Wen | Zhu Xiaopei
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The ups and downs of the epidemic, the slow recovery of the economy, and the policy of common prosperity are in an era of great changes, which has made some enterprises fall into anxiety.
"The traditional retail industry is becoming more and more difficult, the market price is chaotic, the competition is fierce, the gross profit space is gradually shrinking, and various pressures are plaguing the development of traditional dealers." Ke Renhu, general manager of Qicheng Supply Chain Company, which has been engaged in general trade for more than a decade, said so.
The future is like a fog. How can enterprises find their own opportunities and avoid being eliminated by the times?
Chen Chunhua, dean of the BiMBA Business School of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, believes that among all the uncertainties, only one thing is certain, that is, the customer. Young people, in particular, are future-oriented people who represent the way of life of the future. Companies should spend more time reaching out to young people and understanding their lifestyles in order to fully understand the business model of the future.
But what are young people thinking?
The cross-border consumption that more than 200 million people are buying may provide a window for enterprises to observe the consumption trends of young people up close and find their own business opportunities.
On January 4, CBNData and Tmall International Air Prophet released the "2022 Tmall International Consumer Trend Preview" report, which provided insight into the cross-border consumption trends of Tmall International beauty and skin care, personal care, home cleaning, medicine and health care, clothing and apparel, and maternal and infant categories, and predicted the development direction of the consumer market through analysis of consumption habits.
Cross-border e-commerce is bucking the trend, and the consumption window for young people
The younger generation, who are the natives of the Internet, began to take over the new market in an all-round way. They grew up with the Internet, and most of them belong to the only child generation, and their lives are good. Cross-border shopping has always been an important part of their lives.
The "black swan" of the new crown epidemic has strongly impacted the global economy and trade exchanges. In particular, the decrease in outbound shopping activities of residents has accelerated the shift from cross-border shopping to online. Relevant data show that after the outbreak of the epidemic, the search for how to buy overseas goods increased by more than 200%
In this context, cross-border e-commerce platforms have "bucked the trend" and built a scene connecting global goods and consumers for more and more consumers. According to new data from the General Administration of Customs, since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, China's cross-border e-commerce has played the advantages of online marketing, online transactions, and contactless delivery. The scale of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports continued to grow rapidly, reaching 1.98 trillion yuan, an increase of 15%.
Users who consume across borders also break new highs. The data shows that in 2020, China's cross-border consumer users have exceeded 200 million people, and with the continuous introduction of favorable policies, it is expected that the future market growth will be considerable. Among them, among cross-border consumers, young users account for the majority, and the proportion of post-90s users will reach 41% in 2020, and the proportion of post-00s will exceed 11%. In addition to the new middle class, young mothers and newcomers in the workplace have also remained active in cross-border online shopping, and most of them are also young people after 90.
Cross-border e-commerce has bucked the trend and developed rapidly, but it has also become a consumption window for more and more young people.
Cross-border e-commerce bonded warehouse
Among the various cross-border e-commerce platforms, Tmall International, which has been at the forefront of the CBNData Report for five consecutive years, as a new form of cross-border e-commerce, supports overseas merchants to accelerate their entry into China to explore the Chinese market full of opportunities through the use of digital technology and cross-border supply chain capabilities. It brings the world's latest and most fashionable good goods to domestic users, and also leads import consumption, making it a window to observe the consumption trend of young people.
What are young people who are "wild consumption" buying?
To use one word to describe the consumption trend of contemporary young people, it is necessary to "wild consumption".
In July 2021, Henan suffered a huge flood, and after Hongxing Erke low-key donated 50 million yuan of materials for disaster relief, a large number of netizens poured into the brand's live broadcast room to place orders. When the anchor advised everyone to consume rationally, netizens shouted "I want wild consumption" in the bullet screen.
The consumption model created by american consumer psychology and behaviorist D.I. Hawkins believes that the lifestyle composed of consumption and use constitutes people's self-concept. This self-concept is all our own thoughts and emotions. In short, "I buy, therefore I am".
"Wild consumption" is unfettered consumption. The products that people are willing to identify with for themselves may be functional, aesthetic, design, or conceptual, story, and value orientation, paying a premium. In cross-border e-commerce, young people have also shown this new trend of emotional consumption.
According to the "2021 China Cross-border Haitao Consumer Industry White Paper" released by iResearch Consulting, more than 80% of users have at least one time a month, of which post-95 and post-00s are the fastest growing import consumer groups, and Tmall International has also become the preferred import consumption platform for young people to gather. After upgrading slogan "My Global New Discovery", Tmall International has also focused on leading the new trend of import consumption.
According to the trend preview report released by Tmall International and CBNData, lazy but delicate is the way of life of this young people.
They like to take into account the beauty and practical "light sports wear", love the sea tao niche perfume, will be according to the season, wear, mood with different notes, floral notes, fruit notes, oriental notes are the most popular. They are also addicted to punk regimens and snack-based regimens. Driven by their demand, many imported vitamin brands on Tmall International have launched gummy dosage forms, melatonin has become "sleep water", hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and other beauty ingredients can also be eaten orally, and customized vitamins are popular.
