Located in the center of Sakata Street. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Two girls are doing cross-border e-commerce live broadcasts in front of the camera. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Shenzhen Bantian, a place famous for its IT industry, is also one of the main gathering places for cross-border e-commerce in Shenzhen. According to incomplete statistics, Bantian has about 10,000 cross-border e-commerce enterprises. However, some senior practitioners firmly believe that the number of cross-border e-commerce enterprises here has long exceeded this number.
On January 12, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce announced that the import and export volume of Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce in 2023 will reach 3,265300 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 744%。There are more than 150,000 cross-border e-commerce export enterprises in Shenzhen, accounting for almost half of Chinese sellers on platforms such as Alibaba, AliExpress, Lazada, and eBay, and one-third of Amazon's Chinese sellers are from Shenzhen.
After more than ten years of development, the cross-border e-commerce industry has gone through several ebb and flow, with people constantly coming in and people leaving. Overall, there are many more people coming in than going out. In this field, the legendary stories of "Four Youths in South China" and "Five Tigers of Bantian" can always attract and inspire young people who are new to the circle. But sometimes what is more inspiring are the various versions of grassroots counterattack stories circulating in the market.
After cross-border e-commerce, the import and export volume increased by 74% year-on-yearIn 2023, 4% of practitioners in Shenzhen have strong confidence in the future development of cross-border e-commerce. "Judging from the overall development curve of the industry, there have been periods of rapid growth and slow periods. But overall, the industry is upward. A senior practitioner said. aStart a business.
From zero to hundreds of millions of sales, it only took someone a year and a half.
Located in Bantian Street, Lehui Center is a business park that has not been officially put into use for a short time. 70% of the companies stationed here are related to cross-border e-commerce, including sellers, logistics service providers, content service providers, legal consulting, etc. In Bantian, Pinghu and Nanwan in Longgang District, there are many such office buildings. In every cross-border e-commerce park, a microclimate has been formed.
Hunan Wenwen Biao is one of many cross-border e-commerce practitioners in Shenzhen, where he runs a cross-border logistics company. In 2017, it was precisely when he saw the rapid growth curve of the cross-border e-commerce industry that he chose to resign from a domestic logistics company to start a business and enter cross-border logistics. Over the past 6 years, his cross-border logistics company has grown with the industry and is now well-known in the industry.
In addition to logistics providers, Wen Biao also has a well-known identity in the circle - the manager of the cross-border e-commerce industry. He once worked as a reporter in a mainstream economic class in China, and many times he observed the industry as an observer. Wen Biao said frankly that the cross-border e-commerce industry is not big at present. With the continuous change of the working population, cross-border e-commerce is embarking on the track of high-quality development. In the early days, eating the dividends of poor information, many people "got rich overnight". Later, with more and more platforms, more and more transparent information, and more and more abundant categories, the competition in this industry is becoming more and more fierce.
For more than ten years, with the development of the industry, the story of grassroots counterattack has always circulated among the industry. Of course, there are more and more examples of elite people participating in cross-border e-commerce. "Some people were still working in the factory two years ago, and after two years of entering cross-border e-commerce, they sold hundreds of millions. There are also people who are elites of foreign companies, who resigned and devoted themselves to the tide of cross-border e-commerce, and did very well. Wen Biao said.
Although the seller Ou Wenhua did not take the script of "grassroots counterattack", his company did only spend a year and a half to achieve more than 100 million sales from scratch. Before stepping into cross-border e-commerce, he worked in domestic e-commerce for many years. As domestic e-commerce becomes more and more popular, more and more people choose to do cross-border e-commerce. In 2016, with the mentality of "others mine, we sell water is also good", he entered the cross-border e-commerce industry. But at the beginning, it was not to be a seller, but to do cross-border e-commerce training. It only took one year to become the largest in Shenzhen in the field of cross-border e-commerce training. "Later, I found out that many of the trainees we trained have become big cross-border e-commerce sellers, but our training business is shrinking. The simple reason is that more and more people know how to do it, and there is no longer a need for training. Owen said.
