After five years of cross-border operations, the performance has increased by 2-3 times every year. The founder of the company has given these suggestions to cross-border e-commerce entrants!

     When domestic e-commerce enters refined farming, competition becomes increasingly fierce, costs rise and profits fall, cross-border e-commerce is undoubtedly a good way out. Today we invited Xie Heming, a founding member of Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club, to talk about the topic of cross-border e-commerce, and to give new people who are preparing to join cross-border e-commerce in order to have more ideas.

1. Can you talk about your experience in doing e-commerce in the country? What opportunity did you start the entrepreneurial journey of e-commerce?

      Xie Heming: I started doing domestic e-commerce in 2011. At that time, several classmates were together. Everyone wanted to do something to start a business, and then opened a Taobao store for home textiles. Because we are in Shaoxing, we are originally a home textile industrial base, so we start with our hometown industries. We started preparations in 2010, and in 2011 I resigned from the unit and officially joined. Our curtains have been the first in the category around 2012, and have lasted for several years.

      Since 2015, I have been doing cross-border e-commerce. My classmates and I have divided them into two business directions. I have devoted all my energy to cross-border e-commerce, and my classmates have only a cooperative relationship. In the past five years, my classmates’ business conditions on Taobao and Tmall have been in a very stable state. Of course, they have also made some expansion and innovation.

2. The platform was in an upward trend around 2015, and the traffic was very good. How could it transform from domestic e-commerce to cross-border e-commerce?

      Xie Heming: There are two main reasons. One is that we felt that domestic e-commerce had begun to be a little difficult to do, and the other is because of family reasons. I studied in a university in Hangzhou. During the years when I was doing domestic e-commerce on Taobao, I returned to my hometown in Shaoxing. Later, I felt that I should go back to Hangzhou to develop. In addition, there are partners in Hangzhou, which happened to have some understanding of cross-border e-commerce. I felt that cross-border e-commerce might be a bigger blue ocean in the next few years, so I wanted to try and make arrangements earlier. Our cross-border e-commerce still does home textiles category, and some products are purchased from the original Shaoxing team and are mainly sold to European and American countries.

      It is the same to choose any track. When choosing cross-border e-commerce, we should consider it from two perspectives. The first is the ceiling, that is, the size of the market capacity; the second is whether the competition is fierce or not, what position can you be in. From these two aspects, I think the cross-border e-commerce market is big enough and is a market for the whole world. In addition, from the standards of doing e-commerce in China at that time, I felt that the cross-border e-commerce was relatively simple and crude, and the idea of ​​domestic e-commerce can make cross-border e-commerce more in place. So I think there are still advantages in transforming into cross-border e-commerce. Even if we have competitors, we will not be too bad.

▲ Xie Heming shared at the October resource matching meeting of Laogao E-commerce Club

      Whether it is doing domestic e-commerce or cross-border e-commerce, I have partners in my business. It is not a sudden decision by myself. My partners and I will have a long discussion for a long time and only start working on it after having some preliminary plans.

3. What was the preliminary plan when I decided to do cross-border e-commerce at that time?

      Xie Heming: Actually, we choose a platform. We mainly use the Amazon platform. Based on our original genes of home textiles, such as our understanding of products and the advantages of the supply chain, etc., we can have a preliminary solution. Because it is useless to think too much about many things, you can only do it first. In East China, we are considered to be a relatively early group of people doing cross-border e-commerce, but in fact there are already many in South China. Among my partners, there is a person from South China. We will know more about the most cutting-edge news of the industry's development and explore while doing it.

4. What was the cross-border e-commerce market like in 2015? Five years have passed. How is the current cross-border e-commerce market?

