In October 2023, Indonesia's official ban almost made the market blueprint that Tik Tok Shop bet heavily on almost come to naught. This incident is like a prism, reflecting the potential crisis of over-reliance on a single market and a single platform.
This is also a wake-up call for all Chinese sellers, and the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads may fall at any time, cutting off the lifeblood of cross-border business.
In the context of the uncertain global economic situation, frequent bottlenecks in the first chain, soaring logistics costs and changing policies, multi-platform operation has become the consensus of sellers to avoid risks.
However, multi-platform operations are both a means and a challenge. What are the risks of multi-platform operation? How should sellers respond?
Risk points of multi-platform operations
Product selection risk
1.Because of the strong demand for selected products, causedRepeat selectionimpact on sales;
2.Purchased the same product,Exceeding the stocking schedule, which may result in an overstocking of inventory;
3.Products between different platformsThe feasibility of linkage sales is not high
4.A product on multiple platforms seems simple, in factIt's hard to sell at the same time, which is difficult to operate.
Compliance Risk
Factors such as exchange rate fluctuations, tax policy adjustments, intellectual property protection, cultural differences adaptation, information security assurance, logistics system construction, and changes in the political environment also constitute the risk matrix of multi-platform operations. For example,A product is compliant in some markets, but it may be infringing in another marketThis situation not only damages the brand image, but can also lead to hefty fines.
Manage costs
Multi-platform operation involves the synchronous coordination and control of multiple links such as order processing, inventory management, logistics and distribution. If you don't have enough people and aren't familiar with the rules of each platform, you're likely to get half the effort.
Inefficient management or problems, such as errors and omissions in orders, poor inventory turnover, logistics delays, etc., can cause financial losses. In addition, if the expansion team lacks efficient management, it is easy to cause the organizational structure to collapse.
Operational difficulty increases
Multi-platform operation means that sellers need to carry out refined operations between different e-commerce platforms, including but not limited to product listing, ** setting, marketing promotion, etc., any slight difference in these links may lead to very different sales results.
In addition, due to the characteristics of user groups, consumption habits and even the algorithm recommendation mechanism of each platform, the performance of the same product on different platforms may show significant differences, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of accurate operation of sellers.
The key to overcoming risk?
To overcome these operational risks,Building a multi-platform product selection mechanism is the key.
First of all, conduct basic market research, and if it is found that the target product has been monopolized by the head, the small seller should decisively give up the competition. If this situation does not exist, it is recommended that the seller refer to the following ideas to select products.
1.Analyze competitor product links
aSame paragraph:2 competitors of the same model, referring to their sales trend in the past three months;
b Similar paragraphs: 2 similar competitors, with the same function, appearance, category, and BS list;
c Potential: 1 competitor of the same model, the sales volume of the competitor link in the past 30 days is 100pcs.
Analyze the ranking of competing products, changes in sales, ad placement, whether pre-sales questions are active, new product launches, and more.
2.Sell new products and follow up the selection method
Pay attention to some of the new products that are selling well, and pay attention to the overall sales of the products on the platform.
3.Category digging deep selection method
Analyze multiple categories of the platform to create a "small and beautiful, specialized and refined" store.
*Notes:
Do not choose prohibited or infringing products;
Refer to the selling price of competing products;
Ensure stable business resources.
In the face of the complexity and challenges of multi-platform operations, sellers need to effectively identify and control various risks, and make good use of AI tools to achieve refined control of the whole process from product selection to operation to chain management. Only in this way can we continue to grow steadily in the global e-commerce market and achieve the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce business.