when made in china meets the global "back to school season": shein platform helps sellers sell well around the world
2024-09-05
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entering september not only marks the end of summer vacation, but students around the world have to prepare their school clothes and are eager to return to campus with a complete set of "new equipment" - a "back to school season" hot sales campaign led by major e-commerce platforms is underway.
global institutions pay close attention, and "back to school season" becomes an indicator of market activity
according to research by nrf and prosper insights & analytics, in many countries in europe, america and asia, the promotional potential brought by the back-to-school season is second only to the year-end shopping carnival (including black friday, cyber monday and christmas, etc.). even for large e-commerce platforms and supermarket giants such as amazon, walmart, macy's and costco, it is a focus of competition.
according to google trends, over the past month, searches for the keyword "back to school season" have increased by 32,000%;
on a single social platform, the topic #back to school generated more than 43 billion views, and the popularity of this topic on social networks spread from north america to the united kingdom, thailand and even more countries.
data from multiple market research agencies show that international consumers are enthusiastic about back-to-school shopping this year: lendingtree surveyed 2,000 american consumers of varying ages, and 41% planned to make back-to-school purchases this year, and 68% said that related expenses this year would be greater than last year; market trend research company e-marketer observed that back-to-school purchases through e-commerce platforms have become the preferred shopping method for most people. families with elementary to high school students are expected to spend an average of $874.68 during the back-to-school season, while families with college students are expected to spend even more, at $1,365, mainly on clothing, shoes, school supplies and electronic products.
at the same time, many consumer research institutions have noticed that during this year's back-to-school shopping season, "value for money" has become the primary consideration for consumers in overseas markets when purchasing products. therefore, e-commerce platforms with quality-price advantages are undoubtedly the most likely to capture the hearts of a large number of parents who are worried about inflation and focus on value for money.
for many domestic sellers, the "back to school season" has also evolved into an "arena" for competing in creativity and sales strength. it not only brings accurate consumer traffic, but also serves as an important exercise for them to rehearse, test new products, and accumulate attention for the approaching global year-end shopping carnival. whether it is traditional popular categories such as stationery, clothing, school bags, and sports shoes, or even the digital electronics industry, "dark horse" sellers are emerging, especially sellers who have been planning the "back to school season" one or two months in advance, and have already won real orders.
with the support of the platform, shein sellers' "conspicuous bag" mobile phone case monthly sales increased 30 times
from the perspective of the core shopping population during the back-to-school season, many young people in high school and college have begun to buy their own clothes and pursue fashionable items with distinctive personal aesthetics; while buyers aged 28 to 43 are the main consumers in almost all major categories. most of these buyers are parents of school-age students. purchasing clothing, stationery, and digital products during the school season is an important scene for their family shopping. they are generally willing to spend time carefully selecting products that are cost-effective and meet their needs. therefore, shein, an e-commerce platform with rich products, cutting-edge aesthetics, and high quality-price ratio, continues to attract attention. in addition, after becoming the third largest online fashion retailer in the united states, shein's fashion influence in popular regions such as europe and the middle east continues to expand, and it continues to advance into new markets such as south korea and colombia.
driven by the popularity of the "back to school season", the media learned that there are more and more cross-border sellers emerging on the shein platform with monthly sales of thousands or tens of thousands of orders.
lin song, a seller from zhejiang, works for a company that sells notebooks, sticky notes, etc. he registered his own brand seven years ago. although he had his own brand, he was unable to really open up the market in china in the early days: "at that time, we were facing competition for existing stocks. it was difficult for factories to break through if they transformed into e-commerce companies but did not understand marketing."
the first time he tried cross-border e-commerce, lin song felt that there was "hope": the sales volume in the first month was 150,000 yuan. after tasting the sweetness, he began to lead the team to communicate frequently with shein employees, and explored all the knowledge related to product selection, store decoration, store operation, etc., and officially devoted himself to going overseas. monthly sales increased from 150,000 to 4.2 million yuan. lin song helped the founder realize the original wish of taking the brand overseas. at present, the company has launched more than 200 cross-border products, and has accumulated a good consumer rating of 4.95 points.
the media also found that many mobile phone case factories located in the pearl river delta are also in a favorable starting point. wu qinghao has been involved in the mobile phone case industry since 2011. he currently owns a mobile phone case factory and several in-depth cooperative factories. in the first three years of his business, he mainly relied on offline to obtain foreign trade customers. in 2014, he started to engage in e-commerce in the domestic market. at present, the focus of development is on sales platforms covering overseas markets through shein, amazon, etc.
3c digital products and accessories are one of the most popular categories among young people. overseas young people love to change their mobile phone cases and even regard it as an interactive topic with sharing value, which has directly promoted the sales of many "conspicuous" mobile phone cases in the pearl river delta industrial belt.
