Skiing is one of the most popular winter sports in the world, and with the northern hemisphere entering the "quick-freezing" mode this year, the sales of winter sports goods such as skiing have entered the active stage of the market. For skiers, professional props and stylish ski clothes are indispensable. As a major manufacturer and exporter of sports and outdoor products, China's industry has ushered in hot business opportunities, and the number of orders for cross-border sales has also "ignited". A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned from the fashion cross-border e-commerce SHEIN that since January, the search volume of products related to "winter sports" has **40%, and the outdoor sports category, including ski products, has become one of the most popular and fastest-growing popular categories on the platform, and many sellers have ushered in a good start to sales in 2024 in the ice and snow economy, with sales increasing several times.
On SHEIN's overseas sales, the hot-selling ski sportswear, equipment and protective gear, thickened snow hats, non-slip snowshoes, self-heating gloves, and fully armed masks are mostly "made in China", which ignites a "fire" in the winter for the performance of domestic cross-border sellers. Shein** also provides consumers with a variety of suggestions for collocation combinations, such as ski wear with ski gloves, etc., to help them recommend products and match scenes in a scenario-based way, which not only helps consumers make smarter consumption choices, but also provides rich display windows and sales opportunities for cross-border sellers.
Yu Qiang was a seller who entered the Shein platform in the autumn and winter of last year, and his sales increased by 8 times in the first few months, and skiing-related socks and gloves were his selling points. Domestic ski consumers prefer plain products, and overseas consumers can accept more bright colors - this is the first market difference that Yu Qiang found. Yu Qiang said that cross-border e-commerce used to be an unfamiliar and challenging professional field in his cognition, and due to his limited knowledge, he could not speak foreign languages, and he had never gone abroad, so it was unimaginable for Yu Qiang to sell products directly to foreigners. By chance, Yu Qiang saw SHEIN's seller page in a friend's company, with concise pages and clear guidelines, coupled with many short free courses, which made Yu Qiang feel that "the threshold is not so high", and it may not be so difficult to open a cross-border store.
Wu Jinsong is from his father to take over the sports protective gear business, once, the family business is through the Yiwu offline stalls to meet foreign trade customers, they have long built their own protective gear factory, through a foreign trade orders to sell products abroad. As the second generation of foreign trade "factory", Wu Jinsong made two important innovation decisions after taking over the factory: the first is to register his own brand and strengthen qualification certification and standards; The second is to settle in the cross-border e-commerce platform SHEIN, directly reach a wider range of overseas C-end customers, and make the products more refined. Wu Jinsong believes that the overseas sports consumer market is mature and has a strong sense of protection, and has high requirements for the professionalism of sports protective gear, "If I only do offline foreign trade orders, it turns out that my understanding of products is very simple." But through SHEIN, I can directly contact a large number of users in different countries, so that there are no blind spots in the export of my products. The different body shapes, aesthetics, and sports habits of overseas sports enthusiasts have helped me to design a more comprehensive product portfolio and be more competitive in the overseas retail market."
Compared with other platforms, Wu Jinsong said that the current cooperation with SHEIN is an easy choice. Compared with traditional e-commerce channels that need to build their own logistics, put them into operation, and set up customer service, SHEIN's platform generation operation model allows Wu Jinsong to quickly put mature products on the shelves and sell them directly overseas, and can make his brand more independent visual and conceptual display. Since entering the company for a year, Wu Jinsong's team has "operated easily", with monthly sales reaching nearly one million yuan, and the company's operation employees responsible for docking with SHEIN have received a 50% salary increase.
Seizing the breakthrough from the peak season of ice and snow, seller Yu Qiang has set a bigger goal, saying that he is laying out more sports product lines, so that his business can break through the seasonal restrictions and achieve the ability to create explosive products all year round. Combined with the empowerment of the SHEIN team, he is observing the fashion trends and fashion elements of the next season's spring and summer, and developing more abundant professional sports products, "Our products are all five-star praise in the US market, we hope to make ice and snow sports accessories in autumn and winter, outdoor and cycling accessories in spring and summer, enrich more products and categories, and strive to increase sales by more than five times in 2024." ”
Industry analysts believe that the desire for high-quality outdoor sports products in overseas markets has not been fully satisfied, and the product demand gap is still huge, and the huge "fashion traffic" gathered on the Shein platform helps cross-border sellers accurately circle high-quality customers. Yu Qiang, Wu Jinsong and others firmly believe that starting from the SHEIN platform is facing the international stage of galloping around the world, and everyone has the opportunity to find their own opportunities in the tide of cross-border e-commerce, sell goods efficiently and go overseas with high quality.
Text: Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wen Jing.
Edited by Fan Hongwei.