In the crazy 2024, a large number of cross-border sellers are struggling to survive

Before we knew it, 2024 is coming to an end.

Looking back on the long overseas journey, it has undoubtedly been another turbulent year for cross-border people. The international situation is turbulent and the industry environment is volatile. The smoke of war is everywhere between platforms, giving rise to all kinds of opportunities and twists and turns; the competition between merchants is all based on the consensus of "survival".

Involution, low price, profit, semi-trusteeship and other keywords constitute the 2024 of countless cross-border sellers. Now standing at the end of 2024, reviewing the ups and downs of the overseas journey throughout the year, sellers have both gains and losses, and the report cards they show are also mixed.

2024 will still be a year of booming business opportunities in the online consumer market. According to Statista research data, the global e-commerce market size is expected to reach US$4,117 billion in 2024 and grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.49% in the next five years.

In the context of slowing economic growth and increasing macroeconomic conditions, China's cross-border e-commerce has shown strong resilience. According to official data released by Amazon, in the past two years, the number of Chinese sellers with sales exceeding US$1 million on Amazon's global sites has increased by nearly 55%; the number of Chinese sellers with sales exceeding US$10 million has increased by nearly 60%.

However, as opportunities emerge amid the wave of industry reform, more challenges and crises are also gradually emerging. As competition for existing stocks continues to intensify, many sellers are under pressure from both the platform and their competitors.

Judging from the specific performance figures, there is also a polarized situation.

According to a small-scale survey, in 2024, 31% of the cross-border companies participating in the survey will have an annual revenue of more than 100 million yuan, and another 21% of cross-border companies will have an annual revenue of less than 1 million yuan.

As 2025 is approaching, many sellers have reviewed and summarized their full-year performance in 2024 and set development goals for next year.

One seller shared his story of going global in 2024. When he joined the company in May, he was greeted by a store with an average daily sales of less than 300 US dollars, an average daily order of no more than 12 orders, and only one profitable store among five sales links.

From clearing out inventory, adjusting advertising, and launching new three-piece sets at the beginning, to the effective operating strategy, and then to independently developing new products to explore ways to make profits, until October the store gradually got on the right track and the number of profit links gradually increased.

Although the store has not yet achieved profitability since he joined the company, the seller is full of confidence: "I am confident that as long as I persist, I will definitely make money. By this time next year, I hope to at least double what I made this year."

This seller is a microcosm of countless people who have gone overseas. In 2024, there will be sellers like him who are moving forward steadily under multiple challenges, and there will also be sellers who have experienced ups and downs and achieved or failed to successfully achieve their goals.

"The 24-year goal is to successfully open up new land, and make a profit of 100w in the second half of the year. Completion progress: -100%."

“We have successfully expanded our site. Although our cash flow has not increased much, the value of our goods has increased a lot. Our annual profit will double next year.”

"The 2024 goal is to save 1.5 million after deducting company and family expenses. So far, it is predicted that this year we will save about 2.1 million."

"I finally saved tens of thousands of dollars in 24 years to start my own Amazon business, but now I have lost my store and am still in debt of more than 50,000 yuan."

"The goal for 2023 was to have 150 orders from three stores, but it failed, with only about 50 orders. The goal for 2024 was to have 100 orders from three stores, but it failed, with only about 20 orders."

Judging from the feedback from sellers, most sellers completed their development goals in 2024, including expanding product lines, deploying multiple sites, etc.; some sellers successfully completed the expected revenue growth targets and achieved another leap in sales scale; the vast majority of sellers failed to achieve profit targets, and shrinking profits, liquidation at a loss, and tight cash flow became common phenomena.

Looking back at the turbulent year of 2024 for the cross-border industry, "survival" has become the main theme for sellers.

From the market perspective, as inflation continues to be high and consumption tends to be weak, the mainstream markets in Europe and the United States are showing a trend of slowing growth and intensifying competition for existing market share; emerging markets such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East are in a period of rapid development, and with the rapid increase in the penetration rate of e-commerce, huge gold-digging dividends are being released.

From the platform side, Amazon still occupies the leading position, and its dominance over the years is unlikely to be shaken in the short term. However, in the context of the increasingly severe consumption downgrade trend, its market share is being quietly eroded by low-price platforms; China's four overseas dragons, led by Temu, continue to surge, using semi-hosting and full-hosting as weapons to impact Amazon's dominance from the supply chain side...

Looking at the seller side, on the one hand, as low-price competition continues to escalate, many sellers are forced into an internal vortex, entering an era of cross-border micro-profits under the heavy pressure of profitability; on the other hand, the diversified development of platforms and increasingly diverse business models have driven sellers to actively embrace the branding wave and move from wild growth to refined development.

Looking ahead to 2025, we can foresee that the market environment will present a more diversified pattern, and there will be more profound changes between platforms, platforms and merchants, and merchants and merchants.

Looking at the business strategy for 2025 disclosed by Amazon, it is not difficult to see several major signals released: channel diversification, supply chain localization, intelligent sales and product branding.

Under such market trends, facing the uncertainty of 2025, the development goals of most sellers tend to be conservative. Rather than pursuing high growth, they pursue break-even, and achieving profitability has become the main theme of the new year.

"The goal for 2025 is to achieve a monthly profit of over 100,000 yuan. Competitors should stop cutting prices."

"Work alone and launch more products to achieve a break-even point."

"The newly opened Japanese site can generate a stable monthly income of over 10,000 yuan, and the sales of the Mexican site have doubled."

"The store's average daily sales are over $1,000. Improve your product development capabilities and find core products."

"We have achieved a monthly profit of over 100,000 yuan, with a cash flow of 1 million yuan. We have laid out a product line with an annual profit of over 2 million yuan in 26 years."

It can be seen that after experiencing a whole year of fierce internal competition and low-price struggle in 2024, more and more sellers have chosen to slow down their pace and shift their focus from blindly pursuing high growth to achieving a healthy profit structure.

At the same time, more cross-border sellers and foreign trade factories have joined the transformation trend, upgrading their brands and building core competitive barriers to withstand the wave of industry change. Looking ahead to 2025, "survival" will still be the main theme for sellers going overseas.