Transcript of the interview
Earlier last month, the Weibo account "I am Jerry Guo" posted a video about two Chinese merchants who exploded on Amazon Black Five, one of which is Orolay, a down jacket brand from Jiaxing.
Orolay's $159 down jacket sold quite well, and there were many reports overseas, the earliest report that could be found was in 2018, and the author told how her friends on the Upper East Side were conquered by this down jacket. This down jacket is still selling well, across the epidemic before and after, even known as Amazon Coat, now go to the United States Amazon to search for coat, the clothing is very high, this situation is almost impossible to happen in Chinese e-commerce.
Earliest reports in 2018
In fact, this design was a Taobao hit as early as 2013, many brands have been launched, very popular, because there are too many brands and merchants involved, so that it can not find an accurate original source.
Why did Taobao's 8-year-old hit go viral on New York's Upper East Side? How different is local fashion consumption from China? Are more domestic brands using the cross-border e-commerce model to earn US knives?
With all kinds of questions, I interviewed three Chinese who live and work in the United States and asked them to talk about cross-border e-commerce, and perhaps we can find some answers from them.
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1.
Sabrina, who studied in the United Kingdom, lived in the United States for nine years, ran in China and the United States, lived in Shanghai and Baltimore, and the family did clothing ODM business in Changshu, and knew more about the domestic clothing processing industry.
Sabrina (second from left) previously exhibited in China
I'm talking about a more personal feeling, not representing cities like New York and California, but it should be like most of the United States outside of New York and California.
The mall clothing is the big name of the model, the rest is zara, the style is monotonous, loose. Unlike China, the size is that Americans have a very thin to a variety of oversized sizes, and the size of a piece of clothing is very large. The vast majority of sports-side brands like North Face and Michael Kors start selling and getting discounted.
Now go to offline shopping is still quite a lot, Macy's, Nordstrom, and outlets, outlet business has been very good, daily will go shopping, especially from China.
After the epidemic, there are a lot of online shopping, generally will go to the brand official website shopping, buy Zara to Zara, buy North Face to North Face's official website, Nordstrom's rack is also very good, is the kind of discount is more, luxury goods will go to farfetch.
Unlike many domestic emerging brands that are gathered in Taobao, many brands in the United States sell on their official websites and offline stores, not on other people's platforms, and feel that there are no e-commerce emerging brands that can threaten them.
Amazon is not doing well in the clothing area, and it is far away from Taobao. I enter the coat, out are very ordinary styles, open the inside on two pictures, at most add a video, no customer service, is a one-way communication, no emphasis on the concept of the store, you love to buy or not to buy, very labor-saving, want to buy on the press an order, do not want to return. Recently Amazon added a try-on service that costs money when worn well.
Clothes that sell well on Amazon are topped, like the amazon coat you said, can be sold for a long time, because more and more reviews, rankings more and more, a dress sold for several years. Magical, right? It has long been obsolete in China.
The return policy in the United States is very relaxed, if you want to return it, the returned goods merchants have to deal with, and there are special places to buy these returns. TJmax is a mall, the whole store has everything, basically new, but it may be a return. Amazon itself also sells returns, the price is much cheaper, and it is all luck to get what goods you get. I haven't bought much about returns, so I don't know much about them.
Logistics, Amazon has the same day and the next day to arrive, it is relatively fast. The delivery speed of the brand's official website is very different, ten days and half a month, I bought a pair of North Face shoes, almost a month has not been shipped, generally contact customer service by phone, Email is also OK.
Of course, the official website has fast and slow, and the location of the warehouse has a relationship, the United States west to send freight to the East of the United States, through the entire United States, this absolutely can not be fast, if there are warehouses on both sides will be much better.
When living in the United States, I also buy clothes on Taobao, and many clothes on Taobao cannot be seen on the streets of the United States. Recently I bought a few pajamas on Taobao and waited for a month or two, took air parts to the United States first, and then transported to the East of the United States with super slow road traffic, for people in the United States and West, Taobao is more friendly. I this air parts, two pieces of children's clothes freight 200 yuan, in addition to pay taxes, it is reasonable to say that no more than 800 knives U.S. customs should not collect taxes, Taobao is each single tax.
Sabrina recently bought pajamas on Taobao (the actual payment display is very low because of the additional coupon)
There are some people living in the United States on the Little Red Book, everything is bought on Taobao, shipped to the United States, the freight is very cheap, there are people around me like this, hoarding good things together to transport over, cost-effective.
American consumption model, a family may go to the supermarket to buy a few carts of things, buy clothes is also a family to each person to a few pieces is to complete a shopping, this situation is quite common, unlike our domestic shopping before half a day to buy two clothes, pay attention to shopping.
