keep this "hot product secret" well, and overseas e-commerce may be able to harvest a super hot product
2024-08-29
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how far is it from a new product with zero sales to a super hit? the answer is less than two months.
recently, tiktok for business held the 2024 shopnow brand e-commerce overseas marketing summit in shenzhen, and officially released the "tiktok for business overseas e-commerce handbook" (hereinafter referred to as the "handbook") at the meeting. the "handbook" captures the successful experience of creating super-explosive products, making it the operating direction and experience basis for merchants to go overseas.
it took less than two months to go from being unknown to being number one in the category
"it took us less than two months to get from a single product without any influence to the first place in the entire detergent category through the combination of influencers and advertisements." huang yaocong, head of seaways' overseas brand, said that seaways is a domestic household cleaning brand. in 2023, the company launched its overseas business, with the southeast asian market as its first stop and tiktok as its first platform. "from the official launch in september last year to the first quarter of this year, we have achieved the top 3 position in the same category among cross-border merchants in southeast asia."
"influencer marketing - information flow delivery - strengthening content" is the successful path for seaways to develop rapidly on tiktok. huang yaocong introduced that, first of all, when a good product is presented overseas, it has no voice, so it is difficult to impress users by talking to oneself about the goodness of one's own products, so it is necessary to rely on the power of influencers, and through the trust of fans in influencers, convey information to fans and more users. secondly, it is a mature experience of domestic short videos to form an information flow team and make good use of traffic. traffic can quickly reach users. the third is content, which is also the core. tiktok is a platform that pays great attention to content. from editing, directing to the story behind the brand, great efforts must be made. "in recent months, we have also begun to deploy live broadcast teams. for example, in several countries in southeast asia, especially the thai market, it is necessary to rely on brand self-broadcasting and influencer live broadcasts to develop. therefore, the gmv performance of live broadcasts in thailand is also relatively good."
under a series of promotions, seaways' bathroom cleaner became the first "hot product". understanding the market is a must. huang yaocong said that by understanding the sales trends of overseas shelf e-commerce, the price of products sold in supermarkets, and user surveys, it was found that southeast asian countries pay great attention to the cleanliness of toilets and bathrooms. the local product unit price is a bit low but the effect is not ideal, so seaways chose cleaners as a breakthrough for "hot products".
super hot product "three steps"
in fact, the path that seaways has taken to create "explosive products" is the three stages of creating "explosive products" summarized by tiktok for business in its "compendium", namely, breaking zero-new products, new products-explosive products, and explosive products-super explosive products.
breaking zero is the first hurdle. according to the guide, for merchants preparing to go overseas or just entering the market, achieving zero orders is an important indicator at this stage, and the key to achieving zero is to "select the right products and invest in the right advertising." before selecting products, you must conduct in-depth research on the target market, understand your competitors, and clarify your own product categories. in the advertising stage, tiktok for business provides an advertising product suitable for breaking zero - product card advertising (psa), which can amplify mall traffic, bring more exposure to products, and shorten the time to place orders.
after a new product appears, if you want to get more sales, you need to make the new product a hit. in the "treasure book", "hot products" are positioned as products with their own traffic and considerable sales. on the tiktok platform, products with an average daily sales of more than 30 orders in the past 30 days and a growth rate of more than 30% in the next 30 days can be called hot products, while super hot products are products with sales of more than 100 orders in the past 30 days and a sharp increase in sales in the next 30 days.
it is understood that in the overseas market, hot products account for less than 0.6%, but they contribute the vast majority of business to merchants. therefore, creating hot products is crucial for merchants at every stage of overseas expansion. if you want to seize new opportunities in overseas expansion, you must grasp the tips and strategies for creating hot products.
the "treasure book" summarizes the creation of hot products into four steps: understanding the local area, finding experts, selecting materials, and advertising. this means that merchants' product selection must first cater to the local market's customs, culture, aesthetics, and category preferences, and fully conform to local consumer habits. merchants can use short video ads (vsa) to achieve greater exposure and extend the cycle of high-quality content. at the same time, using the advertising tool that increases the gmv of products - product gmv max (global promotion product) can help merchants achieve automatic delivery of product card ads and short video ads, without the need for merchants to frequently adjust, and one-click operation to optimize the delivery effect.
creating a hit product is not the end. we need to extend the shelf life of the hit product, strive to make it a super hit product, and drive other products to "hit". the "treasure book" provides two solutions: one is to create a super hit product through live streaming; the other is to use "hot product sets" to bring more freshness and excitement to users, thereby increasing sales.
localize well in differentiation and compete in the overseas market
with the recovery of exports and the rapid development of the online market, the global market is becoming more and more attractive to merchants. according to data from the general administration of customs, china's total exports reached 12.13 trillion in the first half of 2024, an increase of 6.9% over the same period last year. among them, cross-border e-commerce has a strong development momentum and is considered to be a new driving force for growth.
according to the latest forecast by emarketer, global e-commerce sales will exceed us$6 trillion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 12%. taking the us and southeast asian markets, which are popular for overseas expansion, as examples, the us market has strong consumption power and a large e-commerce scale, accounting for more than 25% of the global total consumption; and as the number of online consumers increases, the southeast asian e-commerce market is growing rapidly, with an annual compound growth rate of up to 14%.
with the development of social media, the e-commerce model is becoming the first stop for companies to test their overseas business. pan qin, head of operations at sweet furniture, said that last year's "black friday" gmv reached 12 million us dollars, ranking first in the tiktok shop small store list (home category). "as a content e-commerce, the biggest difference between tiktok and other platforms is that goods find people. we used to do shelf e-commerce, which required people to find goods." pan qin introduced that since some platforms can only understand products through simple graphic introductions, european and american consumers are more inclined to go to offline physical stores to purchase furniture. tiktok uses short videos to show products. compared with other shelf e-commerce, its advantage is that users can more intuitively see the material, installation method, and scene matching of this product.
huang yaocong also said that choosing tiktok is choosing an e-commerce method, and he chose the former between interest e-commerce and traditional e-commerce. it was difficult to build a brand in the past. interest e-commerce is about letting goods find people, and showing product selling points through videos, so as to quickly find target users and quickly establish a brand.
the "treasure book" reveals the "secrets" for companies to successfully expand overseas. tiktok for business will also become an important part of companies' globalization layout in the future, helping them to seize overseas markets and create more high-quality brands.
(this article is from the paper. for more original information, please download the "the paper" app)
