How to do cross-border e-commerce operation data analysis

As the proportion of younger generations among cross-border e-commerce consumers increases, cross-border e-commerce platforms can use data to evaluate consumer portraits, consumption preferences, and other aspects, and then operate the e-commerce platforms well based on the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce.

From the perspective of consumers, the proportion of millennials in cross-border e-commerce is constantly rising. Cross-border e-commerce platforms should continue to optimize their marketing strategies for young people to cater to the needs of this consumer group.

In 2020, the scale of China's cross-border e-commerce transactions reached 12.7 trillion yuan, and the scale of China's overseas shopping users reached 211 million people in 2020; with the addition of new pilot cities, cross-border e-commerce public service platforms are being vigorously built in various places to better serve merchants, service providers and customers.

Affected by the epidemic, the scale of imported cross-border e-commerce transactions has grown against the trend. Sales in some customs areas increased significantly in January and February compared with last year, especially the sales of cross-border goods for people's livelihood. For example, bactericidal detergents increased by 1.6 times, and maternal and child products and food were selling well.

In 2021, cross-border e-commerce will continue to advance steadily with the support of policies, market promotion, and consumer pursuit, and will gradually enter a mature and standardized development stage. Especially for specific categories, the growth rate of cross-border e-commerce has far exceeded that of local channels, becoming the main driving force for sales growth.

Schematic diagram of the structure of the new cross-border retail model

On the other hand, as an emerging channel, cross-border e-commerce has significant differences from local e-commerce channels in terms of product characteristics and price elasticity. We should make layouts based on its characteristics, match product portfolios, build brand image, formulate sales strategies, improve channel compatibility, and explore the challenges and opportunities of cross-border e-commerce.

1. The platform occupies about 90% of the market

It is estimated that by the end of 2018, the scale of China's cross-border e-commerce import and export retail market will reach 165 billion yuan, with a user base of 88 million, of which the penetration rate of cross-border e-commerce online shoppers will reach 15%. In terms of cross-border e-commerce penetration rate, first-tier cities have the highest penetration rate, at 22%; second-tier cities are at 15%; and third- to fifth-tier cities are at 10%.

In terms of categories, the top five categories in terms of online penetration are health products (32%), cosmetics (21%), personal care (17%), mother and baby (9%), and luggage and accessories (5%).

Cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba International Station, Tmall Global, NetEase Kaola, JD Global Shopping, Vipshop and Jumei.com account for 90% of the cross-border import and export e-commerce market share.

2. Cross-border e-commerce consumers pursue quality more

Compared with domestic e-commerce consumers, cross-border e-commerce consumers are younger and wealthier. 60% of cross-border e-commerce consumers have a monthly income of more than 8,000 yuan, while this proportion for domestic e-commerce consumers is only 39%.

In terms of age, 55% of cross-border e-commerce consumers are between 18 and 30 years old, while the proportion of domestic e-commerce consumers between 31 and 40 years old is 51%.

International market data example chart

Judging from the shopping motivations of different cross-border e-commerce consumers, 16% of consumers pursue high cost-effectiveness and pay more attention to price advantages, 31% of consumers pursue high quality, have great loyalty to cross-border channels and are willing to pay more premiums. The consumption behavior of this part of cross-border e-commerce shoppers may erode the share of foreign brands in domestic e-commerce platforms.

23% of consumers are followers of foreign products. Compared with domestic products, they are willing to spend more money on foreign products. 30% of consumers pursue product diversity and pay more attention to new things that are not easy to find in China. These cross-border e-commerce shoppers can contribute incremental growth to foreign brands' cross-border e-commerce business in China.

54% of cross-border e-commerce consumers believe that quality and internationalization are more important than price. Therefore, compared with the same products on domestic e-commerce platforms, they are willing to pay 11% to 30% more to ensure high quality.

3. Improve online shopping experience

79% of consumers feel that some brands on cross-border e-commerce platforms do not have physical stores, which makes their actual experience of the products very poor. 74% of consumers believe that there are many choices on cross-border e-commerce platforms, but there is a lack of specific brand education, which makes it difficult for consumers to make decisions. Therefore, it is recommended that cross-border e-commerce platforms improve the cross-border e-commerce shopping experience by connecting to physical stores and strengthening brand education in terms of marketing.

4. Data Analysis Sources

1. Understand Google search engine ranking mechanism and optimization rules, and be familiar with the rules and principles of search engine spider crawling;
2. Have an in-depth understanding of overseas SEO, forums, links, soft articles and other online promotion methods and means;
3. Develop store SEO promotion and operation plan;
4. On-site optimization and website keyword ranking optimization, increase the natural traffic of the website homepage and each page.

Long-term passive marketing means that for overseas buyers, “unfamiliar sellers = SPAM, irrelevant products = harassment”. A professional overseas buyer will often collect various information about potential suppliers through different channels, and use Excel to record and track it to assist in decision-making. The core of content for Category B is to solve the trust issue.

5. Discuss the details of order conversion

• Inquiry: Analyze customer needs, compare with peers, and gain customer trust;
• Reply: Pay attention to the way you express yourself in the email. Different ways of expression will produce different results.
• Quotation: bargain with customers; based on psychology, do not give a big discount at one time to make customers doubt the initial quotation, and take it step by step;
• PI: Take one step at a time to prevent being cheated, and only proceed to the next step after the order is confirmed to be valid;
• Order production: Real-time updates, taking photos of each step and emailing them to customers, so that customers can have more trust in the company's professionalism and lay the foundation for future transactions;
• After production is completed: notify the customer in advance to pay the balance, and then ask the customer to arrange inspection; if the customer does not come to inspect the goods, you can inspect it yourself and take photos and email them;
• Delivery and loading: Contact the freight forwarder, take photos, find out the approximate arrival time, and contact the customer at any time for follow-up.

6. Use SNS to share marketing

Making good use of SNS sharing marketing can ensure that traffic does not only come from internal platforms.

By sharing the Wangpu page to overseas social platforms, you can get more traffic and exposure outside the Alibaba website. You can promote your store page to multiple overseas platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn with one click. It is simple to operate and easy to SEO. You can generate any business opportunities through business inquiries.

• Platform product track: RTS direct ordering, referred to as tiered pricing, with tiered pricing set by merchants, and different prices for different tiers. After overseas consumers place an order, the merchant’s backend needs to manually confirm the order, and the order will take effect after confirmation. Logistics must be delivered through the logistics specified by the platform and cannot be delivered through third-party logistics.
• Customization track: Overseas users need to do self-branding customization, packaging box customization, color customization, etc.

7. Fans Channel Traffic Drainage

The function of Fantong is conditional. Only star customers can use this function. The entrance is from the Marketing Center.

So far, only three types of updates can be published, with a maximum of 4 updates per day and no less than 15 updates per month; including product feature descriptions, key parameters, MOQ, price changes, discount information, etc.

When someone searches for your products on wireless or PC terminals or visits your store, as long as they follow your store, you will appear in their feeds column and you can conduct your own marketing.

Author: Houchang College

Source: Houchang College (semlianmeng)