user base and precise platform traffic in the fashion field, and has directly served markets in more than 150 countries around the world . Currently, SHEIN also provides platform sellers with "platform multi-mode" overseas options including "agent operation" and "independent operation", supporting third-party sellers at different development stages and advantages to tap into the international market, and helping different types of sellers to join the "Black Friday" promotion competition as soon as possible.

Specifically, for many small and medium-sized sellers who originally had no overseas sales and operation experience , the one-stop "agent operation" overseas model provided by the SHEIN platform is very popular : sellers only need to focus on the product links they are good at, and the platform provides services including product operation, warehousing, logistics, customer service, and after-sales, so that sellers can easily jump into the new international blue ocean without any worries. Now , sellers who have settled in the SHEIN platform and choose the "agent operation" method can also enjoy zero commission , zero promotion, and zero operating costs for a limited time, which is in an excellent settlement stage .

For sellers and brands that already have independent operation capabilities , after choosing SHEIN's "independent operation" model, they can manage product selection, product listing, market strategy , sales, inventory, logistics, etc. on their own . SHEIN empowers sellers and brands to further grow through platform resources and successful experience in brand building .

The hundreds of thousands of sock machines in Datang Town, Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province, China are squeaking louder than usual, and Guan Lin's sock factory production line is also running twice as busy as usual . " Black Friday" plus the upcoming cold winter in the northern hemisphere is a good time for China's sock exports.

This year is the fourth year that Guan Lin, the owner of a sock factory, has participated in the Black Friday promotion through the SHEIN platform. Guan Lin originally only worked in the domestic market, but decided to go overseas after the epidemic, and chose SHEIN as her first stop . In Guan Lin's account book, the first thing to consider when choosing a platform to cooperate is the order volume, and she is very satisfied with the sales performance after entering SHEIN . Guan Lin said that although she only tried to launch more than 30 styles at the beginning , and the order volume was only one or two orders, under the strategic guidance of the platform buyers , hot styles began to appear in the second month , and the return orders reached several thousand pieces. After operating for one or two years, Guan Lin's average monthly transaction volume has reached 1.4 million, and during last year's "Black Friday", the transaction volume exceeded 2.1 million . On the eve of this year 's "Black Friday", based on her recent sales growth, Guan Lin decided to decisively stock up to 3 million.

The seller service provided by SHEIN also helped Guan Lin solve many problems. For example , it took the initiative to help Guan Lin deepen her understanding of overseas market characteristics and consumption habits, and helped her deal with various new problems caused by differentiated overseas laws and regulations, tariff changes, and other import and export policies. These greatly reduced Guan Lin's burden.

In terms of the enlightenment of overseas consumers , the buyers of the SHEIN platform are like the " guides " of Zhao Ke , a seller in the pet accessories category . They share a lot of ideas with him on popular trends and product selection , which makes up for Zhao Ke's initial shortcomings of not understanding overseas demand . In addition, Zhao Ke is very interested in SHEIN's online training and often participates in it . From a computer novice , he gradually becomes a manager who can interpret the popular codes of the season through business feedback . He can also browse overseas information, think about new directions for factory development , and guide the factory to optimize production . After four months of settlement, Zhao Ke's monthly sales have increased by nearly 60 times . "Cooperating with SHEIN, I have become a person who can think . "

Moreover, it is understood that after entering SHEIN, many overseas sellers have achieved lean growth to varying degrees: a dark horse swimwear brand participated in the "Black Friday" promotion through SHEIN last year, and its sales increased by 116% year-on-year; a niche sports brand achieved a 100% on-time rate of Black Friday stocking orders last year, and at the same time, it well controlled the out-of-stock rate and the rate of negative reviews, increasing sales while greatly reducing production waste. Its own brand competitiveness has become significantly stronger when competing for overseas markets this year. This makes sellers more willing to actively participate in various "Black Friday" training activities organized by SHEIN this year, receive the platform's policy trends, promotion planning, and product selection guidance, and then prepare for safety inventory and prepare sales risk plans for stores. Sellers are full of confidence in sprinting for this year's "Black Friday".

