What is the "correct way to open" e-commerce companies going overseas? On October 26, the 2023 "Lingxing ERP Growth Cross-border Seller Growth Summit" was held in Shenzhen, and more than 1,000 cross-border sellers in the Greater Bay Area explored the opportunities and ways of cross-border business growth. At the scene, a group of well-known organization management experts, brand marketing experts, financial and tax management experts and other experts shared hot issues such as cross-border trends, brand building, financial and tax compliance, data value, and AI innovation.
The global cross-border looks at China, and China's cross-border looks at Shenzhen. "In recent years, Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce industry has developed rapidly. The reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society learned that the data from the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce showed thatIn 2022, Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume will reach 191.4 billion yuan, accounting for more than 10% of the country's total, and it is in a leading position, a year-on-year increase of 24 times. It is reported that the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce has maintained an average annual value of 2More than 3 times the increase. At present, the annual output value of Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce industry has exceeded 500 billion yuan.
According to incomplete statistics in the industry,At present, there are more than 150,000 cross-border e-commerce sellers in Shenzhen, and almost half of Chinese sellers are on Alibaba International Station, AliExpress, Lazada, eBay and other platforms, and one-third of Amazon's Chinese sellers are from Shenzhen。In other words, the "cross-border e-commerce capital" has gradually become an important business card of Shenzhen, the "first city of foreign trade".
At the regulatory level, in July this year, the Shenzhen Municipal Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau issued the "Guiding Opinions on Shenzhen's Financial Support for Foreign Trade to Stabilize the Scale and Optimal Structure" to further increase financial support and promote the high-quality development of Shenzhen's foreign trade. Among them, it is clearly proposedImprove the level of cross-border ** revenue and expenditure facilitation, and promote the standardized and innovative development of cross-border e-commerce
Focusing on long-term value, brand is the "password" for growth
However, with the intensification of competition in the cross-border e-commerce industry, branding has become a trend that cross-border sellers cannot ignore.
At this year's "Lingxing ERP Growth Cross-border Seller Growth Summit", focusing on the topic of "the way of brand growth", Jiang Nanchun, chairman of the board of directors of Focus Media, was a guest in Shenzhen, and believed that brands bring active and lasting traffic to enterprises, and a high proportion of active traffic is the key to achieving profitability for enterprises. He suggested that cross-border sellers can try to achieve brand growth from three paths: improving their minds, expanding the market, and expanding categories
Jiang Nanchun reminded the cross-border e-commerce industry that brand is the biggest "Matthew effect" in the business world, and in the long run, the head brand will often suck up most of the industry's profits, and the brand concentration will become higher and higher after the epidemic.
However, for common problems such as adaptation to water and soil, Li Chunbin, founder and CEO of Li Deming, also pointed out that in the process of organizing going to sea, cross-border sellers need to solve issues such as local cultural understanding, consumer insight acquisition, global first-chain layout and cross-cultural management, which will directly affect whether cross-border sellers can formulate effective market strategies and effectively face the uncertainty and volatility of the international market.
Cross-border e-commerce sprints to IPO, and compliance management becomes a test
Compliance management has become another "compulsory course" for cross-border e-commerce. According to the reporter's observation, up to now, at least 9 cross-border e-commerce enterprises in Shenzhen have landed in the capital market through direct listing or mergers and acquisitions. However, going public, especially an IPO (initial public offering), is not only a major financial decision for cross-border e-commerce, but also needs to cross the regulatory test.
The reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society learned that at presentThe main challenges faced by cross-border IPOs include the complexity of international laws and regulations, strict information disclosure mechanisms, financial compliance, internal control, and tax compliance involving equity financing.
So, how can cross-border enterprises manage finance and taxation in compliance and prepare for IPO? Ren Xiaoying, partner of Rongcheng Accounting Firm, shared that cross-border enterprises need to focus on issues such as equity structure, product certification, information system, data accuracy, overseas turnover tax and tariff to achieve fiscal and tax compliance. "For every cross-border enterprise, fiscal and tax compliance is an essential element to ensure the sustainable operation of the enterprise and help the enterprise reduce risks. She believes that the common problems that enterprises need to solve at present include the construction or adjustment of equity structure; product certification and infringement; multi-store model and platform dependency; Overseas turnover tax and customs duties in finance-related aspects; reliability of information systems and data accuracy.
She also reminded that cross-border enterprises need to implement targeted measures to ensure the compliance of enterprises according to the stage they are in, so as to prepare for IPO and listing.
Digital construction has become a game-breaking idea
In fact, as an important town of cross-border e-commerce, the growth of the industry against the trend is inseparable from the blessing of digital technology. According to the reporter's observation, with the development of the scale of cross-border enterprises, cross-border business faces more and more management variables such as sales, ** chain, and personnel level, and the management decision-making level has become complex, and digital construction has become a necessary action to support cross-border enterprise decision-making.
Fu Bo, CEO of Lingxing ERP, believes that growth will always be the core mission of cross-border enterprises, and the core goal of digitalization is to support business growth. Digitalization should be used to improve the efficiency of internal communication, realize digital construction, reduce communication costs, and support scientific decision-making with comprehensive, timely and accurate data, so as to make it easier for Chinese enterprises to grow their cross-border business.
Cross-border e-commerce enterprises with a long-term operation mode, good at seizing the opportunities given by the times, and daring to delve into expanding the boundaries of categories have more capital value and may become a new generation of Chinese multinational enterprises. Cai Chengjia, senior investment manager of Bell Capital, thinks.
Written by: Lu Liang, reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Agency