On August 18th, 2024 China (Guangzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Fair (hereinafter referred to as "Cross-border Fair") came to an end. Near the closure, Liu Gang, the founder of the cross-border spot alliance of Zhongshan Lighting Factory, finally breathed a sigh of relief from his busyness. Looking back on the three days of participation, Liu Gang said: "The negotiation area is packed, and more than a dozen buyers have reached cooperation intentions."
In the live broadcast room, Jack (a pseudonym), an anchor from Britain, gushed about the sweeping robot made in China. "The audience is enthusiastic! I like to recommend good quality products to friends all over the world through live broadcast. "
For the participating suppliers, this is a "feast": Ms. Wang, who has been engaged in foreign trade business for many years, took the first step of "getting an electric shock" and initially finalized the cooperation platform and service providers in all aspects; Zhongshan Lighting, Foshan Home Furnishing and other industrial belts participated in the exhibition, and jointly expanded overseas markets through cross-border e-commerce.
For exhibitors and service providers, this is a stage for "showing" new ideas: Amazon opens stores around the world with one-stop high-quality sea-going solutions; Ali International’s AI foreign trade product upgrade has greatly lowered the threshold for users; SHEIN (Xiyin) launched the "semi-hosting" mode, which has attracted the attention of many sea sellers.
According to the organizer’s statistics, the cumulative number of visitors during this cross-trade fair exceeded 56,000, an increase of 31,000 compared with 2023, with an increase of 123%. It has become a national cross-border e-commerce exhibition with the largest number of participating platforms, the most concentrated head platform and the most complete industrial chain among similar exhibitions in China.
From going it alone to "holding a group" to going out to sea, from barbaric growth to compliance management, from traditional European and American markets to emerging markets … Through the fiery observation of industry trends across trade fairs, cross-border e-commerce has stood at a critical juncture after ten years of standardized development, and is heading for higher quality development.
"Holding a group" goes out to sea to become the mainstream
Cross-border e-commerce empowers industrial belt development
Retro-style fan lamps, simple wall lamps and dazzling chandeliers … Walking into the booth of Zhongshan Lighting Factory’s cross-border spot alliance of nearly 200 square meters, all kinds of exquisite lighting products are dizzying.
Zhongshan’s "Lamp Capital Manufacturing" is famous all over the world. In recent years, the traditional main markets for lighting export, such as Europe and the United States, are affected by high inflation and destocking cycle, and traditional trade factories are facing transformation pressure. Liu Gang observed that the lighting products exported to Europe and the United States are bulky, the price of single products is relatively high, and the product styles are rich. If enterprises use containers to go to sea in the traditional way, the logistics and overseas storage costs are high, and it is difficult for a company’s products to meet all the needs of consumers.
"Spot-this is the key word most consulted by customers at cross-trade fairs." Liu Gang observed that cross-border e-commerce has reshaped the consumption habits of consumers around the world, and the process of traditional foreign trade from distributor procurement to overseas listing has been several months, which has been unable to meet the market demand.
The cross-border spot alliance of Zhongshan Lighting Factory initiated by Liu Gang solved these pain points through "holding the group". Taking the American market as an example, the different products of the alliance member enterprises are "assembled" to the local warehouse, and then the distributor provides the spot service.
This supply chain front-end approach also brings benefits to manufacturers. Manufacturers will ship a small number of new products abroad to "test the water". Once the sales volume is good and qualified for explosion, they will increase production, effectively reducing risks and improving profits, and opening up new development space for Zhongshan lighting industry.
The reporter observed that it is becoming an important trend for cross-border e-commerce to deal with overseas market risks by combining the characteristics of regional industrial belts.
Guangdong is rich in industrial belt resources. Cross-border e-commerce, as a concrete manifestation of new quality productivity in the trade field, has effectively promoted the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry, constantly empowered industrial development, and "cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt" has been strongly combined to form a good "chemical reaction".
During this cross-trade fair, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce released seven exemplary and representative "cross-border e-commerce empowerment industry development and innovation cases", including: SHEIN’s "Hope Gravitation" million sellers and the national 500-city industrial belt going out to sea plan, Hongteng Group’s Xiaoyan cloud platform empowering toy industry to go out to sea, Doraemon’s cross-border e-commerce empowering digital Silk Road and so on.
