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2024 is an extremely special year for the cross-border e-commerce industry: the international market is changing rapidly, the top platforms are undergoing numerous changes, sellers are caught in a vortex of internal competition, and overseas users are experiencing consumption downgrades. Cross-border e-commerce has entered an era of low profits. Under low pressure, the main theme of the industry has changed from "high-speed growth" to "steady livelihood", and the rapid market changes have also put forward higher requirements for merchants. Looking back on this year, what fruits have the cross-border sellers reaped in the torrent, and how will they cope with the big test of the new era? At this time of the turn of the year, we have completed this "2024 Cross-border E-commerce Industry Annual Report" , which is committed to summarizing the important trajectories of the cross-border industry in 2024, reviewing the annual performance of cross-border companies, analyzing the opportunities and challenges in 2025, and helping cross-border people capture the trend of going overseas.
The following are highlights from the report: Growth inflection point gradually emerges, and regulatory norms become stricter
According to eMarketer data, global e-commerce sales are expected to reach $6.3 trillion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 8.76%. From 2024 to 2027, global e-commerce sales will continue to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 7.8%, and are expected to reach $8 trillion by 2027. From the perspective of market participants, there will be 27.2 million e-commerce websites in the world by 2024, an increase of 6.16% over the previous year. This means that between 2023 and 2024, 2,685 new e-commerce websites will be launched every day, constantly injecting new vitality into the market. In 2024, as global trade protectionism intensifies, more and more countries will adjust their tariff policies and implement stricter import and export controls. These regulatory policy changes will force Chinese overseas companies to invest more resources in compliance and cope with stricter market access conditions. In addition, there are three characteristics in the e-commerce consumption trend:- Generation Z is gradually becoming the main force of consumption.
- Consumers are paying more and more attention to cost-effectiveness.
- Social e-commerce is rising rapidly.
In 2024, while global e-commerce will see growth in sales and increased market vitality, it will also face the dual trends of a gradual growth inflection point and stricter regulatory norms. The industry is entering a new stage of development.
Sellers' revenue growth is encouraging, but net profit bottlenecks still exist
Survey data shows that more than 60% of sellers said their revenue has increased compared to 2023, among which 18% of sellers’ revenue growth exceeded 50%.
However, with rising costs and intensified price wars, cross-border sellers generally encounter bottlenecks in net profit growth. According to a survey, more than 60% of sellers said that their net profit in 2024 would decline compared with 2023, and 32% of sellers' net profit would decline by more than 50%.
In addition, among the sellers surveyed, more than 50% of cross-border sellers' revenue and profits fell short of expectations in 2024. From the perspective of cost expenditure, the increase in logistics warehousing fees and marketing and advertising fees is the main reason for the compression of sellers' profit margins.
According to the survey results, it is not difficult to see that cross-border sellers encountered a complex situation of revenue growth and net profit decline in 2024. Although revenue has increased, the rising costs and fierce competition have greatly compressed the profit margins of sellers, and the operating pressure has also increased. Therefore, sellers urgently need to seek breakthroughs in cost control, marketing strategies, etc. to achieve stable growth in net profit. The “Four Little Dragons Going Global” have risen strongly, and major platforms have entered a rapid growth mode In terms of performance, in the first three quarters of 2024, Amazon's revenue and profits both achieved significant growth: the cumulative revenue reached US$450.167 billion, an increase of 11.20% year-on-year; the cumulative net profit was US$39.244 billion, an increase of 98.19% year-on-year.
In terms of quarterly performance, Amazon's revenue performance was impressive and its growth rate was steady, but its net profit growth rate declined in Q2 compared with the previous quarter:
Q1: Amazon's revenue reached US$143.313 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13%; net profit was US$10.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 229%.
Q2: Amazon's revenue was US$148 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10%; net profit was US$13.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 100%.
Q3: Amazon's revenue was US$158.877 billion, an increase of 11% year-on-year; net profit was US$15.328 billion, an increase of 55% year-on-year.