My son is in a private school here, which is the best school in our state, and there should be a lot of rich people in private school parents here, and their classmates basically wear Paagonia and Under Armer, and Under armer itself is a school uniform. There are also people who wear big geese, and Moncler is much less. Before I also bought LV and Moncler for the baby, I slowly found that I rarely wore this side, so I began to wear Patagonia. As a mother who has come to China, I always feel very annoyed, Patagonia has not changed much, every year I buy the same, even the color choice is not much, just like changing the Apple mobile phone, changing every year, changing it seems to be the same as not changing.
Patagonia costs nearly $300
I personally feel that brands like Under Armer are not century-old enterprises, why can the market be taken by Asia, Europe and North America? This is not a clothing brand is not strong, this is the capital is strong. American capital can easily take a brand globally. Why can't our brand go abroad? The problem is not entirely at the level of the apparel industry.
I recently bought clothes on Nordstrom to see SHUSHU/TONG, sold not cheap, is a Designer brand in Shanghai, can't see how it sells, but very good, Nordstorm is a large chain mall in the United States, maybe physical stores also have, is a deep into the United States sales channels.
The living conditions of the east and west of the United States are quite different, and the climate is different, which may affect the clothing category. A lot of things in the United States are imported, there are various shopping websites, people do not care whether it is cross-border, which country is selling, who is selling, a website, paid money to send things over no problem, the whole process can not have a word of communication, there is a problem to write an email or call to customer service.
Most of the us doing business focus on politics, Sino-US relations will affect international trade, but there is no way to influence, if you can make money, you will continue to do, if the business is big, you will find a way to lobby the government. The American Clothing Association has this kind of department in DC, that is, which industry makes money, there will be people who go to the government to run errands, so it is said that those people on Wall Street influence politics, and American money affects politics. Even if the Sino-US relationship is not good, it will not be impossible to communicate in trade, the United States needs to make in China, at most add some money, the government draws more taxes, otherwise the days will not pass? If there are no such things at all, things are more expensive and of worse quality, and it is estimated that the people will also make trouble. The United States used to be a manufacturing power, and now manufacturing degradation does not mean that people cannot do it, but it is expensive to do it, and the United States that does clothing is a porter.
Regarding cross-border e-commerce, personal opinion: the United States clothing itself is shipped in across the border, e-commerce is not the same as China, the idea of e-commerce does not have to be put on Taobao, Amazon and other platforms, you can have your own way to sell. Warehouse selection address is very important, some successful e-commerce will choose to build a warehouse close to the ups logistics warehouse, the delivery speed is very fast, greatly improving the customer experience.
2.
Wei, living and working in New York for 5 years, is the Italian luxury brand North American offer buyer.
Buy luxury goods or go offline more, online business has been growing, but the main consumer offline, younger brands are estimated to sell better online. Amazon has no brand to buy, Amazon acquired its own several websites, I have not logged in, at most buy some cheap Legging, swimsuits, in short, practical, do not care about the brand of things.
I buy very miscellaneous things, not in China for several years, rarely buy clothes on Taobao, it is possible to buy fun things, such as funny T-shirts, shipped to the United States through a transshipment company. The epidemic used to arrive in 3 or 4 days, but now it is 1 or 2 weeks.
That army green Amazon Coat does have a sales record of 20,000 pieces, which is equivalent to Taobao's explosive model, and it is not surprising that this style is on fire in Amazon's customer base, Amazon is not a fashion shopping site, it is a life class. The choice in the United States is very rich, what brands are available, there are many discounts, so many outlets, the average young and fashionable girl will not choose clothes on Amazon, unless it is really functional. If you want to buy a brand, the low-end goes to the low-end platform, and the high-end goes to the high-end platform. Shein is a successful Chinese e-commerce company, and a little girl in her early 20s in the United States will buy cheap things on it.
Now the rich women on the Upper East Side will not buy that Amazon Coat, about the report on that dress, I casually searched for a New Yorker article (2019), said that in 2017 a small number of fashionable people wore it first, 2018 was popular, in 2019 the author wrote this article has been very embarrassed to buy this one, and many other media reports may be paid advertising. Some people say that wearing it again after a year feels like meme (similar to funny Weibo, memes). However, 150 knives a piece, almost 1000 yuan, sold so many pieces, did earn.
The epidemic is at home, and I have bought PUMA sweatpants at Costco. People here wear clothes for different occasions, work or special occasions will be dressed stylishly or decently, usually at home is generally comfortable, so even in the Upper East Side, many people are Pattonia, North Face, or comfortable Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli. New York is too big, each district is different, and midtown office workers are completely different from artists in Downtown or Brooklyn. I buy my own brands (because there are discounts, including three brands, high, medium and low end), and some brand websites. Do your own buyer, know when to discount, and there are multi-brand websites such as Moda Operandi and Mods operandi. Malls like Saks will go, soho will also go (big cards, small cards, tide cards are all).