For being a cross-border seller, Ou Wenhua is very confident, "With our ability to do domestic e-commerce, it is not too simple to do cross-border e-commerce." Two years after joining a "big seller", Ou Wenhua jumped out and partnered with two other people to build a cross-border e-commerce company. The company began preparations in September 2021 and began to sell goods in mid-2022, achieving more than 50 million sales that year. In 2023, the company's sales will reach more than 100 million.
Like Wen Biao, Ou Wenhua has also seen, heard, and experienced many stories, and has also witnessed the continuous development of the cross-border e-commerce industry. "The tide comes and goes, people come and go, and people keep coming in, which shows that this industry has vitality and development prospects. Owen said. b trend.
AI, live streaming brings goods, and cross-border e-commerce people embrace new outlets.
In the field of cross-border e-commerce, the story of "grassroots counterattack" is always widely circulated, but there are also people who "fall to the bottom" overnight.
In 2021, the most severe "ban wave" in Amazon's history occurred, resulting in a loss of more than 100 billion yuan in the industry. There are not a few of the top sellers in Shenzhen who have lost tens of millions, and some have even lost hundreds of millions. Looking back now, across this big storm in the field of cross-border e-commerce, the industry has become more compliant and more "volume". Here, "seven points rely on product selection, three points rely on operation" is a recognized iron law, so few sellers are willing to talk about what their owners sell. After all, no one wants to say anything that can make money.
AI is a new battlefield for cross-border e-commerce people in Shenzhen.
Cross-border e-commerce has "basic barriers" such as language and culture, which gives AI more room to play. As a "veteran" in the e-commerce circle, Qin Ge has a deep understanding of AI, which also makes him well-known in the Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce circle. He believes that AI, as a tool, will greatly reduce the threshold for engaging in cross-border e-commerce, and greatly benefit from language, talent, and product selection. "What cross-border e-commerce practitioners need to do is to cultivate AI talents, make good use of AI tools, and let AI play a role in product selection, drainage and other links, so as to improve the efficiency of practitioners. Qin Ge said that AI may bring new changes to the cross-border e-commerce circle.
In addition to AI, live streaming is also one of the most discussed topics in Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce circle. This e-commerce model, which is very popular in China, is now being replicated in the field of cross-border e-commerce little by little. Ou Wenhua introduced that around him, there are already many people who are trying cross-border e-commerce live streaming, including him. "But our company is not directly entering the field of cross-border live broadcasting, but cooperating with other companies. After all, it's a big piece, and I don't know if the effect is good or not. ”
Although cross-border e-commerce live broadcast has not yet been rolled out in a large area, it has obviously become a new outlet, and Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce people are also rapidly seizing this outlet.
South China City, located in Pinghu, also plays a pivotal role in Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce circle. Looking back on the history of cross-border e-commerce in Shenzhen, the "Four Heavenly Kings of South China City" and the "Five Tigers of Sakata" are always discussed together. After years of development, South China City cross-border e-commerce is actively embracing cross-border live streaming business. On August 11, 2023, the "2023 Longgang District First Live Cross-border E-commerce Selection Conference and Shopping Carnival" opened in South China City. Important information was revealed at this selection conference, and the South China City Digital Economy Live Broadcast Base, jointly built by Pinghu Street and Binjiang District of Hangzhou, will soon be operational, with a total area of 1420,000 square meters.
Whether it is AI or cross-border e-commerce live broadcast, these are just two of the more obvious ones in the battlefield of Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce "volume" in 2024. In the future, no one can completely say how Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce will "roll". However, Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce practitioners believe that with the entry of new players such as Temu and TikTok, the continuous development of emerging markets, and the in-depth application of practical tools such as AI, the plate of cross-border e-commerce is constantly expanding, and the industry is still on the track of positive growth. As before, cross-border e-commerce will attract more and more people in, and some people will be out for various reasons, and the story of Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce continues.