Image source: Tuchong Creative
As soon as the Black Five Nets came to an end, from the data perspective, the overall market data showed a decline for the first time. On Black Friday last year, online spending by American consumers increased by 21.6% year-on-year, but this year there has been a downward trend. Even the explosive NetEase is like this.
It can be seen that overseas consumers have already shown some weakness in promoting the year-end peak season. On the other hand, independent stations have become a major trend this year. Shopify achieved sales of nearly $2.9 billion on Black Friday, a year-on-year increase of 21%. Multiple independent website sellers have revealed to Hugo Cross border that the sales of Black Five Net One this year are higher than in previous years.
In the midst of intense price wars and a slowdown in peak season consumption, Chinese sellers are collectively reflecting on how to prevent endless industry infidelity? How can traditional gameplay be upgraded? Is there anything foreign sellers can learn from?
For these issues,fromfruitsongCreative CampofObservers Shawn ("The First Lesson of Seeking Money from the Sea") and Bo Ge ("Bo Ge Cross border Chatting") will be involved in their articles. At the same time, they will also have in-depth interpretation and case analysis in cross-border e-commerce marketing promotion, financial payment, and product selection analysis, to help Chinese sellers go overseas.
1GoogleThe first generation of internet celebrities”Tell a different story
Shawn and Bo are both currently working at Google China and have years of experience as service sellers going overseas. From a self media perspective, they are equivalent to Google's "first generation internet celebrities".
Shawn has experience in providing frontline professional service to enterprises, witnessing their development journey from 100000 to 10 billion yuan. He has unique observations and insights on e-commerce platforms, marketing promotion, market observation, cross-border finance and taxation, SEO, and other aspects.
Shawn, Gogo Observer
In life, he is quite unreasonable, and at work, he is extremely serious. He hopes to achieve success in his worksongCreating a business can showcase one's unique side and provide dry goods to a wide range of sellers in a humorous and popular way, creating a one-stop sharing platform for foreign traders.(Å)Click here to enter the personal homepage of "Lesson 1 of Fishing for Money in the Sea"https://www.cifnews.com/observer/chlqdyk）
Shawn believes that the most important aspect of cross-border e-commerce is not only advertising, but also various pain points in strategic execution, which can affect the entire system. His observer account will use a combination of case studies and theory, leveraging his years of cross industry experience, to explore various "money making guidelines" for everyone, from product selection to supply chain, to fund management, and risk management, bringing some inspiration to everyone.
Bo Ge is a direct customer and agent channel manager for Google China, serving over 500 overseas sellers in total. He is skilled in e-commerce platforms, marketing promotion, product selection analysis, foreign trade business, course training, and more.
Guo Ge Observer Bo Ge
For the first time entering the platform, Bo Ge smiled and said that he had no experience as a "internet celebrity" for the first time. He wanted to bring "new things" to everyone in the industry through his personal experience. If everyone could get some inspiration from it, it would be enough. Bo's account will mainly share some foreign and local e-commerce cases. He believes that after listening to many stories from domestic peers, everyone becomes increasingly introverted, hoping to bring a different perspective to everyone.(Å)Click here to enter the "Bo Ge Cross border Chatting" personal homepagehttps://www.cifnews.com/observer/bgkjlkm）
2、 Day in and day out, fighting for gold? The Trap of Homogenizing Inner Convolutions
Under the rendering of online news, everyone feels that independent websites make money, but is that really the case?
As the saying goes, "Money is hard to earn, but it's hard to eat." There is no simple way to make money. "Shawn believes that, especially for independent websites, resource accumulation, direction of thinking, meticulous operation, and strategic formulation are extremely important. If you don't study carefully and enter the market with" simple "money, it may be difficult to obtain long-term" daily gains ". In the early stages of the independent station mode, there were light and heavy options, with 10 versatile options that could cost up to 10 million yuan.
Indeed, it is difficult for us to define whether an independent website is easy to operate or profitable. Just like solving a problem, some people find it simple, while others find it difficult. Different ideas and ideas lead to different results.
In Bo's opinion, there are many sellers who rely on independent stations to make money. As long as their production lines do not build private models and do not have a lot of goods, independent stations actually do not require too much start-up capital, and can flow smoothly and develop steadily. However, overall, e-commerce is not an easy task, and those who can do well are at least those who can endure hardship and withstand pressure.
Looking back at the 500+overseas seller cases he has served, Bo Ge stated that successful sellers often have a forward-looking and overall perspective, belonging to the type of "making big money with a low voice"; And brainless homogenization and involution are the top causes of death. Often, when people around them hear about selling a certain product to make money, they rush in, and ultimately no one can make any money.
