The store sold 5,000 orders a day in 3 months. The newbie in cross-border e-commerce made a comeback and sold well. Let’s listen to his business experience...

Recently, cross-border e-commerce has been pushed to the forefront. I have heard many sellers complaining in various channels that it is much more difficult to make money this year than last year........

As cross-border e-commerce becomes more and more popular, it seems to be becoming more and more difficult to do cross-border e-commerce : platform blocking, malicious competition, inventory hoarding...

But in this situation, there are still some sellers who have achieved good results through their own efforts. Today, we invited a seller who has been engaged in cross-border e-commerce for 3 months and has turned from a novice to a big seller to share some business experience.

The following are the sellers’ own statements:

Hello everyone, I am Yang Zhe. I am very honored to be invited to share with you my development experience in the field of cross-border e-commerce. I was born in 1991. My early work focus has always been on domestic trade, and I have no experience in cross-border e-commerce. In the first half of this year, due to some changes in business, I met some business friends who are deeply involved in the foreign trade field by chance. One of my good friends recommended some platforms that he thought were more suitable for cross-border newbies to enter the market.

Taking into account the geographical location and time difference, I finally chose Shopee in Southeast Asia as my first attempt. And with some luck and hard work, I achieved some good results...

In 2012, having just stepped out of the ivory tower of university, I targeted the opportunity of the rapid development of domestic e-commerce and plunged into the e-commerce industry.

Now, 9 years have passed, and I have finally made it through and have my own maternity and baby brand in China. I thought everything was on the right track, but unexpectedly, new challenges also emerged...

In the first half of this year, my products on a domestic e-commerce platform were copied by my peers and sold at low prices, which had a huge impact on sales. In fact, I have encountered this kind of turmoil several times in the past few years, but this one was a relatively big one, and it made me realize more deeply that it is becoming increasingly difficult to do e-commerce in China!

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Ten years ago, e-commerce was a blue ocean, but now it is a red ocean. To use a popular saying, "domestic e-commerce is competing fiercely."

Take Taobao as an example. Ten years ago, you could make money even if you didn’t know how to do Taobao. But now, even if you are very professional, you will still lose money.

Pinduoduo adopts the factory direct sales model. It cannot open another factory, otherwise how can it compete with manufacturers?

JD.com, Vipshop, Mogujie, and Tmall, which have high barriers to entry, need to compete with many well-known brands.

After learning from the lessons, this blow also caused me to reflect: Should I find a new way out for myself, perhaps change my field and make new attempts?

Everyone knows about e-commerce, but many people are still unfamiliar with cross-border e-commerce. Simply put, cross-border e-commerce is selling domestic goods overseas through e-commerce platforms.

The outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 has accelerated the development of online e-commerce, and cross-border e-commerce has also experienced a small boom. Take Southeast Asia as an example. In 2020, the scale of Southeast Asian e-commerce reached US$62 billion, an increase of 63%. The growth rate not only ranked first but also more than twice that of the second place.

I am an e-commerce person, so I am quite sensitive to data in this area. Cross-border e-commerce has been developing very well in recent years, and the country has also made many favorable policies. There is even a saying in our industry that "cross-border e-commerce is the new code for wealth."

Image source: Usplash

What made me decide to choose Shopee was a friend’s genuine sharing.

He used to work on Taobao, and started working on Shopee at the end of 2019. He has now opened stores in several markets, with monthly sales of over 100,000.

According to him, Shopee is different from other cross-border platforms and is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia has a population of 600 million, and more than half of the main consumer group is born in the 1990s. Coupled with the epidemic, the number of new Internet users in Southeast Asia reached 40 million in 2020 alone, and the total number of users has exceeded 400 million. The maturity of e-commerce in Southeast Asia is now equivalent to that of Taobao more than a decade ago, and there are at least several years of bonus period.

Just like that, I, who was already optimistic about the Southeast Asian market, chose Shopee on his recommendation as a new starting point for my cross-border e-commerce journey.

Next, I would like to tell you about the development experience of this store I own.

In fact, it is not the same as the success chicken soup that many friends expect. It is not the kind of story of "a worker transforms into a boss". You know, opportunities will still be reserved for those who are prepared. Here I will also teach you a few points:

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First of all, before you enter a market, you must have a full understanding of this market.

Before entering the market, many friends would worry: What should I do if I have no knowledge of cross-border e-commerce? Have I figured out what to sell to make money? Should I spend money to find a big sales teacher to teach me, or should I learn by myself?

In fact, everyone will encounter these problems when they first enter the industry. I was also troubled at that time. Later, through the introduction of a friend, I met the official recruitment manager of Shopee and participated in the free course of the newbie store opening training camp held by Shopee. In less than a week, these problems were solved and my store was successfully approved.

By studying the training camp courses in depth and combining the product selection strategies learned in the courses with the market weekly reports, I summarized some characteristics of the Southeast Asian market:

① Currently, Southeast Asian consumers are mainly young people, and the demand for beauty products on e-commerce is very large. China and Southeast Asian markets have geographical advantages and similar consumer preferences.

② When it comes to cross-border e-commerce, maternal and infant products are easily restricted by logistics and export policies, while beauty products are more logistically friendly for small and light items;

③Currently, the overseas expansion of Chinese cosmetics products is in the blue ocean stage, and it is the golden period for building brands in Southeast Asia.

This also made me determined to make beauty and cosmetics my own category!

Image source: Usplash

The second point is that learning never ends, and you should keep learning and enriching yourself.

After determining the category, the most important thing is to formulate an operation strategy. I would like to summarize it in one sentence, which is "learning never ends, constantly enrich yourself."

After joining Shopee, I have never stopped learning.

From the "Listing Optimization Strategy" I learned at a novice store opening training camp organized by Shopee, to actively learning and exchanging ideas with big sellers in the community, and constantly learning new ways of advertising and traffic at the Shopee Seller Learning Center, I have benefited a lot from all of these.

Using the operational strategy of "focusing on quality + promoting traffic + creating hot products" , my store had a small explosion of orders during this year's 9.9 promotion, with daily sales exceeding 5,000 orders! The peak season in the second half of the year is the peak period of traffic, and I also have some new plans. I may consider taking advantage of the opportunity of the promotion to launch a brand and open up new opportunities.

The training camp mentioned by Yang Zhe during his sharing is a series of courses officially launched by Shopee. Since its launch, it has covered more than 4,000 novice sellers and helped more than 1,200 sellers to successfully open stores. Among them, there are many who, like him, started as novices in the cross-border business and counterattacked to become hot-selling sellers.

In order to help more sellers seize the traffic frenzy during the peak season promotion in the second half of the year, Shopee officially launched the Shopee Official Store Opening Training Camp in October! Grab the hot orders during the peak season of golden autumn, and open a store in 3 days with zero basic knowledge! Help you easily solve the whole process from settlement, review, store opening, product selection and new launch, etc.!

The official fast entry channel is now open. You can close your store in as fast as 2 days. It has no commission and a low threshold, so even a novice can easily set up their business!

Official teaching, free of charge

The number of places is limited, so hurry up!

Open your store now to grab the peak season traffic!

Click to register or scan the QR code to sign up for the event!