      Xie Heming: For sellers of Laogao E-commerce Club, most people still don’t know much about cross-border e-commerce. Looking at cross-border e-commerce in 2015, we need to look back on the development of Taobao in five years. Cross-border e-commerce in 2015 is Taobao in 2010. The development trajectory of cross-border e-commerce in the past five years is very similar to the development trajectory of domestic e-commerce five years ago. The market competition, social attention, and category saturation can be sold at the beginning. Later, I found that all products are basically sold by people, and the same is true for cross-border e-commerce. Before 2015, there were not many products on platforms such as Amazon and eBay, and the market was indeed a blue ocean. Today's cross-border e-commerce market is like Taobao in 2015. Basically, people have sold their products. The focus of the cross-border e-commerce market has entered the second stage, which is the optimization of the supply chain and the optimization of each link, and is beginning to develop towards the direction of establishing a brand.

      Another point is the increase in social attention. The same is true for domestic e-commerce, from the first emerging industry to the Taobao of almost all. The same is true for talent. Before 2015, there was a shortage of operating talents in Taobao. In recent years, there were many domestic e-commerce operators. Many universities have also opened cross-border e-commerce majors. There are also many trainings on the market, and some people have self-taught. Now it is easy to find domestic e-commerce people.

▲ Xie Heming and Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club members visited ebay

      Cross-border e-commerce has also experienced this stage, but in fact it is still in a stage of shortage of talents. The better thing is that the whole society is paying attention to cross-border e-commerce. For example, the government, entrepreneurs, and young people who have just graduated are willing to explore the field of cross-border e-commerce, and have all gained a new understanding of cross-border e-commerce, so there are gradually more talents in cross-border e-commerce.

      But overall, there is still a shortage of talents in cross-border e-commerce, because the industry has developed faster than talent growth. I think it may slowly catch up. Many universities have already opened cross-border e-commerce majors, and the growth of talents will take time, so it should be alleviated in the next few years. This path is the same as domestic e-commerce, and it was also the shortage of talents in the first few years. There is a process for talent supply, which is normal. In the past two years, capital has also paid more and more attention to cross-border e-commerce.

Read more: Annual retail sales of US$70 billion, and 350 million shopping people in three years. The overseas gold market cannot be missed!

5. If this is the case, then is there still a chance for domestic e-commerce to transform into cross-border e-commerce at this time?

      Xie Heming: I definitely can’t afford the first wave of dividends, but it is still far from the intensity of domestic e-commerce now. In 2015, it was easy to transform into cross-border e-commerce. As long as you calm down and do it, you will definitely be able to do it well. But if you enter the market now, you must choose categories and platforms, and even the requirements for talents will be higher. The competition is not very fierce now, especially e-commerce companies with their own advantages. Whether it is product advantages or other advantages, they have a great opportunity to build cross-border e-commerce.

6. With your more than 5 years of cross-border e-commerce experience, can you share the biggest difference between cross-border e-commerce and domestic e-commerce?

      Xie Heming: I think thinking is actually similar. The difference is that the market and consumers we face are different. This is mainly reflected in the products. Our products must be suitable for overseas consumers. Another difference is talent, which is a very critical point.

▲ Xie Heming’s team in Hangzhou company

      Whether it is the talents transferred from domestic e-commerce or the people trained by themselves, the ability and quality of operators are still slightly different from that of domestic e-commerce. The team still needs to be rebuilt, which is very important. The first point is that this person must be familiar with the rules of this track, the attributes of the platform, the understanding of the entire chain, etc. Whether it is poaching people outside or cultivating them by themselves, they need to be familiar with them. The second point is more rigid, which is the language requirement.

      The largest overseas market is English, mainly English, and the small language market should be behind. The requirement for English is not that everyone in the team has good English, but that there must be some people who can help you get rid of English. This is the language foundation.

      Language is dead, but the others are alive. People who have never done this will definitely get stuck in the understanding of the platform, industry, operations, etc., and will be very tired and waste time. From this perspective, the team building and the selection of talents are crucial, and you must think about the team building well.

7. Since 2015, how is the development of the company going in the past five years?

      Xie Heming: The company is still developing very fast, because the time point for cross-border e-commerce was still early, and the annual growth rate was still relatively large, and it doubled and rose. The growth rate in the past five years has been 2-3 times. After the outbreak of the epidemic in Europe and the United States, the coverage rate of e-commerce is higher than before. Our entire cross-border e-commerce has grown quite fast this year. It is now larger than before, but the growth rate is slightly higher than before, which is still a boost from the epidemic.

