Ezbuy, which focuses on Southeast Asia, has a highly recognized brand and a solid supply chain management capability, while Lanting's global customer acquisition ability and breadth for the European and American markets are also prominent. As the two companies complete their integration, synergies will arise between supply chain, warehousing and logistics systems in China, which in turn will contribute to the implementation of emerging market strategies
"Investment Times" reporter Su Hui
China's economy is an ocean, not a small pond.
The first China International Import Expo held in Shanghai on November 5 presented a Chinese market that firmly supports trade liberalization, economic globalization and actively opens up to the world. Large and small cross-border e-commerce, whether engaged in import trade or export trade, is fully prepared.
Three days later, on November 8, Lanting Jishi (litb.n), which has the title of "the first share of cross-border e-commerce", announced a blockbuster announcement. According to the announcement, it will execute a wholly-owned acquisition of ezbuy holding co., ltd. a full-category shopping platform for the Southeast Asian market. (hereinafter referred to as "ezbuy") protocol.
The transaction is expected to close in the near future. At that time, Lanting Group may appoint two new directors to join the company's board of directors, as well as a new chief executive officer appointed by the company's board of directors.
The Investment Times reporter learned that the company's new CEO (CEO) is He Jian, the founder and CEO of the acquired party ezbuy.
As the most leading cross-border e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, ezbuy has long focused on providing customers with professional b2c, c2c and other services. Currently, the platform has provided more than 3 million consumers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan with quality products from Chinese mainland, Taiwan, the United States, South Korea, Mayasia and Singapore. Lanting Jishi is a global e-commerce company founded in 2007, with 98% of its operating income coming from overseas users, and its main markets are located in Europe and North America. At present, the company can provide a variety of categories, a total of hundreds of thousands of independent goods.
"Although the establishment time is short, ezbuy has a lot of successful experience coupled with the many advantages of Lanting Gathering, and there are still great opportunities for this integration platform in the future." Talking about the respective advantages of Lanting Anding and ezbuy, He Jian is quite confident, "From the export direction, the development opportunities of cross-border e-commerce in the next five to ten years are still sufficient. ”
The external environment is turbulent, why choose to launch mergers and acquisitions in this time period? How can two companies with highly similar businesses avoid conflict and achieve integration? How will the future dual-platform development plan unfold? How can emerging market strategies be implemented through coordination? In response to the above questions, the reporter of investment times recently conducted an exclusive interview with He Jian, the new leader of Lanting Jishi.
The synergy is significant
"Investment Times": Lanting jishi and ezbuy this time to hold hands, what are the most noteworthy points?
He Jian: ezbuy is a leading cross-border e-commerce merchant in Southeast Asia and has a certain reputation in the region. In addition to Singapore, which is more well known, it operates in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan and other countries.
I think there are two core points of this merger. First of all, the market of Lanting Andi and ezbuy is just staggered, the main market area of Lanting is in Europe and the United States, and the main attack area of ezbuy is in Southeast Asia, there is no cross-repetition, which is actually very rare. Secondly, both sides are cross-border e-commerce, and the integration in supply chain, warehousing, logistics and other aspects is also very direct, and there is also a great synergy effect in the market. The entire cross-border e-commerce chain is very long, and every link and step can form an integration effect, which is very attractive.
Cross-border e-commerce from the rise to the development has also gone through many years, and now the aggregation effect is more and more obvious, we believe that this is a good opportunity, can make the business more plump, but also can win more countries markets and opportunities. It is believed that two companies together can produce a larger "chemical reaction".
Investment Times: Nowadays, the external environment has changed very drastically, what is the reason for choosing the current time point for M&A integration?
He Jian: For the export of cross-border e-commerce business, I am personally firmly optimistic. In fact, after I left the original industry and successively participated in some related projects overseas, I can find that the advantages of Chinese goods are overwhelming, and this advantage will not become smaller in a short period of time. In the next five to ten years, there are still very big opportunities to promote China's cost-effective products overseas.
For example, in our current textile and apparel flexible supply chain, one piece of cloth can place an order. If you want to design a new style, you can make it in batches in 7 to 15 days, and 30 or 50 pieces can be produced. With the progress of China's manufacturing technology and the upgrading of China's consumer market, it can be clearly seen that no matter how the external environment changes, the needs of foreign consumers are just needed, and China's cost-effective goods still have a very large market.
Investment Times: Where is ezbuy's core competitiveness?
He Jian: I think there are three main aspects of the core competitiveness. The first is localized operations. ezbuy started from Singapore and now gradually expands to other countries, all by solid step by step, our team will be willing to sink down and carefully study the local market, with as little market cost as possible, to do solid accumulation.
