In 2020, the global online sales volume reached US $2.8 trillion, and this year, this figure is expected to grow to US $4.8 trillion. By 2023, cross-border consumption will account for 17% of global online sales, reaching US $736billion, about 4.7 trillion yuan.
Moreover, with the development of cross-border e-commerce, China has now become the world's largest cross-border B2C importer and exporter, and made in China is going global.
But behind the surface of all this prosperity, there is still a problem. For most manufacturing enterprises in China, the B2C e-commerce platform model, countless products and hundreds of stores are constantly changing all the time.
Such e-commerce business model will usually have a negative impact on supply and demand, product quality and after-sales service, but these factors are really important for international consumers.
This requires Chinese enterprises to make corresponding changes to adapt to this platform, so as to seize this opportunity to do a good job in cross-border e-commerce. When changing, enterprises must first clarify three key points.
First, make clear whether your products are really for retail. In short, whether you can use them immediately. Because in the manufacturing industry, many enterprises' orders belong to B2B enterprise purchase orders, but at this stage, cross-border e-commerce platforms are mainly based on B2C retail mode, and B2B orders are not absent, but very few. For example, if an enterprise produces solar energy, the product must be installed by professionals, but it is impossible to install water heaters for people across the sea. Unless the enterprise has its own stores overseas, it is not suitable for cross-border retail.
Second, the order amount of traditional enterprises is large, but the quantity is small. It may be just a few orders a year. But cross border e-commerce is dominated by FMCG with a larger number. In the concept of traditional manufacturing enterprises, it doesn't matter as long as a batch of goods doesn't have large-scale quality problems. However, on the platform of cross-border e-commerce, if a product has defects, it is 100% quality problems for buyers, and enterprises need to pay attention to it.
Third, when traditional enterprises do international trade, they generally focus on shipping, because when the number of orders is too large, shipping is the cheapest way of transportation, but cross-border e-commerce platforms generally have their own overseas warehouses. The first batch of goods are often used to test data and market feedback. If the number is small, they will mainly use air transportation. Only after the product sales are stable will they use shipping, which is also a way of thinking that enterprises need to change.
Cross border e-commerce is a blue ocean, but under this blue ocean, there are countless reefs and torrents. Whether a ship sinks at the bottom of the sea or reaches the other side depends on how the "helmsman" operates.