(the picture shows a variety of mobile phone case products on the shein website. some styles have recently sold more than 2,000 to 6,000 pieces)
"we are experts in mobile phone cases in china, but i didn't know what mobile phone cases people like abroad at first," wu qinghao recalled. in the targeted product selection guides provided by shein to sellers, wu qinghao gradually discovered that some product types that are slightly niche in the domestic market, such as card-clip mobile phone cases and inflatable mobile phone cases, are very popular overseas. so he adjusted the production plan as quickly as possible, and continued to test consumer feedback in the form of the first batch of small orders, constantly trial and error at low cost, and discovered hot products. the increase in the rate of hot products further brought about an increase in sales. taking advantage of the back-to-school season trend, its product sales have increased from an average of more than a dozen pieces per day to the current monthly sales of more than 10,000 orders.
seeing new products become hot-selling products, which in turn bring repeat purchases and new customers, the establishment of a positive cycle helped him build a sense of trust: "the support of cross-border platforms such as shein has lowered the threshold for going overseas and helped us quickly adapt to the rhythm of the international market."
when the store first opened, there was only one employee handling overseas orders, but now there is a team of 20 people dedicated to product development, art design and operations for international consumers. however, wu qinghao believes that the increase in orders is only the first step: "the international customers brought by shein are not only concerned about price, but also quality. therefore, we use the same materials as international first-line brands, and the ink used for pattern printing is also environmentally friendly ink, and it passes two quality inspections before leaving the factory." wu qinghao also said that it is very important whether the product is authorized or produced by an original designer. he believes that overseas consumers are very concerned about product copyright.
the media learned that since cross-border products often need to balance compliance and innovation, many factory owners have begun to spend a lot of money to invite art college students or professional designers to design products to enhance the attractiveness of products. in the process of focusing on quality, they hope to take advantage of the "east wind" provided by the shein platform to further enter the broader international markets such as europe, america, the middle east, japan and south korea.
shein launches new ip overseas, empowering brands to expand global market presence
some electronic products with entertainment attributes have also become hot-selling items during this back-to-school season.
liang jia, an executive of a brand headphone company in guangdong with annual sales of more than 2 billion yuan, told the media that after transforming from domestic e-commerce to cross-border e-commerce at the end of last year, he found that this year's overseas back-to-school season has also become a peak sales season for them, which is indeed an unexpected gain.
many people may have seen such a picture before - a lofi girl who listens to music with headphones on 24/7 and studies by the window. on social media such as youtube and bilibili, this acg girl with more than 14 million fans has a wide influence among campus groups and young people, providing them with a sense of companionship in studying together. now, the image of the lofi girl wearing headphones has changed from a well-known z-generation idol to a popular culture. the habit of "studying while wearing headphones" is also popular in overseas campuses, providing a good opportunity for liangjia's products to sell well.
"many foreign parents not only like our stylish headphones themselves, but also buy some headphones or audio-visual electronic products for their children as back-to-school gifts. this is the first time we have caught up with the overseas back-to-school season, which makes us feel like it is a peak season."
as the shein platform rapidly rises globally, liangjia company seized the opportunity, successfully settled in and leveraged its platform advantages to achieve a surge in sales. in addition, the company recently settled in the semi-custodial model that shein opened only three months ago, hoping to bring in considerable new growth.
at present, the number of companies that focus on building brands and cultivating ips is gradually increasing. liang jia told the media that as a brand going overseas, if the price of blindfold rolls can only stay in the first stage of the race, it must continue to provide high-quality and innovative products to attract consumers in the long run. overseas consumers have always been in demand for high-quality products made in china. brands generally have higher requirements for cross-border platforms, because when they see sales growth, their primary concern is whether the brand market share can be increased simultaneously, not just the turnover of funds.
"therefore, we need more support from cross-border platforms. a good platform will respect the professionalism of brand owners, see our overall efforts, and also care about helping brands make long-term plans," he said.
looking at the development process of china's manufacturing industry, enterprises in various industrial belts with distinctive characteristics and vitality have long been "supplying blood" for china's economic development. they have not only laid the cornerstone of the world's factory, but also are the "core" driving the rapid development of the cross-border e-commerce industry.
however, if we want to transform the core energy into a real driving force for the future, we still need the right opportunity. according to statistics, especially in the past year or so, a group of new cross-border e-commerce platforms represented by the shein platform have grown tens of thousands of cross-border e-commerce entities. these "newcomers" have either moved up from the traditional industrial chain to cross-border e-commerce, or switched from domestic e-commerce to the international market, showing huge development potential.
at present, the business competition brought by the global "back to school season" is still going on. on the journey of entering the international market through cross-border e-commerce platforms, many industrial belt companies not only actively perceive the changes in overseas markets, but also strive to accurately discover and cultivate international consumer groups exclusive to their own products and brands. this also reflects that local companies are continuing to explore the boundaries of their own capabilities. some of the gains in the starting stage have already surpassed the initial ideas of liang jia and wu qinghao. as shein's platform strategy continues to break through in depth, their successful transformation will no longer be an isolated case.
