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In 2024, the cross-border e-commerce industry has entered the era of "diversification" :
On the one hand, the strong overseas expansion of emerging platforms such as TikTok Shop and SHEIN is providing overseas sellers with more abundant channel choices; on the other hand, with the release of growth dividends, cross-border e-commerce has changed from being dominated by traditional trade sellers to the current influx of well-known brands, factory-type sellers, and top live-streaming influencers, and the overseas entities are also tending to "let a hundred flowers bloom". Recently, the news that the well-known domestic actress Fan Bingbing has entered the cross-border e-commerce industry has also sparked heated discussions in the circle. In recent years, as competition in the domestic consumer market has become increasingly fierce, more and more Chinese companies have chosen to go abroad and explore the second growth curve in the international market. From category industry giants to small and medium-sized sellers, to domestic live streaming influencers, cross-border e-commerce entities are becoming increasingly diversified. At the end of May this year, Fan Bingbing, who was once a top star in the entertainment industry, also announced on social media that the beauty brand she founded, Fan Beauty Diary, has officially entered Lazada, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. As soon as this news came out, many people in the industry speculated that Fan Bingbing intended to expand into the cross-border e-commerce field for her own brand Fan Beauty Diary and seek new sales growth points. Less than two months later, the news that "Fan Bingbing personally joined TikTok" swept the cross-border circle. On June 1, Fan Beauty Diary released its first video on its TikTok account: Fan Bingbing herself announced in the video that Fan Beauty Diary had officially entered TikTok and would continue to share beauty and skincare tips on the account in the future. Fan Bingbing's TikTok account also released a related video on the same day. As of July 10, Fan Beauty Diary's official TikTok account has attracted more than 50,000 followers, and the first video has been viewed more than 520,000 times . Industry insiders revealed that the account will continue to share beauty and skin care knowledge, product trial experiences and brand stories in the future.
It is reported that Fan Beauty Diary mainly sells beauty products such as facial masks, skin care products, shampoos, etc. Since its establishment in 2018, it has opened stores on many domestic e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, and Xiaohongshu, and uses store broadcasts to sell goods. With the star effect of Fan Bingbing and the brand's own product strength, Fan Beauty Diary quickly stood out from a number of beauty brands and achieved excellent sales results in the domestic e-commerce market. Taking the recent 618 shopping festival as an example, Fan Beauty Diary not only once topped the hot lists of Taobao and JD.com, but also won the first place in the 618 beauty brand list of Xiaohongshu. Although Fan Beauty Diary has not yet made it clear whether it will conduct live streaming sales on TikTok, judging from its successive entry into Lazada and TikTok, Fan Beauty Diary has already embarked on the journey of brand going overseas , and its future development in the field of cross-border e-commerce has attracted the attention of many industry insiders. In fact, with the release of the growth dividend of cross-border e-commerce, the rapidly advancing TikTok e-commerce has already attracted a large number of domestic celebrity brands and MCN agencies to compete. Thanks to the huge user base of the TikTok app, TikTok Shop has grown rapidly and has now stood out in the social e-commerce market, with its market share growing rapidly. Data shows that as of February 2024, TikTok Shop has accounted for more than 68% of the total social e-commerce GMV. The huge development potential of TikTok e-commerce has attracted a number of leading domestic live streaming organizations to go overseas to seek gold. In January this year, Three Sheep Network, the company of TikTok celebrity Crazy Xiao Yangge, started its overseas sales layout, with Singapore as the first stop. The sales model was to empower live streaming with overseas influencers, and the first broadcast immediately topped the TikTok Singapore sales GMV ranking. In addition, there have been recent reports in the industry that the company of "Kuaishou No. 1" Simba, Xinxuan Group, also plans to enter TikTok and has submitted an application for an advertising account. As of now, Xinxuan has not responded to this. It is worth mentioning that in May last year, Xinxuan announced its international expansion plan, setting Thailand as the first stop, and the sales of the first live broadcast reached 830 million yuan. Earlier, leading domestic live streaming organizations such as Yaowang Technology, Qianxun Culture, and Jiaogepengyou had already started their overseas live streaming sales journey on TikTok. In the view of some industry insiders, these leading MCN agencies have rich experience in domestic live e-commerce and will be more comfortable with the operation of TikTok e-commerce. As the marginal benefits of the domestic e-commerce market dividend decrease, the potential of overseas live e-commerce will be further released, and more MCN agencies may join the overseas army in the future. But in fact, due to the different levels of development of live-streaming e-commerce at home and abroad, whether it is the domestic leading MCN agency or TikTok e-commerce backed by a huge traffic pool, it is inevitable to face the current situation of "not adapting to the local environment" . In June this year, the influencer @iamstormisteele created the first "million-dollar live broadcast" record in the US region of TikTok , which attracted widespread attention in the industry. However, compared with the live broadcasts of major domestic anchors that easily earn hundreds of millions of dollars, the single live broadcast of one million dollars still seems a bit dwarfed. Of course, there are many reasons for this: First, European and American consumers have a low acceptance of the e-commerce model of live streaming and have not yet developed the habit of shopping on social platforms; Coresight Research data shows that in 2022, only 22% of people in the United States have watched live streaming sales, but 54% of respondents said they were unwilling to shop on social media. In Southeast Asia, 82% of respondents have watched live streaming, and 63% of respondents have placed orders in the live streaming room. This is also the main reason why domestic top MCN agencies choose Southeast Asia as their first choice for overseas expansion, rather than Europe and the United States. Second, compared with domestic KOLs who focus on sales, foreign KOLs focus more on personal style information, have weaker product promotion effects, and have lower conversion rates; Imagine, when introducing a product, one is a live broadcaster who interacts with consumers crazily in the live broadcast room and shouts "buy, buy, buy", while the other is a "ruthless tool" who introduces product information step by step. Which one can attract consumers to place orders more? The answer is self-evident. Third, when entering new overseas markets, even the leading domestic MCN agencies cannot simply copy experience and need to spend more time and energy to understand local culture and consumer needs.
As things stand, TikTok and leading MCN agencies still have a long way to go if they want to replicate the myth of domestic GMV growth in Europe and the United States.
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