Laogao E-commerce | Cross-border member interview

      He gave up cross-border e-commerce 6 years ago. Seeing other people's cross-border performance soaring, he decided to pick it up again this year!

      The cost is getting higher and the traffic is falling, and domestic e-commerce people are leaving collectively. Why do they all choose the way out of cross-border e-commerce?

      Domestic e-commerce is becoming increasingly difficult to do, with higher costs and lower profits. This should be the personal experience of every domestic e-commerce man. Many e-commerce people are looking for new profit growth points and trying different businesses, including heavily invested in Douyin, but the effect is limited. At the annual meeting of Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club, through chatting with club members, we found that everyone’s difficulties are the same, and the original intention of choosing cross-border e-commerce is the same.

Laying out overseas markets is one of the company's plans

      Mr. Cao from Beijing is doing domestic sales, and they are doing the Yiletu brand, and their main categories are baby trolleys and safety seats. As a maternal and infant transportation device established in 2009, Yiletu is currently the top online in China and has a certain influence in China.

Mr. Cao said that the company is mainly driven by brand and pays great attention to products, so he won awards at the 2020 Shanghai Industry Summit, "I won several performance awards, product appearance awards, etc."

      Speaking of the reasons for the transformation from domestic e-commerce to cross-border e-commerce, Mr. Cao revealed the company's plan, that the transformation of cross-border is part of their corporate planning. After achieving the online TOP in the first stage, the second stage is to integrate the operation capabilities of their own company's e-commerce to overseas markets.

      During the years he has been engaged in the maternal and infant industry, Mr. Cao has always had a brand plan and dream, and he wants to promote his brand to the whole world. As the center of manufacturing and supply chain in China, Mr. Cao believes that if China can use brand operation to concentrate on product innovation and research and development, Yiletu has the opportunity to become a global international brand.

      In the past, Mr. Cao's company incubated the B2B sector, and now they want to deploy B2C independent brands to overseas markets. However, he doesn't know much about the way B2C goes overseas, the choice of platform, overseas markets, user data, etc., so Mr. Cao chose to join the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club, hoping to learn from more experienced seniors through the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club.

      In Mr. Cao's view, being able to learn from seniors who have already done cross-border in Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club, through communication with them, you can understand the needs of overseas market users and the general data of cross-border e-commerce in various countries around the world. This will help their companies choose the target market and avoid some pitfalls when they plan to enter the cross-border market in the early stage.

Focus on building Amazon and independent websites

      Unlike most e-commerce people, Mr. Ye has been doing cross-border e-commerce since the beginning of his entry into the e-commerce industry, which has been around for 8 years. When I first graduated from university, I studied English and just started doing foreign trade. But as time goes by, he gradually found that traditional foreign trade is becoming more and more difficult to do. He started doing it from Alibaba, then he began to transform to AliExpress, and finally he started to do Amazon.

      For Mr. Ye, Amazon is an ideal platform. Because in the past, when doing factory wholesale, it was impossible to control the final pricing and style of products, and did not know the feedback from front-line customers, it was impossible to provide customers with better cost-effective products. If you want to provide more products with good quality and low price, you can only go through the retail side.

      Mr. Ye, who is a factory-born manufacturer, thinks that it is a fatal thing for business people to not know the front-line feedback from customers. By doing the retail end, you can obtain first-line data, so he made a decision: gradually give up traditional foreign trade and focus more on doing a good job in retail end business. After seeing Amazon's share in the US market, Mr. Ye gradually reduced other platforms and focused on building Amazon and independent websites well.

      Therefore, Mr. Ye no longer purchases from Alibaba. Now his Shanghai team is mainly engaged in design and innovation, because only good design and innovative products can have a better premium. At the same time, he will apply for patent protection for these products and form a benign moat. Mr. Ye believes that buyers in the retail market have consumption power, especially in the European and American markets and Japanese markets, which are also the countries where their products are mainly sold.

      As a person who has been deeply engaged in cross-border e-commerce for many years, Mr. Ye joins the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club and is different from other members. He is attracted by Laogao's sharing. In that sharing, he heard some of Laogao's insights and visions, and saw Laogao's desire to do a good job in the cross-border e-commerce track.

      "Helping more companies succeed, and helping traditional domestic e-commerce companies find the second growth curve. This is very meaningful and has great social value. I am also a person who loves to share and is willing to help more people around me succeed. I have also incubated some such teams myself." Mr. Ye responded to his original intention of joining the club. He wanted to do something interesting with Lao Gao's cross-border e-commerce club platform and play cross-border e-commerce together.