Therefore, if you want to be a good independent station, you should think clearly about your strengths and weaknesses, formulate a good strategy, and not blindly follow the trend.
3、 Peak season traffic grabbing: strategic level selection
As is well known, in order for independent websites to gain more exposure, they need to use advertising methods to attract traffic. The difficulty of obtaining natural traffic has long been an objective and practical problem. With the crazy influx of overseas sellers, competition has become increasingly fierce, and traffic costs remain high. Many sellers are facing the same dilemma: they want to improve their performance during the peak season at the end of the year, but marketing expenses are getting higher and higher, and it is difficult to achieve results without investment. They do not know how to balance the cost of marketing and promotion with the expected effect.
In Shawn's opinion, it's hard to bear a child without a wolf. He believes that the underlying reason for the cost increase is the intensification of competition, which can be understood as "other competitors are spending money to grab traffic, should I choose to lie flat or join the competition. The cost and expected effectiveness of marketing promotion are a strategic level issue. Simply put, consider the long-term benefits that peak season traffic can bring to cultivating core users, seed users, repeat purchase promotion, and compare it to short-term expenses. Of course, if you just want to make a short-term profit, playing with traffic is not a problem. Ultimately, it depends on the strategic direction (pattern opening).
For Google's peak season advertising strategy, he suggests developing a strategic plan and resolutely implementing it before taking any action. If the seller does not have a clear plan, they can discuss it with their peers, suppliers, or Google account managers/agent partners.
For example, for independent website sellers with a general long-term layout, in addition to focusing on short-term revenue ROI from advertising, they can also consider the long-term value of shopping season renewal for the site and include it in the ROI assessment. Google's search shopping is a conversion tool that leans more towards harvesting, but the long-term advertising layout provided by Google is more meaningful in his personal opinion.
In response to the above issues, Bo believes that in order to balance the cost of marketing and promotion with the expected results, it is necessary to consider the profit margin requirements and sensitivity of one's own business. For e-commerce without external investors, as long as the marketing expenses are stuck below the profit and loss line, it is cost-effective to advertise more in the short term and sacrifice a little profit margin. After all, these peak season users come in and there is a lot of room for future marketing.
In addition, for novice sellers who have just joined the market, they have no way to start advertising and can only rely on service providers to advertise on their behalf. However, they may also have doubts about conversion rates and service effectiveness. Therefore, selecting reliable and high-quality service providers is also a major pain point for sellers, and they do not know how to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of service providers.
Based on this, Shawn and Bo also proposed their own ideas. Shawn believes that not only is it about selecting proxy investment service providers, but also his view on service consumption is that the more expensive the better. However, the meaning that the more expensive the better does not mean that the more expensive the better. This has two meanings:
1. More expensive often includes better service and better consumer trust (brand premium). But if you are bald, it is meaningless to find a master who is good at ironing and dyeing. Although his skills are very good, I don't need them. Returning to choosing a service provider, you can chat and learn more, ask some "inspiring questions" to explore, and choose the most suitable one for yourself.
2. The more expensive it is, there may be poor service, but this type of service will definitely be eliminated by the market in the long run. Consumers are very smart. If they cheat once, they won't be fooled for a lifetime.
Bo believes that choosing a service provider requires spending enough time, sitting down to chat with the service provider's team, understanding each other's business philosophy, and not simply getting things done. It's best to ask friends around you who have a good reputation.
Under the background of globalization and the catalyst of the pandemic dividend, cross-border e-commerce has brought infinite opportunities and development for small and medium-sized enterprises to enter the international market. Shawn said, "Although we stand at the forefront, we must think twice before acting, and brave planning is essential for long-term development." Bo warned, "Everyone, don't get sucked in. The world is so big, let's see how our foreign counterparts play
The Guoge Creation Camp project is a cross-border joint venture between Google and Hugo,PurposeIn order to explore and support more potential Google field observers, we will assist them in enhancing their personal influence and strive to create the strongest IP lineup in the cross-border e-commerce independent website industry.The Guoge Creation Camp will mainly incubate and support top Google topic leaders in these two industries, accumulating a large amount of high-quality original content based on mature experience and successful cases. It will carry out multi-site promotion in the Hugo cross-border channel, enhancing Google's overall topic popularity in the cross-border overseas circle.
Friends who are interested in the "Fruit Song Creation Camp" project,Click on this link to learn about registration!https://www.cifnews.com/activity/626?origin=ggcf
(Source: Official account of Hugo Observer)