Zhao Xin speed skater, a partner of Guangzhou Doraemon Technology Co., Ltd., paid special attention to the opportunities of going to sea in the industrial belts such as clothing, toys and household appliances. "We are deeply involved in the Middle East market. Through the analysis of sales big data and the in-depth understanding of social culture by the local R&D team, we have successfully transformed Guangdong’s inexpensive products into" explosive products "in the Middle East market. In the first half of this year, 153 products have been transformed, with sales approaching 400 million yuan. "
Take the French fries machine as an example. In the past, the products exported by manufacturers to Europe and the United States could only fry 3-4 people, but the families in the Middle East countries were large, so Doraemon’s joint suppliers carried out all-round transformation of the products. "Now this product has exploded in the Middle East and can sell one or two thousand units a week." Zhao Xin speed skater said.
Guangzhou Baomi Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on the export of large pieces of furniture, putting products in overseas warehouses, and delivering them to consumers after the platform receives orders. Tang Weiwei, the company’s chief financial officer, introduced that through digital empowerment, the company formulated production and management standards for export products, reduced the risk of returning large furniture, and realized the "small order and quick response" model in the furniture field.
"At this year’s cross-trade fair, government organizations from other provinces brought more industrial belts. Local governments pay more and more attention to the development of industrial belts and vigorously support local cross-border e-commerce, forming a virtuous circle and promoting industrial upgrading. " Chen Danfeng, chairman and general manager of Fujian Huiyuan Culture Development Group Co., Ltd. said.
Taking Xinjiang exhibition area as an example, Urumqi, Horgos and Alashankou cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas were collectively unveiled, and 23 key cross-border e-commerce enterprises displayed various Xinjiang specialty products. Chinese-funded foreign exchange earning (Xinjiang) Digital Technology Co., Ltd. has received cooperation intentions from many enterprises. "We are committed to helping domestic enterprises enter the Central Asian market, and China manufacturing is extremely competitive in the local area." Yang Zeliang, general manager of the company, said.
The reporter learned that the Xinjiang delegation participating in the exhibition has docked more than 1,000 partners and reached an intentional cooperation agreement with an amount of more than 8 million yuan.
Big platform brings forth new ideas.
New mode and excellent service drive industry upgrading.
"How to cross the language barrier in cross-border goods selling", "Can AI help us to get new products quickly", "We are not in the clothing industry, can we also adopt the mode of" small orders and quick reaction "…… At this cross-border trade fair, the booths on the head platforms of various cross-border e-commerce companies are very popular, and the sellers who come to consult are in an endless stream.
This year’s cross-fair head platform is gathered together, which is the exhibition with the largest number of participating platforms, the most concentrated head platforms and the largest participation investment among similar exhibitions in China. Nearly 40 cross-border e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon Global Store, TikTok Tiktok, Wal-Mart and eBay, participated in the exhibition.
Entering the booth of Ali International, new applications such as AI business assistant and AI customer service attracted the attention of many sellers.
"Since the beginning of this year, we have observed that global trade is entering a new round of growth, and the online trend brought about by technology is more significant." Qiu Zongbing, general manager of Nanyue Region of Ali International Station, told the reporter that the application of AI in foreign trade has increased rapidly. There are 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises around the world ordering to use AI tools of Ali International Station for foreign trade, and the overseas exposure of products optimized by AI has increased by 37%.
Qiu Zongbing introduced that since last year, Ali International Station has taken the lead in launching a series of AI foreign trade products, simplifying the complicated workflow of foreign trade, and using intelligent methods to allow merchants to quickly release goods, generate product descriptions and maps, and even conduct AI business negotiation reception.
"Our salesman and AI have PK, and the last link of the salesman takes about 20 minutes, and AI only takes two minutes." Lv Hongwei, co-founder of Hebei Hangfa Technology Co., Ltd., said that the tedious and repetitive work of distributing products is basically handed over to AI business assistants.
At this year’s cross-trade fair, Amazon opened a shop around the world with a one-stop high-quality sea-going solution, and through the overall solution of Amazon supply chain, it helped sellers to directly deliver goods from manufacturers to customers all over the world in one stop.
