In recent years, as China's foreign trade market has generally stabilized, cross-border export e-commerce has become a standout. In the five years from 2011 to 2016, China’s total import and export value increased by 2.9%¹, while the transaction volume of cross-border e-commerce increased from 1.6 trillion yuan in 2011 to 6.7 trillion yuan in 2016² (of which the scale of cross-border e-commerce export transactions was 5.5 trillion yuan), an increase of more than 300%.
The continued rise in performance of Chinese sellers on Amazon's "Global Selling", a cross-border export e-commerce platform where Chinese sellers gather, has fully confirmed this trend.
Dai Xufei, Vice President of Amazon China and Head of Amazon Global Selling in Asia Pacific, said:
On Amazon's global sites, we also see strong growth momentum in cross-border e-commerce. In the first quarter of 2017, sales from third-party sellers on Amazon's global sites reached 50% of Amazon's total global sales, and among them, cross-border e-commerce sales accounted for a quarter of the total sales of third-party sellers. With the accumulation of export cross-border e-commerce experience, actively leveraging Amazon's global resources, continuously innovating products and operating models, and building innovative brands have become the winning magic weapon for Chinese sellers to seize business opportunities in overseas markets.
Close to customer needs and insist on product innovation
Taking stock of the most popular smart technology in the industry in the past two years, voice control for human-computer interaction is undoubtedly the most popular, and Amazon Alexa smart voice service is the leader among them. According to statistics, since January 2016, the number of businesses conducting research and development based on Alexa technology, sales, and the number of innovative products supporting Amazon Alexa intelligent voice service have experienced explosive growth. Especially in the field of smart home products, home service applications developed based on Alexa technology have shown great potential. Many Chinese technology companies with a keen sense of smell have stepped in to seize this new market opportunity. Ecovacs, a leading domestic home service robot brand, is one of them.
Liu Wenning, General Manager of Ecovacs Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets, said:
More and more consumers in the mainstream markets of Europe and the United States are willing to pay for high value-added hardware and software, especially Amazon's customer base who are more concerned about quality and service. Product development based on Alexa technology not only greatly enhances the intelligent features of the products, but also further expands the future research and development direction of Ecovacs.
In July 2017, Ecovacs launched the DEEBOT R95 smart sweeping robot with built-in Alexa smart voice assistant, which was well received by the industry as soon as it was launched on the market.
In addition, Amazon's series of innovative tools enable Chinese companies to quickly get close to the market overseas and find the right direction for innovation.
Liu Wenning said:
Amazon can help us quickly understand the needs of consumers in the international market, so that we can carry out targeted product research and development and innovation.
For example, Ecovacs developed the Amazon-exclusive customized product DN78 based on the needs of American families for cleaning animal hair. During the 17-hour "Treasure of the Store" promotion on Thanksgiving Day, it ranked first in the sweeping robot category and fourth in the home and kitchen supplies category. In the Prime Day promotion, which it participated in for the first time this year, Ecovacs once again ranked first in the single product category on Amazon's US site.
Innovative business model towards a broad market
For a considerable number of Chinese manufacturing companies, the corporate procurement market is undoubtedly a broader space than the retail market. Amazon Business, Amazon's corporate procurement site, was launched in the United States in April 2015. As of July 2017, the total number of corporate and institutional buyers of Amazon Business in the United States has exceeded 1 million. Chinese sellers can reach high-quality corporate customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
After Amazon Business was opened to Chinese sellers, Weiya Office, which specializes in the production and manufacturing of office furniture, regarded this move as a "milestone-making and important attempt" in the industry. Compared with 2016, this year's orders for Viva Office, Viva Office's own brand, on Amazon Business increased by 60%-70% year-on-year.
Cao Fan, General Manager of Weiya Office, said:
In the office supplies market in the United States, 80% is the contract market, that is, the corporate procurement market, and the contract market is the real core market. Amazon Business is open to Chinese companies, which is of great significance to Chinese manufacturing companies that focus on the corporate procurement market.
Cao Fan believes that in the global brand strategy, competing for product pricing power is the core, and successfully building an independent brand is the prerequisite. Amazon allows it to connect its own brand Viva Office directly with end users, thereby fully grasping the pricing initiative during the transformation and upgrading. This is also the core role that Amazon can play in the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. At the same time, thanks to the opening of the Amazon platform, Weiya Office has also expanded from the initial OEM to entering the core corporate procurement market of office furniture in the United States and Europe. This innovative business model has helped Weiya Office to continuously move towards a broader platform and achieve greater business success.
Brands going global with innovation
In 2015, Amazon Inventor, a program with strong innovative genes, was launched to help global startups promote their innovative and pioneering products. This groundbreaking program has so far helped more than 2,100 startups to bring 15,000 creative and cutting-edge products to the global market, and Mars by crazybaby, owned by Shenzhen Yuandong Technology Co., Ltd., is one of the beneficiaries.
Haixing Zhang, founder and CEO of Yuandong Technology, said:
The primary challenges for startups are undoubtedly channels, traffic and visibility. This challenge was solved after joining the Amazon Inventor program. Without having to pay high marketing costs, we were able to establish global sales channels in a very short period of time, obtain effective listing plans, and quickly grow into an international brand with global recognition. There are many paths for China's startup brands to go overseas, but Amazon is undoubtedly the widest and fastest leading ship.
Today, CrazyBaby's Mars Magnetic Levitation Speaker has become one of the top 20 best-selling products of "Amazon Inventor" worldwide. After Amazon Japan launched the Inventor Project, CrazyBaby's new product Air by crazybaby (air capsule true wireless earphones) quickly climbed to the second place in sales of the Inventor Project products in Japan on the first day of its launch.
In recent years, riding on the policy tailwind, Chinese companies' overseas expansion has entered an accelerated period. Ecovacs, Weiya Office and Yuandong Technology are all typical sellers of different sizes and fields on Amazon's "Global Store".
Dai Xufei, Vice President of Amazon China and Head of Amazon Global Selling in Asia Pacific, said:
The three most critical factors for Chinese companies to succeed in expanding their overseas business are: continuously providing high-quality innovative products, providing good customer service and operating in compliance with laws and regulations, and continuing to build their brands.