The Loro Piana costs $4,030
There are many new brands in the United States, too many new makeup brands, all of which are startups, Glossier, celebrities' own makeup brands, etc., more clothing, what "liberates women from underwear" underwear brands, too good at storytelling, material environmental protection, women's entrepreneurship... Every time I was impressed by a new brand, I ended up buying it once and returning it once, which was too difficult to wear.
Once I saw an advertisement on Instagram, a jewelry site is very good, thought it was american, the shipment said 3 days to send, the result of payment after found that 3 days refers to 3 days to send, not to send, but from Suzhou.
I just came to the United States to register ebay, because I am China Id, do not give me registration, with customer service for half a day, not call me to provide a U.S. address, provided or not, said I am welcome to use other platforms, may be because Chinese suppliers pretend that the United States is more, so it will not give Chinese to register an account.
I think it is still relatively easy to start a business in China, sitting in the middle of the factory to start a business, Americans no matter what products they do have production pressure, either to do their own small workshops, studios, or have the capital to process overseas.
I knew a brand that made office furniture before, there were factories in China, OEM, but also had its own brand, to a U.S. office furniture website OEM a chair, sold 10,000 or 20,000 pieces a year, and then also prepared to sell their own brand to the United States, or in Amazon this platform, as well as furniture website platform, but also to solve the transportation, storage, customs clearance, tax declaration and other issues.
3.
Daniel Wang, who has lived in North America for more than ten years, lives in Shenzhen and Toronto respectively, and began to do e-commerce in the United States in 2018, not counting cross-border e-commerce in the traditional sense, is a local e-commerce company in North America, with its own four warehouses in North America, and the main market covers the north, west, south and north of the North American continent.
After the epidemic, at the beginning everyone was locked at home, and the turnover growth was relatively fast, but the later epidemic hit the economy too hard, resulting in rising logistics costs, a container was difficult to find, and then the income of North American end users was affected, forming a status quo where turnover rose, but profits did not rise.
Why is the down jacket of jiaxing brand sold so well overseas? One is because it is done early and the way of operation is also appropriate. I know more about the North American market, have a say, other markets do not understand, can only in terms of the North American market, the design of the down jacket is very North American style, sometimes you look at a product to know that it is probably Japan and South Korea or domestic, or overseas market, that overseas and divided into Europe and North America, the style is not the same.
Most of the North American good selling down jackets, like Canada goose, Moose Knuckle, Mackage, Nobis, and European such as Moncler these to compare, it is not difficult to find that the style is completely different, many years of these brands of style has not changed much, may only slightly modify the new model, this is the aesthetic of North America, it will not be like the Japanese and Korean markets, like the mainland market, every year need to be new, including their household appliances, Industrial product design is known for its stable and high quality, but their understanding of style design is not the same, lack of variation, the color is relatively plain, and there is a sense of edge and angle.
$657 moose Knuckle
We have a section is children's toys, selling children's Mercedes-Benz, BMW authorized cars, we think yellow, orange this bright color will be easy to sell, but the comprehensive long-term data, always black and white gray good to sell, this is the aesthetic of that market, we have to follow the choice of this market, not my choice, market feedback is very important, can help you sell.
Cross-border e-commerce is actually an important part of the trade war, there are reasons for our country's trade surplus and deficit, in addition, now that the cost of population is rising, the original domestic demographic dividend is gradually being eaten away, resulting in higher product costs, plus the profits of overseas dealers, the profits of traders, the profits of retail ends, the advantages are not too obvious. The purpose of our country's vigorous development of cross-border e-commerce is actually to redistribute the profits in the middle part, and to take out all the profits of these traders, distributors and retailers in the middle, and part of them are given back to our production enterprises, and some are given back to overseas end customers, so as to achieve the redistribution of benefits. Therefore, cross-border e-commerce is a very good model, in the trade war, we fight guerrilla forms to re-enhance the profits of production-oriented enterprises, so that our Chinese manufacturing is more valuable.
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The three interviewees all mentioned that in fact, Americans do not pay so much attention to the sense of trend in fashion consumption, especially relative to China, which can also explain why the amazon coat can sell for several years, once successfully hit the blockbuster, the sales period is quite long and profitable.
Orolay, which created amazon coat, also opened a Taobao store, with good sales, and many buyers can see from the evaluation that many buyers have watched Guo Jerry's video to buy, and praised "it is worthy of the best selling down jacket on Amazon in the United States."
Obviously, whether at home or abroad, relying on a variety of online media for sales conversion can play a significant role, there are similar ways to play, there are also very different ways to play, no matter which country the market, Made in China is time to bid farewell to relying on pure low prices for international competition.
Sooner or later, the garment industry will have to carry out industrial upgrading based on ecological upgrading, and low-cost inner rolls should gradually stop. (Original design is also to be well engaged)
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