Domestic e-commerce growth is weak and eager to develop cross-border business

      Mr. Nie is from Shandong and is a category that is home accessories and ornaments. He has been in the top category for more than ten years and has always been the top category. He has been relatively successful in doing it. But in recent years, he has gradually felt that the growth of domestic e-commerce is weak, and he also wants to expand overseas cross-border e-commerce business.

      After coming into contact with Lao Gao Cross-border E-commerce Club, Mr. Nie felt that the cross-border e-commerce market is a blue ocean, and the competition in the domestic e-commerce market is getting stronger and stronger, so it is very necessary to try other businesses, especially cross-border e-commerce. At present, he has formed a cross-border team of 3-5 people and is preparing for trademark registration, store selection, and product sorting.

      When talking about what products to be made, Mr. Nie said that considering that cross-border e-commerce is different from domestic e-commerce, he would rather want to make small and convenient transportation products, such as towels and bath towels, which will be mainly sold to the US market.

      Mr. Nie thinks that the bridge built by Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club is very good, allowing bosses who are preparing to plan cross-border e-commerce to communicate with senior seniors, connect with resources, gain experience, explore knowledge, save time, and better avoid traps. At the same time, they can also share their years of experience.

Because of crisis awareness, registered overseas trademarks 3 years ago

      Mr. Feng from Shanghai mainly operates an agency brand, a category of kitchen and home furnishings. The reason why he wants to plan for cross-border e-commerce is that like most domestic e-commerce people, Mr. Feng’s domestic e-commerce business is restricted by platform and traffic, and the growth has become very slow. He has always felt that cross-border business will definitely be done, but he is just waiting for the opportunity.

      It was time to join the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club in early 2020. During this year, he has been doing various preliminary preparations. Although overseas business is relatively slow, the preparations are done very well. In Mr. Feng's view, this will give the company a better start to cross-border business.

      When asked about the current progress of cross-border business, Mr. Feng said that with the help of his club friends, he obtained overseas trademarks during this period. Because he was a crisis-conscious person, he started registering overseas trademarks three years ago.

      Mr. Feng is not only a member of Lao Gao Cross-border E-commerce Club, but also a member of Jinguan Club. He thinks that the two clubs have different points. "There are many members in Jinguan Club in cross-border clubs, which is not a conflict. Jinguan Club pays more attention to brotherhood. Cross-border clubs talk about the future of Chinese companies and opportunities around the world."

Join the circle and avoid spending a lot of money to try and make mistakes

      Mr. Yan is a post-90s generation, but he has many years of experience in the e-commerce field. His company has two businesses, one is traditional business, chain catering, with 200 stores and 1,000 supply chain stores across the country, and the other is e-commerce business. It has been in operation for more than 6 years, mainly engaged in the food and alcohol categories, and has also reached the top one or two in the small categories.

      It is not accurate to say that the transformation to cross-border e-commerce is because as early as 2015, Mr. Yan, who had not graduated from university, had already made cross-border related attempts. However, he was not sure at that time and felt that the risks were very high, so he did not choose to do cross-border e-commerce at that time. Recalling this incident, Mr. Yan said that he later found out that he made a wrong decision at that time, "Domestic e-commerce has indeed achieved a lot of turnover over the years, but compared with profits and growth space, it would be much better if he chose cross-border e-commerce earlier."

      而现在他下定决心重新做跨境电商，因为身边的合作伙伴一直在做跨境，并且取得了很显著的成果，这个朋友进入跨境这个赛道时间比自己短，但成果却更加显著，严先生认为自己不能再错过了。

      In addition, I have transformed from a traditional seller to e-commerce. In the past two years, I have also established a Douyin company in Hangzhou to operate. I have felt the difficulties of domestic e-commerce from multiple angles along the way, and cross-border e-commerce has become a good choice. In Mr. Yan’s view, the first requirement for running a company is to be "constant" and the second requirement for "development space". Based on what he has, he chooses the direction of cross-border e-commerce.

      At this stage, Mr. Yan's company's cross-border business has been very mature in Southeast Asia. It has been stationed in three countries: Thailand, Malay and Vietnam, and has also achieved a high-level position in the small appliances and sports categories in the Southeast Asian market. Amazon is still in its infancy, and it has only started for more than half a year.

      As a member of Laogao E-commerce Club and Cross-border E-commerce Club, Mr. Yan feels that the two clubs have different attributes. Laogao E-commerce Club is suitable for domestic e-commerce, while cross-border e-commerce clubs are suitable for bosses who have needs and ideas for cross-border business. The current cross-border companies are still in the early stages and need to share systematically, communicate with experienced people, and understand the pitfalls that the predecessors have struck, so as not to spend a lot of money to try and make mistakes.