Tens of millions of exposures, 50% premium...a new way out for cross-border sellers is here!

In recent years, as the wave of brands going overseas continues to surge, many brand sellers have encountered the first pitfall of cross-border e-commerce - localization. Faced with the complex cultural environment overseas, except for some brands that focus on national characteristics, most brands are in urgent need of finding a new breakthrough - catering to the preferences of a certain cultural group to achieve precision marketing. Among them, IP co-branding is a popular way.

IP products are popular overseas and have great potential

Judging from market data, IP products are becoming more and more popular overseas. According to data released by Statista, the global market size of licensed goods and services will reach hundreds of billions of dollars in 2023, and popular IP licensed products account for a large part of it. For example, Disney's classic IP peripherals can sell tens of billions a year in Europe and the United States. In 2022, Disney Princess series dolls, clothing and other peripheral products sold more than 5 billion US dollars in North America alone! Nielsen's survey found that almost 70% of European households have at least one popular anime or film and television IP peripheral, such as Marvel figures and Harry Potter magic props. In Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, users are also crazy about trendy IP products. Japan's Pokémon card game can sell billions of dollars a year worldwide, and South Korea's Line Friends sells hundreds of millions of dollars a year in Southeast Asian peripheral products, with a repurchase rate of over 40%!

Image source: Amazon

Wukong: Black Myth is so popular that all the co-branded peripherals are sold out

The AAA mobile game Black Myth: Wukong, released in August 2024, exploded on Chinese and foreign social platforms as soon as it went online, sparking unprecedented enthusiasm among players around the world. The game sold 10 million copies within three days of its launch, and the number of online players peaked at over 3 million.

Just as popular as the game are the game co-branded products and peripherals related to Wukong. An official co-branded controller of "Black Myth: Wukong" was launched on AliExpress and sold out in just 10 seconds.

Image source: AliExpress

A 21-year-old independent website seller in Shenzhen, with his accurate grasp of the market, has achieved an astonishing daily sales of 30,000 US dollars in related peripheral products through his cross-border e-commerce independent website!

There is also a Ruyi Jingu Bang sold by a seller for $28.99. Many of them have been sold, with a rating of 4.7, topping the Best Sellers list in the Amazon subcategory "Martial Arts BoStaffs"!

Image source: Amazon

Barbie's Feast: Dominating Amazon's Doll Category

On July 21, 2023, the live-action movie "Barbie" was released simultaneously in mainland China and North America. Wearing pink clothes to watch the movie has become a tacit understanding. The "death Barbie pink" that was once complained about has become the most hardcore fashion trend in this midsummer.

Barbie grossed $155 million in its first three days, breaking the record for the first weekend of a new film. On TikTok, the hashtag #barbie had 81.2 billion views, #pink had 49 billion views, and #barbiegirl had 17.7 billion views.

Image source: TikTok

On major cross-border e-commerce platforms, sales of Barbie dolls and their derivatives are rising steadily. Among them, the Karl Lagerfeld Barbie, which was issued at a price of $200, has now skyrocketed to $11,400 on eBay, a premium of nearly 60 times. On the Amazon platform, the top ten seats in the Amazon doll category are almost all occupied by Barbie, and the price has increased several times. On the independent website of Mattel, the company to which Barbie belongs, all kinds of Barbie dolls that appear in the movie are shown to be sold out.

Sales of small items, such as Barbie combs, clothes, and accessories, as well as life-size Barbie dolls and clothing with Barbie elements, are booming. Some independent website sellers have taken advantage of the popularity and achieved daily sales of more than $3,000 within a few days.

For cross-border e-commerce sellers, IP products have higher premium space and brand value than ordinary commodities. Official authorization allows sellers to have a reasonable protection shield, and unauthorized sellers cannot enter, which can better avoid vicious price wars and thus establish the core competitiveness of products.

If you happen to be a seller in traditional categories and your profits have plummeted due to fierce competition and increasingly high advertising costs, you might as well try to enhance product innovation and build your own brand moat through IP co-branding.