Independent Stores: A New Choice for Cross-border Sellers

Overview of Independent Website

For most cross-border sellers, independent websites are not completely unfamiliar, which is closely related to the increasing popularity of independent websites in recent years. However, most cross-border sellers may have only heard of it but not fully understood what an independent website is. What are its advantages?

An independent website is actually a self-owned e-commerce platform where sellers can upload their products on the website and then sell them through marketing, promotion, and other methods.

Development of Independent Websites

Independent websites first appeared in 2004, but at that time, the technical threshold for independent websites was high, and the user experience was relatively poor. Therefore, most sellers did not consider it as the best choice for going international. However, in recent years, with the emergence of SaaS service providers, the technical threshold for independent websites has been lowered, and the operation of independent websites has been simplified, making independent websites a new choice for more and more cross-border sellers.

Advantages of Independent Websites

Of course, the reason why independent stations can once again become the focus of the cross-border e-commerce industry is inseparable from their own advantages. First of all, compared to cross-border e-commerce platforms, independent stations have relatively low costs. Because third-party platforms need to extract commissions during the transaction process, which is not required for independent stations.

Secondly, independent stations can accumulate user data. In the era of big data, the value of data accumulation is very considerable. The reason why Facebook's ads had much higher conversion rates than ads on other platforms in the past is because Facebook used user data to implement precise remarketing. The user data accumulated by third-party platforms is held by the platform, and the data that sellers can obtain is very limited.

Furthermore, independent stations are not subject to platform rules. Platforms have many and complex rules. Independent stations basically have no rules and just need to operate compliantly, offering higher freedom. At the same time, the likelihood of independent stations being blocked is much lower relatively.

Finally, independent stations are also beneficial for sellers to accumulate brands. Brands can provide sellers with higher profit margins and a more stable source of orders, providing continuous momentum for the long-term development of independent stations.

Issues with Independent Stations

Naturally, independent stations will also have some issues. First of all, the operational difficulty is relatively high. Although the threshold for building a station has been lowered, the difficulty of attracting traffic is still relatively high. Sellers need to have a variety of skills, which can be learned gradually during the operation process. However, the initial number of orders may be relatively small, so sellers need to have a relatively stable mindset.

In addition, independent station sellers also need to handle logistics, payments, and other aspects themselves. In short, the overall advantages of independent stations are very obvious, but the operational difficulty is relatively high. However, regardless of operating on any platform, there will always be challenges, so sellers should consider whether or not to run an independent station from a long-term perspective.