UNILEVER OLLY melatonin gummies
In the exquisite lifestyle, this young people's Makeup "Ingredient Party" is also growing day by day. According to the data, 64% of consumers will focus on ingredients when purchasing skin care products, solve a variety of skin problems in a targeted and efficient manner, and pursue "precision skin care". Driven by the Ingredient Party, Tmall International's sales of imported functional skin care products increased by more than 200% year-on-year, of which retinol, bosein, ceramide, fruit acid, vitamin E and other ingredients attracted the most attention.
Not only beauty, shampoo, body care and other personal care categories demand has also accelerated the upgrade, "oil skin care" is a new trend of personal care consumption this year, hair care essential oils, bath oils, body oils and other categories in Tmall International growth rate rapidly.
In addition, the post-95 and post-90s young groups joined the front line of parenting, and they advocated the concept of refined and professional parenting and began to "low-sensitivity parenting". On Tmall International, the sales growth rate of low-sensitivity milk powder is ahead of the entire milk powder category, and the demand for milk powder with advanced effects such as safety and hypoallergenicity, allergy prevention, and allergy treatment has grown rapidly.
Today, China's cross-border consumer users are close to 300 million. The domestic market has shown strong potential for domestic demand and continues to attract new overseas brands and new products into China.
The data shows that in the past three years, the number of Tmall International overseas brands has doubled. At present, more than 29,000 overseas brands from 87 countries and regions around the world have settled in Tmall International, covering more than 5,800 categories. Among them, more than 80% of brands have entered China for the first time, which has also provided business opportunities for cross-border import enterprises.
Nugget cross-border business
The Chinese market, which has taken the lead in recovering from the epidemic, is becoming the main battlefield for global brand expansion and sales, and also provides potential development opportunities for enterprises engaged in cross-border imports. After a period of inspection, Qicheng Supply Chain Company chose to join cross-border e-commerce and reached a strategic cooperation with China's O2O Cross-border Business Department.
However, the supply chain of cross-border e-commerce is very complex, involving brand supply, cross-border logistics, brand marketing and so on. Most cross-border e-commerce practitioners, especially suppliers of new brands, lack relevant experience, and some even have zero experience. It is not an easy task to seize business opportunities in cross-border e-commerce.
Chen Changwu, general manager of Shantou New Life Supermarket Co., Ltd., a cross-border e-commerce practitioner, after running the company for a period of time, found that cross-border e-commerce is no better than shopping in physical stores, and to really do big business, it is also necessary to start in many details such as manpower, packaging, and logistics.
Considering the various problems encountered by cross-border trade enterprises in actual operation, Tmall International launched three new cross-border import services of "cross-border brand station", "new world factory" and "overseas direct purchase" at the global investment promotion in 2022.
Having a source of goods, but not understanding brand operation and logistics, is the current situation of many practitioners who want to enter the cross-border ranks. Through Tmall International's "cross-border brand station" one-stop full custody service, the brand can only be responsible for supply, and other follow-up operations can be handed over to Tmall International to do. Moreover, you can also enjoy benefits such as free platform annual fee, rookie delivery fee discount, and no commission fee for Taonei marketing platform. According to the data comparison, brands that use this service can reduce the overall operating costs by more than 50%.
At present, many overseas brands have achieved rapid growth through "cross-border brand stations". In November last year, a newly settled German coffee machine brand achieved an outbreak of sales of more than 200,000 in double 11 in 10 days, and daily sales are still maintaining steady growth.
However, due to the impact of the epidemic, some overseas brands have become problematic even in processing and production. Considering that many overseas small and medium-sized brands are facing the dilemma of factory shutdown and insufficient supply chain capacity, Tmall International pioneered the "bonded import + retail processing" model, so that the overseas finished product processing of enterprises can be placed in the domestic bonded area.
It is understood that under this model, cross-border new products can be shortened to 3 months from research and development to listing, and short-term goods can also be delivered within 48 hours, greatly shortening the supply cycle. In this way, overseas brands can take advantage of China's developed production and processing industry to improve the efficiency and stability of cross-border supply chains.
Tmall International's first daily chemical new world factory
For overseas brands that have not settled in and opened stores, they can directly put their products into Tmall International Overseas Warehouse through "Overseas Direct Purchase" and sell directly to China with one click. In the past two years, the sales scale of overseas direct purchase business has increased by about 10 times.
China is a vast consumer market, and there are huge business opportunities lurking in cross-border e-commerce. However, for overseas brands and trading companies, under the traditional model, there is a long distance between Chinese consumers. These three new services of Tmall Nation have built a direct bridge between overseas brands and Chinese consumers. Through these three new services, overseas small and medium-sized brands can quickly enter China, and can reduce costs and increase efficiency, and create profit points.
Chen Chunhua believes that taking technology as the starting point is the best way to quickly stick customers. For most overseas brands and trade-oriented companies, they do not have technical advantages. And this is precisely the advantage that Tmall has accumulated over the years.
Tmall International uses its own technological advantages to discover and lead import consumption trends while opening up its own resources. While providing consumers with more product choices, it also provides a low-cost and efficient gold digging ground for cross-border small and medium-sized brands, and also opens up a broader imagination space for themselves.