Shuffle and Transformation in the Cross-border E-commerce Industry

Industry Encounters Pain

In 2021, can be described as a turning point for the cross-border e-commerce industry, the industry encounters pain, Amazon has banned more than 50,000 accounts, involving about 1,000 companies, more than 600 Chinese brand selling privileges have been revoked, and the Chinese brands affected are estimated to lose over tens of billions of RMB.

Frequent Account Banning on Platforms

During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, some Amazon sellers posted on cross-border forums that they had 16 accounts deactivated in one night, all from clearance. Amazon email stated that the accounts were disabled because Amazon could not verify seller information, or did not receive any information on listings and sales history, similar account deactivation has occurred to many sellers. Similar account banning incidents also frequently happen on Member Day and during holidays, becoming a common practice for Amazon.

Trend of Transformation for Cross-border Sellers

With the accelerated development of the cross-border e-commerce industry, homogeneous competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and cross-border sellers are beginning to seek transformation. After last year's wave of account suspensions, a large number of cross-border sellers began to turn to independent websites. According to data, the market size of China's cross-border e-commerce independent websites was only 0.2 trillion yuan in 2016, rising to 0.8 trillion yuan in 2020. The total number of independent websites in 2021 has reached around 200,000, and it is expected that by 2025, the market share will increase from 25% in 2020 to 41%.

Advantages of the Independent Website Model

Compared to platforms with strict regulations, the independent website model gives brand owners and small manufacturers more autonomy. Independent websites have higher flexibility in sales strategies and product innovation, and can provide personalized products and services. The rise of independent websites is driven by changes in technology services, user groups, traffic methods, etc., accelerating the global deployment of independent websites.

Combining Social Media and the Independent Website Model

The popularity of social media and the rise of short videos have prompted consumers to shift from search shopping to grass-root shopping. Independent stations can attract traffic through social media more freely, and can convert consumers to the private domain traffic pool of independent station sellers. There are two modes for independent stations: SaaS-based building platform and self-building based on cloud servers using open source building tools, among which cloud servers are more cost-effective, with better access quality and website stability.

The Importance of Platform Selection

For overseas brands, cross-border e-commerce independent stations can operate more freely and personalized, achieve secondary conversion, improve consumer brand loyalty and brand premium conversion rate. However, in order to succeed in the field of independent stations, choosing the right platform is crucial.

The Dilemma of Traditional Cloud Servers

The building platforms on the market vary in quality, and the charging and service standards are inconsistent, which has led many sellers to get into trouble when trying independent stations for the first time. Traditional cloud servers are mainly oriented towards the needs of large enterprises, posing high costs, high thresholds, and decision-making difficulties for small and medium enterprises and individuals.

Tencent Cloud Lighthouse Solution

Tencent Cloud's lightweight application server Lighthouse can help sellers build stable and reliable cross-border e-commerce independent sites in less than 1 minute at a very low cost. Compared to traditional cloud servers, Lighthouse is simpler and easier to use, mainly targeting small and medium-sized enterprises and individual users. It simplifies the user experience, shields complex technical details, and provides a simple and intuitive billing model.

Characteristics of Lighthouse

Lighthouse provides pre-installed applications such as WordPress, WooCommerce, and Baota Panel, as well as features like one-click remote login, remote command execution, to help users quickly build websites. The high-bandwidth traffic package sells basic cloud resources in a package form, enabling convenient one-click application building. The independent management console supports Tencent Cloud's Web Console and Tencent Cloud Assistant Mini Program, offering functions like one-click instance purchase, creating new applications, etc.

Suitable for cross-border sellers

Using Lighthouse, sellers can easily set up a ready-to-use standalone site based on WordPress and WooCommerce. WooCommerce, as the main e-commerce plugin for WordPress, is the preferred site-building tool for selling products internationally. With Lighthouse, even beginners can easily set up and configure WooCommerce, and the entire process can be completed in less than 1 minute.

Seize the opportunities in the post-pandemic era

With the normalization of the pandemic, overseas consumption is gradually recovering, and the Chinese cross-border e-commerce export industry will usher in new development opportunities. In a situation where product homogenization is severe, the independent site model is more suitable for brand building. By upgrading aspects such as content creativity, overall visual elements, and product packaging, sellers can find a differentiated market breakthrough.

Adjust strategies, establish a moat

Facing industry changes, sellers need to keep up with the trends of the times, adjust their channel layout, break through platform limitations, and seek new ways out. The independent site model provides sellers with the opportunity to establish their own moat, allowing them to stand out in the fierce market competition.