If you want to be an independent station, then you have to ask yourself, do you really know about independent stations?
Learn from the past to learn from the presentcan move at the same time. So we still have to start with the history of the development of independent stations.
The rise of the first independent stations
From 2006 to 2009, a large number of independent website sellers were born and began to thrive, such as Lanting Jishi, Global Tesco, Banggu, etc., which are typical sellers who have transformed or expanded from eBay to independent stations.
The next three or four years is a period of rapid development of independent stations, in this batch of independent station sellers, not only created a single activity with a single product cost of about 1 yuan, so that the independent station can obtain more than 10,000 accurate registered users at one time, but also created a sales of more than 100 million US dollars in three or four years of existence, and received tens of millions of dollars in investment.
What kindThe big pictureThe rise of the first independent stations was achieved.
products: The advantages of Made in China and the overcapacity of some industries.
The independent station of cross-border e-commerce Chinese sellers that broke out during this period has significant characteristics in terms of products and operations:
Products: cheap, homogeneous, copycat, light and small. (Small-package delivery, and then with the development of logistics channels and overseas warehouses, it gradually extended to medium and large goods.) ）
Operation: Batch sweeping, fast shelves, fast turnaround (less hoarding to improve inventory turnover), large-scale operation. (The rapid operation of the whole process from development to sales of the hot-selling category, and quickly replicate this mode of operation.) ）
The advantages of Made in China ensure the ability of cross-border e-commerce to output products at high speeds, and the abundant and even excess production capacity acts as a powerful driving force, which is also what the industry and the best news can seeDe-capacity, de-inventory, de-leveraging, and cost reduction
In this context, sensitive cross-border e-commerce enterprises quickly control the backlog of finished products, semi-finished products and fabrics in clothing inventory at low cost, and even purchase these inventories at a very low level.
Then, by using the mature first-chain design and production capacity of the domestic garment industry, we will start to enter the global service network through cross-border e-commerce independent stations in a low-cost sales wayRetail market
It was also during this period that a large number of independent clothing sellers grew explosively from China.
Traffic dividends: Rapid growth of Internet users around the world.
The traffic dividend of the rapid growth of Internet users, this is a topic that has been advertised for a time, but it is true and objective, theseTraffic dividendsDirectly construct and continue to consolidate the buyer market demand for cross-border retail.
User experience: Changes in shopping patterns in the retail sector.
Walmart, Carrefou, Tesco, Sears, Bestbuy, Rakuten, Macys, Otto at this stage....It is still a leader in the relevant fields of the retail industry.
eBay is trapped by the continuous change of policies and rules after rapid development, and various uncertainties have caused the development to be sluggish, as mentioned above, the number of Amazon sellers, the proportion of actual active sellers, the number of buyers, etc., are in urgent need of growth.
Retail industry giants are facing the rapid changes in buyer traffic entrances (Internet) and the transformation of shopping methods (** are obviously not sensitive and enthusiastic enough: Sears, Walmart, Carrefou, and BestBuy Although they have strong offline retail experience, they are subject to the lack of Internet online retail experience, and it is difficult to break through the offline physical retail".The genetic dilemma
Founded in 2001, Newegg is still plagued by rigid decision-making and slow-reacting market strategies......At that time, China's genetic e-commerce retail platform with rapid response ability and global vision: DHGATE was founded in 2004 but was weak, AliExpress was launched in 2010 and lost its opportunity, and Wish App was born in 2011 and grew up two years later.
The times not only provide opportunities for ebay, Amazon and other cutting-edge changemakers, for the emerging group of independent stations among cross-border e-commerce Chinese sellers around 2006, they have seen the infinite possibilities of Internet user growth, and have also realized major changes and opportunities for new shopping habits from eBay and Amazon platforms.
What is the timing
The trend is irreversible and can only be changed by following the trend
Obviously, the environment of the cross-border e-commerce industry is completely different from a few years ago, in the past, there was capital, the platform was built, the team was in place, and the high-speed operation was carried out in a simple and rough way.
If you follow the old routine now, it will definitely not work. Recently, there are still sellers who say that the established independent station will be positioned in the product line of low-price standard categories, if there is no special strategy similar to Pinduoduo to survive outside of **Tmall Jingdong, it is obviously cannon fodder.
The trend is irreversible and can only be changed by following the trend
Comparing past experience with the current environment, it seems that some direction can be found.
GamblingZhishu says to look forward and reason backwards, so what is the direction of change with the trend?
Find your niche
For most of the standard or non-standard category of quasi-independent station sellers, before officially investing in the independent station project, it is more important to find the niche market of their own products - in the big marketIn the cracksSurvive the market.
The niche market is the basic guarantee of traffic, and with a niche market, we can talk about the website construction plan.
You can try to dig from three aspects: advantageous traffic**, unique products, and excellent user experience, these traffic from the niche market can create dividends.
The usual characteristics that fit the "niche" of online retail are:
Product upgrades, for example, offering products that meet the interests of a small group of buyers
User experience upgradesFor example, the shopping mode is more convenient, providing better pre-sales or after-sales guidance, better product design, and product customization
Differentiated categories: Weak categories of large platforms, or ignored by them;
Differentiated market: Weak markets for large platforms, or neglected by them, such as small language markets (which I mentioned earlier).
Of course, in the cross-border e-commerce industry, it is also common to look at the niche market first and then have a product, for example, it is one of the common methods to determine the final main category after conducting multi-category product testing in a small language market.
Of course, whether it is following the trend or going against the current, the most important thing isSeize the moment and do your best
Inspiration**Yu: Know everything about the cross-border e-commerce community (three questions from the independent station: do it or not?When to do it?How?）