SHEIN’s unique dual mode of "independent brand+platform" has attracted the attention of high-quality supply chain enterprises and brand merchants.
"We have a perfect supplier management and training system to provide all-round support for suppliers and achieve win-win cooperation." At this cross-trade fair, the investment promotion personnel introduced the supplier training mechanism of SHEIN’s own brand, which enabled suppliers to grow and enhance their competitiveness in all directions.
Specifically, for the probation supplier, the teaching specialist of SHEIN’s own brand will teach one by one, and carry out professional guidance with "pit-avoiding cheats" to let new suppliers get started quickly; For the growing suppliers, we should cultivate them from the perspectives of supply chain integration, system support, operation and management, and gather the top resources sharing support in the industry to help them grow rapidly; For core suppliers, project-based training, resource focus and business empowerment will be carried out to promote them to become the benchmark of industry suppliers.
"The head platform of cross-border e-commerce is constantly innovating in technology and mode, which makes the threshold and cost of cross-border business lower and lower, and also makes more good products made in China go global. The technical threshold has been lowered, but the full competition in the industry also poses a higher challenge to the seller’s business thinking, product selection strategy and operational ability. " Chen Danfeng said.
Grab the beach in emerging markets
Expand the blue ocean by combining industrial advantages
In recent years, overseas emerging e-commerce platforms have emerged and grown rapidly. Shopee, Lazada, Mercado Libre and other platforms have developed strongly in Southeast Asia, Latin America and other markets, and they have also emerged at this cross-trade fair.
Entering the emerging platform exhibition area established for the first time in the cross-trade fair, 25 emerging platforms, including Jumia in Africa, Joom in Russia and Meikeduo in Latin America, have been unveiled, and sellers have more choices to go to the emerging market "Tuolanhai".
Coupang Kupeng is a cross-border e-commerce platform focusing on the Korean market. "In the past two years, the number of China enterprises stationed on our platform has increased significantly." The person in charge of the platform said that China products have a wide demand in the Korean market in recent years, especially consumer goods represented by 3C electronics, which are deeply loved by local young consumers. They hope to provide more support for China enterprises to go to South Korea.
Last year, eMAG, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Europe, officially entered China for investment. "At present, the number of China enterprises stationed on our platform has increased significantly. It can be seen that the Southeast European market is still an oasis for China sellers, which is also the biggest feeling of our participation in the cross-trade fair." Yang Jian, the person in charge of on-site investment promotion of the platform, said.
The rise of many emerging platforms has benefited from the huge potential and strong development momentum of emerging markets. The White Paper on the Development Trend of Cross-border Export E-commerce in China in 2024 released by Amazon Global Store shows that the compound annual growth rate of retail e-commerce in Latin America reached 29% from 2019 to 2023, showing a strong growth momentum, and Central and Eastern Europe also showed a vigorous development trend, with a growth rate of 28.3%. In addition, the Middle East and Africa also achieved 27.1% growth, and emerging markets are becoming a new world of cross-border e-commerce.
On the other hand, the development of cross-border e-commerce in emerging markets has also brought fire to video delivery, live delivery, low-cost group purchase and other formats.
"With the popularity of short video platforms such as TikTok in Tik Tok, more and more businesses are paying attention to and investing in overseas short video platforms. Especially in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Russia, there is still a lot of market space to be explored. " Justin, founder of Cyberlack platform focusing on cross-border e-commerce marketing services, said.
The RCEP Country Guide for Cross-border E-commerce (Going to Sea) compiled by Guangdong Network Business Association puts forward that products such as clothing, 3C, beauty cosmetics and daily chemicals have become the mainstream in RCEP member countries, which is highly coincident with Guangdong’s advantageous industries.
Taking advantage of the development of cross-border e-commerce, Guangdong enterprises have increased their layout of emerging markets. Ruida Electronics from Dongguan is a traditional foreign trade enterprise with a history of more than 30 years, and its orders mainly come from Europe and America. "In recent years, traditional channels have been affected by multiple factors and the competition has become more intense." The business manager of the company said, "Through cross-border e-commerce, we have opened up customers from new markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East and India, and in recent years, we have maintained sales growth of more than 15% every year."
Nanfang Daily reporter Tang Zikai Tang Yabing Yang Tianzhi Huang Shuming zhangyan