▲ Completely packaged goods

      Many things in China are developing at a faster pace. In the final analysis, the chain is short and the foundation is large, and it is easy to change quickly. But it is different from abroad. The foreign chain is relatively long, and there are uncertainties among countries and the entire international community. So I think it will slow down the speed of things to some extent. I think it will be fine to do cross-border e-commerce for another five or eight years.

8. When we were preparing to plan for cross-border e-commerce, what preparations did you make and what difficulties did you encounter?

      Xie Heming: It’s just to find someone. First of all, cross-border e-commerce is a separate project. It must be distinguished from domestic e-commerce, including product lines and persons in charge, because the thinking is still different from domestic e-commerce. Don’t look at cross-border e-commerce from the perspective of domestic e-commerce. In addition, you must find the right person to do it. You don’t have to poach mature people or teams, but you must build the team yourself. We are also preparing both ways, training ourselves and looking for people. If you are training yourself, choose the best English language in domestic e-commerce, and you can also choose the best people in domestic e-commerce.

9. Do you have any suggestions for sellers who want to do it in the Laogao e-commerce circle but have not yet done it cross-border?

      Xie Heming: It is recommended to join Lao Gao Cross-border E-commerce Club, because this is difficult to explain clearly in a few words. There is an atmosphere in the club. Anyone who has done domestic e-commerce knows that this is not something you can learn by taking a training class, listening to some classes, or reading an article. What it requires is to constantly soak, absorb, communicate, think and practice in a circle atmosphere.

▲ Xie Heming participated in the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club event

      Why can Laogao E-commerce Club develop so well in ten years? It is because of this atmosphere. Every time you attend a regular meeting, you can hear a lot of things. You have an understanding of something invisible and subtle way, which happens naturally. That's it, so circles are very important.

10. How to choose a platform and independent website when domestic e-commerce transforms into cross-border e-commerce?

      Xie Heming: Generally speaking, it would be better to do it on the platform first, because it is quite difficult to build an independent website and you will be trapped by the lack of traffic. Compared with domestic e-commerce, the basic logic and thinking of playing are similar. At present, the competitiveness of the entire platform is not very large. It is easier to understand the situation in the overseas market through the platform. If it is an independent website, it will be more difficult to start. For Chinese sellers, I think the platform is still mainstream, and the platform's traffic is there, there is no doubt.

11. How did you get to know Lao Gao’s e-commerce circle? What impact and help will join the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club have on you and your company?

      Xie Heming: I am one of the earliest old members of the Laogao E-commerce Club. I joined 8 years ago. I am also a founding member of the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club. I know several founding members. After having the club, I have a fixed communication platform. For several of us, the most important thing is the communication between us. Other members who joined later are more about us telling them some cross-border e-commerce things.

One thing is very important to me. Lao Gao cross-border e-commerce club itself is an endorsement. We will be more smooth in contact with cross-border e-commerce platforms. Although we are also familiar with the platform, after having a club, they will give more face.

      In the Laogao Cross-border E-commerce Club, there are members who have been cross-border e-commerce for four or five years, some have been novice for one or two years, and some have just entered the market. They are generally optimistic about the cross-border e-commerce market. The reason everyone is optimistic about is similar, that is, the consumer group in the overseas market is large enough, while the penetration rate of overseas e-commerce is very low.

      In order to help e-commerce people move forward better, Lao Gao conducted two years of field research and talked a lot with many executives of cross-border e-commerce platforms, leading cross-border sellers, government leaders, foreign trade enterprises, foreign trade factories, investment tycoons, etc., and finally came to a conclusion: cross-border e-commerce is the best second growth curve for domestic e-commerce to continue to grow in the future.

      To this end, the club will create 22 targeted and exciting events in 2021, from 0-basic store opening, product selection, off-site traffic diversion, team building, back-end supply chain to practical sharing of major promotions, thinking breakthroughs, visits to famous companies, etc., to help companies go overseas in all aspects.