The second, and what we say relatively little about to the outside world, is that ezbuy's ability to fulfill the contract is very strong. Because the chain of cross-border e-commerce is very long, the middle not only involves a variety of product categories, but also involves domestic and overseas logistics lines, in this process, from furniture, small to jewelry, shipping, air transport, land transport, etc., our supply chain performance system capabilities can be optimal. How can we reach a stronger level? Indeed, benefiting from years of accumulation, various talents in the team will summarize and solve the problems arising in different scenarios one by one, thus forming a set of unique templates, and finally forming a set of systems after standardization, which can facilitate the supply chain operation of different regions for reference.
Of course, the template cannot be copied completely, but in areas with similar social forms, the previous operational experience will play a considerable role, which is the fundamental reason why we are not eager to expand steadily.
After the system matures, the follow-up operation will be relatively rapid. For example, Pakistan, where we are expanding, may only take more than half a year to achieve a more satisfactory effect in the sorting out and upgrading of the supply chain.
The third and very important point is that the team is very good at learning. Whether it is Lanting Jishi or ezbuy, it can be regarded as one of the highly educated teams in cross-border e-commerce. We hope to take this opportunity to precipitate iterative capabilities on all lines, and no matter which country or region we enter, we can keep up with changes in a timely manner.
Lanting set momentum in the future can be expected
"Investment Times": As the new CEO of the company, how to consider the subsequent development of Lanting Jishi?
He Jian: I have also thought deeply about this question. Lanting collection development for so many years, the middle ups and downs, but its core advantages are still there, one is its delivery capabilities, that is, the ability of the platform to obtain customers in the world is still available; in addition, Lanting collection started earlier, the entire supply chain system is very deep, although it has experienced a lot of wind and rain, there are still many suppliers to support; third, its involvement in the market is indeed very extensive, only one platform can build a cross-border e-commerce architecture that can accommodate so many countries and such languages, which need to be configured one by one to configure team maintenance and construction. It's a lot of difficulty and it's remarkable. These long-term accumulations are actually very meaningful, and what we need to do now is how to optimize the architecture and achieve profitability.
In retrospect, Lanting's advantages may also be shortcomings in some aspects. For example, although there are many countries involved, in some markets, income and cost obviously cannot match, and markets without scale advantages cannot actually support this huge structure, and it is naturally difficult to produce economic benefits. In addition, the cost of customer acquisition is increasingly high, and it is difficult to retain customers without a better user experience to match. Therefore, for Lanting Jishi, "collection" may be the key word for some time to come. But it is precisely because of the "harvest" that there may be a relatively large "rise" in scale.
Specifically, the key markets of Lanting will still be placed in Europe and the United States, and Brazil, the Middle East and other countries and regions are also the direction of key maintenance. In addition, Lanting Jishi will also use its strong and effective delivery capabilities to help ezbuy gain customers in Southeast Asia and increase the level of profits again. ezbuy will help Lanting to do a good job in the user experience in some key maintenance countries, the process is smooth, and the profit is just around the corner.
"Investment Times": After years of development, the cross-border e-commerce market has gradually entered the red ocean from the blue ocean, how will the company face competition from different aspects?
He Jian: For us, there are two kinds of platforms that really have a competitive relationship, one is local e-commerce, this type of platform may have the support of giants behind it, and the other is the same cross-border e-commerce. For now, though, neither of these two types of "adversaries" poses much of a threat to us.
Compared with local e-commerce, we have a large number of Chinese suppliers behind us, and the categories of goods we can provide are far beyond the reach of local e-commerce. For the platform with the support of giants behind it, we know so much about the sinking of the local market, and it is far from being able to simply pile up funds. We want to be able to maintain this advantage and replicate it within the wider region.
In fact, the cross-border e-commerce model can quickly achieve profitability when it goes through, and each link has a scale effect, and the larger the scale, the more profitable it is.
"Investment Times": What is the company's response to the current stock price situation of Lanting Jishi?
He Jian: The stock price is always a reaction to the value of the company, and I think the focus is on letting the company's value be reflected as soon as possible. The foundation of Lanting's gathering momentum is good, but the current valuation is low, and if the company's value can be released, the market will still react.
It can be seen that the company's shareholders have already made some moves in terms of Aucom and Zall. In particular, Zall Zhilian, the major shareholder of Lanting Jishi, is also a leading cross-border business platform service provider, focusing on providing excellent domestic logistics and supply chain financial services, and believes that it will bring more help to Lanting Jishi in the future development.