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cailianshe reported on september 26 (reporters luo yichen and wang bin)"indeed, we rarely mentioned overseas expansion in the past, but in the past two years, we have felt that chinese customers have a strong desire to go overseas, so we have also launched a special overseas expansion plan." at the third global digital trade expo, a google staff member told a reporter from cailianshe that the trend of chinese companies going overseas can no longer be ignored.

around the google booth, there were a number of e-commerce platforms, social media platforms, warehousing and logistics companies, and overseas marketing companies. during the conversation, cailianshe reporters learned that with the large-scale expansion of domestic merchants into southeast asia, short-term competition has continued to intensify. some merchants have begun to turn their attention to relatively unpopular markets such as latin america, japan and south korea. local e-commerce companies have already smelled the opportunity and have launched support policies to attract domestic merchants to settle in.

overseas e-commerce platforms are actively recruiting sellers, photographed by cailianshe reporter

talking about the current overseas situation, lin jingxian, general manager of 1688 cross-border, said in an interview: "compared with previous years, the overall market size has continued to expand this year, and more people have begun to focus on emerging markets such as southeast asia, the middle east, and africa. cross-border companies have shifted from simply exporting products to exporting brands, and are promoting transaction conversion through live broadcasts, short videos, and other forms."

unpopular sea destinations are becoming popular

southeast asia is undoubtedly a hot spot in this round of cross-border e-commerce overseas destinations. cailianshe reporters noticed that some domestic entrepreneurial teams have opened up the southeast asian market through tiktok and won the sales champion of segmented products. leading brands have also smelled business opportunities. domestic beauty giants such as proya (603605.sh) and beitanni (300957.sz) have already taken action.

brands of all sizes have flocked into southeast asia, causing short-term competitive pressure to rise sharply, causing some merchants to turn their attention to other relatively unpopular markets.

"it is indeed very popular to go overseas to southeast asia now, but the competition is very fierce, which is actually very stressful for merchants. we think that the competition in the korean market will be relatively small, and of course the corresponding entry threshold is also higher." said a staff member of the korean local e-commerce platform coolpeng. it is understood that in 2023, the total value of south korea's cross-border e-commerce imports increased by 27% year-on-year, of which imports from china increased by 121% year-on-year, accounting for 49%.

outside of asia, the popularity of going overseas to latin america is also growing. kuaishou said that the short video products launched for latin america have reached 60 million monthly active users in the brazilian market. "in some countries, products have been launched in the mall, while in some countries, they are only short videos, and the pace of advancement is different." not far from the kuaishou booth, the latin american local e-commerce meikeduo also put up a slogan "cross-border business helps chinese brands successfully go overseas and dig gold in latin america", trying to seize this wave of overseas dividends and go further on the basis of the original tens of thousands of chinese merchants.

the next battle for going overseas is localization

in the eyes of industry insiders, the direct competition between kuaishou and meikeduo is just a microcosm of the fierce competition among global e-commerce platforms. the increase in tariffs and trade barriers has increased the operating costs and market access difficulties of cross-border e-commerce, thereby weakening price competitiveness. local e-commerce platforms in various regions have taken this opportunity to emerge and rise, leading to increasingly fierce market competition.

this competitive pressure is also being transmitted to merchants. cailianshe reporters noticed that overseas e-commerce platforms all place great emphasis on the localization of merchants. taking the aforementioned korean e-commerce platform as an example, its staff said that compared with cross-border merchants, korean users clearly prefer local merchants when shopping online, which has become the main obstacle for chinese merchants to make money in korea. "we now support sellers to open cross-border stores and have introduced a series of policies in the hope of narrowing the gap in logistics time between cross-border and local stores, but overall, we still hope to guide chinese merchants to register in korea and become local merchants, which will be more in line with the preferences of korean consumers."

a similar situation also occurs in the latin american market. on meikeduo, cross-border merchants are also in a relatively disadvantageous position in the competition with local merchants. some people point out that with the continuous development of cross-border e-commerce, how domestic merchants can achieve localization overseas will be the next test.

localized operations undoubtedly place higher demands on merchants’ operational capabilities. in lin jingxian’s view, merchants currently generally have a certain understanding of overseas markets. “through various exhibitions and online platforms, everyone is exploring the most suitable way to go overseas. what they lack more is experience and operational capabilities in overseas markets.”