New consumer categories see growth

The vast overseas market has also made popular some emerging consumer product categories exported by China .

Before joining SHEIN, Chen Wang, who was engaged in the photography and video equipment business, had the biggest question about what kind of photography and video products young users, mainly women, would like. This was quite different from the "digital enthusiasts" group he had faced before .

SHEIN's professional team helped , and often discussed product selection and stocking with Chen Wang's team. Considering the personalized needs of overseas users , in addition to Chen Wang's original handheld gimbals, sports cameras and other professional equipment, he also put on the shelves a large number of selfie sticks, fill lights and other products of different materials, colors and configurations , ranging from US$3 to US$300 , which fits the various life shooting needs of young consumers who pursue simple equipment and beautiful effects . "It's right to be close to good-looking and practical." Chen Wang concluded .

Since the initial cooperation, Chen Wang's store has grown from 1,000 orders per month to 8,000 orders, and sales have increased from 100,000 to 520,000 US dollars. He also plans to expand from existing photography accessories to other new products in the consumer electronics category: headphones, speakers, tripods , etc. are all included in his brand list .

For Wang Yu, a seller who also focuses on consumer electronics , what he wants to do most now is to build a digital brand that is oriented towards the international market and still highly competitive . A key word he repeatedly mentioned is "professionalization."

Products must be professional, and behind this is strict control of quality. Wang Yu believes that his original products were not bad, but after coming into contact with the SHEIN platform , his understanding of " quality " has reached a new level. SHEIN's buyers not only provide him with different standards for 3C products in professional markets in multiple overseas countries and regions , but also check the quality inspection report before posting the goods, and conduct quality spot checks after the bulk goods are delivered to the warehouse . " Although we have been doing cross-border business for many years, SHEIN is indeed the most professional in platform quality inspection . "

"Many of my friends are going global through the SHEIN platform , and they regard the platform as the first stop for their products and brands to go global. SHEIN has mature brand experience and now also provides entry benefits. There are too many uncertainties in the development of the international market , and relying on a good platform is a consensus among everyone." said an overseas seller with emotion.

In addition to ensuring quality , how to make products visible to consumers is also a science . The SHEIN team and the seller team have done their homework. In order to make emerging categories of products sell better overseas , SHEIN buyers will plan and arrange appropriate marketing activities to allow sellers to get more additional exposure and enjoy additional benefits. In special category week activities, SHEIN will also link up with overseas social media resources to gain more attention for the products of platform sellers , bringing stronger growth to product sales .

For many Chinese cross-border sellers , "Black Friday" is just a node in their business growth . In the vast track of global trade , there are still many gold mines waiting for them to mine .

When sellers go overseas through the SHEIN platform, they gain the bonus of time and cost of entry , accurate user traffic, and can systematically acquire a set of mature overseas market operation capabilities and brand building capabilities . They can even master the SHEIN-style flexible supply chain with the support of the platform empowerment , use more and better platform resources and experience for their own benefit, enhance their core competitiveness, and become long-term winners.

The "Xiyou Gravity" plan previously released by the SHEIN platform stated that it will focus on helping 10,000 merchants around the world, including China, to achieve annual sales of over one million US dollars in the next three years , and helping 100,000 small and medium-sized merchants to achieve annual sales of 100,000 US dollars.

Recently, SHEIN has launched a national 500-city industrial belt plan , focusing on popular categories such as home furnishings , beauty , menswear , childrenswear , 3C electronics, shoes, accessories and jewelry , to help more high-quality manufacturing and brands go overseas and drive more industrial upgrades .

(At the request of the interviewee, the seller’s name in this article is a pseudonym)

SHEIN

Black Friday

Seller