According to the financial report released by Amazon, in terms of business, in the first three quarters of 2024, Amazon's retail business, advertising business and AWS cloud service grew the fastest, and are still the key to driving the platform's quarterly revenue and net profit growth.
In terms of regions, the North American market is still Amazon's core market, with cumulative revenue reaching approximately US$271.8 billion in the first three quarters. At the same time, Amazon is also actively expanding into emerging markets. At the 10th Amazon Global Selling Cross-Border Summit, it announced the opening of the Irish site, which will be open to Chinese sellers in 2025. By then, the total number of international sites opened by Amazon to Chinese sellers will reach 20.
Amazon's global seller base will continue to grow in 2024. The latest data forecast shows that Amazon will add about 3,700 sellers every day, and by the end of 2024, Amazon will have about 9.7 million sellers.
Among them, Chinese sellers occupy an important position on Amazon, accounting for 40% of the world. According to data released by Amazon, in the past year, the number of goods sold by Chinese sellers through Amazon's global sites increased by more than 20% year-on-year. In addition to Amazon, platforms represented by the "Four Little Dragons of Cross-border E-commerce" such as Temu, TikTok Shop, Shein and AliExpress have risen rapidly in 2024, and gradually occupied market share with their unique marketing models and strong traffic advantages. At the same time, local giants and cross-border platforms are moving forward in tandem, and the performance of traditional giants such as Walmart and eBay in the United States has also increased; Shopee and Lazada continue to lead in Southeast Asia; Meikeduo has performed well in the Latin American market; Ozon and Wildberries have achieved remarkable results in the Russian market; in the Japanese and Korean markets, Coupang, Qoo10 and AliExpress stand out. Cross-border sellers still face challenges as both supply and demand sides of the market are squeezed The report points out that the current cross-border platforms are facing certain pressures on both the supply and demand sides. From the supply side, the competition for merchant resources in the cross-border market is becoming increasingly fierce, and major platforms have stepped up their efforts to recruit new sellers. From the demand side, consumers are highly sensitive to prices, and low-price competition has become an important strategy for cross-border platforms to cater to consumer demand. By lowering the price of goods, the platform can attract more consumers to buy, thereby increasing sales and market share. In 2024, new forms of cross-border e-commerce and industrial belts going overseas are booming. With the reconstruction of the global trade pattern and the diversified development of platform entities, e-commerce models are constantly innovating, and "industrial belts going overseas" present new characteristics of branding, high-end and globalization. Who is leading the cross-border market? The industry rankings are announced Based on precise data analysis, we have compiled the cross-border platform GMV rankings, global e-commerce platform traffic rankings, cross-border listed companies' performance rankings in the first three quarters, Amazon's top sellers rankings, and the 2024 China Top 50 Global Brands list for sellers' reference. The following is part of the list:
Looking back at 2024, not only is the price competition between platforms getting more intense, but sellers are also facing a dilemma between growth and profit. At the same time, market diversification is in full swing, and full-link deep localization has become the key to breaking the deadlock. A tough battle for survival and development has already begun. Since 2022, the reporting team has produced multiple industry and market insight reports for sub-sectors such as [cross-border e-commerce industry], [DTC brand going overseas], [Amazon category operation], and [e-commerce market research], which have attracted great attention and forwarding in the industry and received praise from many cross-border professionals. (For cooperation on the report content, please contact: happy)
To view more report contents, please scan the QR code below Reply "2024" to download the full version for free We would like to thank the following partners for their strong support for this report (in no particular order): TT123, Brand Ark, DNY123, Seller Elf, GeeLark, Erwei.com, Flywheel Private Domain, German Green Dot, 123TRO.COM, Damai Intellectual Property, Youzhixiong, Zhanfu Browser, WINTOPAY, Baixiao.com, Minsida, Jimiao Cloud, Seller Home
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