fromMr. Wei Zhe, Chairman and Founding Partner of Jiayu CapitalA piece of content shared in the Chaos Academy course:
Brand global expansion≠cross-border e-commerce sellers.
Compared with distribution-based sellers who play with traffic such as account groups, store groups, and website groups, Jiayu Capital is optimistic about product-based sellers that focus on products, supply chains, and brands.
What do we see from this?
2021 is coming to an end in a blink of an eye. If there is anything that cross-border people will look back and sigh with emotion, the Amazon account suspension trend is definitely one of them. In addition, the involution of independent station operations, the popularity of domestic owned channels, the rise of overseas owned channels, and the discussion on refined operations triggered by the recent folding of WeChat groups... When everything is stacked together, we all seem to have this feeling about cross-border global expansion:
The overall situation of cross-border global expansion is very good, but in the hands of each merchant, difficulties, obstacles and opportunities coexist.
The strong advantages of China's supply chain have allowed us to move from Made in China to Made in China, and high quality and low prices are no longer a legend. On the other hand, with the development of Internet information technology, the information errors between merchants and users have gradually been eliminated, and some of the original "cutting leeks" sales methods to make a quick buck have long ceased to work. From the perspective of platforms such as Amazon, in order to safeguard the interests of consumers, compliant sellers and the platform itself, supervision will only become more stringent, and some of the original "shortcut" methods will be rectified and abandoned.
Revelation 1: China’s cross-border global expansion people seem to be saying goodbye. Say goodbye to the era of rough sellers and move toward a future of refinement, quality, and sustainability. Say goodbye to cross-border e-commerce and move towards brand global expansion.
In Mr. Wei Zhe's speech, businesses engaged in brand global expansion are product-based enterprises that focus on supply chain, R&D, and brand. These three major focuses are all manifestations of hard core strength. It is not easy without a certain scale and strength. If these are tall buildings, then Shein/Anker is towering in the clouds; the sellers in the middle are either on the way to building buildings or rushing around in the station group stores; more are the small shops and mini sellers who are still laying foundations on the first floor.
Looking at brand global expansion from these three perspectives, it is indeed a huge construction project. Of course, this is not the topic of this article, nor can it be explained clearly in just a few words. What SocialEpoch wants to convey here is the work that large, medium and small sellers can carry out at the same time even though they are not on the same starting line: promoting the brand global expansion strategy from the brand marketing level.
Enlightenment 2: Brand global expansion is a huge project. But no matter the size, everyone can do this with a brand advocacy strategy and help the brand global expansion from the brand marketing level.
Is brand marketing just a matter for big companies? No! Don’t forget WeChat’s classic slogan: No matter how small an individual is, it still has its own brand. What's more, we are now in the social media era with highly developed mobile Internet. Everyone has equal access to and voice on the Internet, and the same is true for global expansion.
Different from the multi-dimensional and multi-touch form of domestic brand marketing, cross-border brand marketing starts more from Internet publicity and connection. From EDM emails in the cross-border sales 1.0 era, to platform-based and independent site-based transactions and Google marketing in the 2.0 era, to instant communication on social media in the 3.0 era, the connection methods and transaction scenarios are changing, but the reliance on online is still the same, or even heavier.
It is standard configuration for global expansion to do brand marketing based on social media. Of course, this is alsoSocialEpochSomething I’ve been doing all along.
Enlightenment 3: Brand global expansion requires refined operation management and digital transformation.
How can you see it? As mentioned above, brand global expansion ≠ cross-border e-commerce sellers. Because behind the brand is the quality and focus based on the brand proposition, the intention for sustainable long-term development income, and the long-term vision and strategy to achieve brand premium and brand repurchase.
What needs to be done to achieve this must not be crude manufacturing, but refined operation and management, from internal to external, from products to users, from pre-sales to after-sales, etc. In the era of digital trade, the connection and cooperation of digital information systems is naturally indispensable for refined operation management. This can be seen from the current popularity of cross-border e-commerce ERP, marketing systems, and SaaS tools.
Summary: Whether it is cross-border e-commerce's emphasis on research and development, supply chain, brand, or the motivation to embrace brand propositions, as well as the refined operation management based on all these, they are all expressions of the ingenuity of cross-border enterprises.Every era requires ingenuity. In this era, its position and form have long changed, but the power of ingenuity never goes out of style.
Owned channelglobal expansionLook for SocialEpoch, embrace ingenious brand global expansion, and encourage you and me.
