Is The Opportunity To Discuss Cross-Border E-Commerce Really Here

When the epidemic prevention policy changed, the commercial pulse took the lead. Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hunan and other places quickly organized "order grabbing teams", led by the government, and enterprises organized charter flights abroad to explore business opportunities.

Tense and enthusiastic drumbeats have been playing intensively in recent days. But a month earlier, when the market was still a little quiet, Tmall Global's overseas investment promotion group had gone through three months of preparation, and took the lead in setting out to visit and exchange around the world and capture business opportunities. In terms of reaction speed and determination to go global, Tmall Global is a "vanguard" among all Internet platforms.

This "order group" has returned recently. "The harvest is greater than expected!" said Dong Zhenzhen, general manager of Tmall Global.

In the more than one month of the global trip, Liu Peng, the "head" of the overseas investment group, president of Alibaba B2C retail business group, and Dong Zhenzhen led the team, together with Tmall Global's overseas BD team, to visit eight mainstream countries and markets all over the world, including Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States. Liu Peng recalled that during the visit, there were almost no Asian faces at airports and railway stations in Europe, and duty-free shops in some countries were deserted. Businessmen were looking forward to Chinese consumers. "When will Chinese consumers come back?" was their biggest expectation.

So when the delegation appeared in front of overseas merchants, they were more excited than surprised.

"Merchants are very excited, just like a distant relative who suddenly comes to visit." Liu Peng believes that the most important signal is to meet, "China is a huge consumer market, and we are here with full sincerity."

Tmall Global Investment Promotion Group Visits the French Clothing Association in Europe

During this visit, Tmall Global not only brought back orders and new cooperation inspiration, but also front-line information and new consumption trends overseas. More importantly, it sends the most direct and important signal: the Chinese market is opening up and warming up, and it is time to do something. This will bring confidence from the Chinese market to those overseas markets that have lost Chinese tourists for a long time.

"Next year will be a big year for import business. Tmall Global is the largest cross-border e-commerce platform in China. We have this responsibility and obligation to bring greater confidence to our business partners and attract them to China." Liu Peng said.

Since the epidemic, the circulation of overseas goods has been blocked, and Tmall Global has taken the lead in going global this time, which is quite symbolic. It means that the gear of domestic and international commodity circulation is accelerating, and more popular and cutting-edge trends and diverse and interesting lifestyles are pouring in.

　　 A trip planned three months in advance, bringing sincerity and confidence

At the end of the 5th China International Fair and Double 11, Tmall Global, the "single group" going to sea, quickly boarded the departure flight.

The two heads of the delegation led the team, which took more than a month to travel across the globe, and also involved the consumer industry belt that consumers most concerned about in time, such as Japan's medieval, whisky, motorcycle helmet accessories and other characteristic industry belts, France's red wine industry belt, Germany's Christmas consumer market, and the Black Five Olay shopping site in the United States. Tmall Global's journey of such a "big battle" is the first in three years.

The epidemic situation in three years has blocked people's step out of the country, so a front-line market survey is very necessary. Ali announced a five-year import plan of 200 billion yuan at the first China International Fair in 2018, and now it has entered the sprint stage.

This is the most suitable time for outbound visits, but behind it is Tmall Global's intensive planning nearly three months in advance. At that time, China's epidemic prevention policy had not been liberalized, and the team needed to prepare visa, travel and other processes several months in advance. In order to see as many partners as possible, the team could only set the schedule by "hour meter".

During the visit, it was the Black Five consumption season in the United States. Tmall Global was trying to find new business opportunities, and this investment promotion cooperation also had a faster end.

On the day of Black Friday, Dong Zhenzhen held a live broadcast at the Woodbury store in New York, Oreal, the landmark of the "must go shopping destination in the United States", with David Mistetta, the general manager of Woodbury.

A large window is specially selected in the background of the studio, through which you can see the bustling shopping crowd. At 6:00 a.m., the parking space of Aolai was in urgent need, and there were long queues at the bill paying window. She excitedly greeted Chinese consumers via live broadcast, "You see, you don't have to queue up".

David Mistetta, who is not familiar with live broadcast, was surprised and excited that this live broadcast attracted more than 2 million Chinese consumers. "It turns out that Chinese consumers have such a high degree of acceptance of live shopping! It turns out that China's live broadcast is so fun!"

In fact, on the eve of the Double 11 this year, Tmall Global just reached cooperation with the Woodbury parent company, the American Outlets Group Shop Premium Outlets (SPO). Originally, as a brand "landlord", the SPO needs to find new opportunities for brands under the epidemic situation. Cooperation with Tmall Global has become the starting point of its digital road.

The SPO has launched more than 1500 major brands of local discount prices and more than 100000 Olai products on Tmall Global. However, the meeting between the senior management and the live broadcast of China experience made the SPO more clear about its determination to invest in China.

The result of this meeting is also a breakthrough: the SPO who has a better understanding of the logic of the Chinese consumer market has decided to follow the Chinese market next year. 618, Double 11, China's consumption promotion node, and the SPO on the other side of the Pacific Ocean all need to do customized discounts.

The enthusiasm of overseas businesses for the Chinese market is impressive. Liu Peng said that the CEO of Dufry, a duty-free retail enterprise in Europe, revealed that the strategy for next year is to follow Chinese tourists and serve them well.

After meeting in Basel, Switzerland, the two sides further deepened their strategic cooperation, and planned to meet the growing domestic demand for tourism retail consumption by expanding the introduction of global duty-free goods, improving the construction of import retail supply chain, and innovating digital technologies and services.

In Japan and South Korea, the daily chemical group pays attention to the consumption habits of young people and the healthy consumption demand in the post epidemic era, and also hopes to introduce more trendy new products through cross-border e-commerce.

In the past three years, affected by the epidemic, overseas brands have been expanding their sales through distribution channels and cross-border e-commerce, and their "sense of body" to the Chinese market is not very strong. However, when the local market cannot meet the continuous growth of sales, they are still very willing to understand the Chinese consumer market and continue to promote sales in China.

Every time the delegation goes to any place, the businessmen will ask two questions. One is, "When will the Chinese tourists come back?"; Second, what changes have taken place in Chinese consumers in the past three years, and what should we do? Now, the answer to the first question seems to be revealed soon, while the second question is another important purpose of this trip.

　　 "Non-stop, full of harvest"

Although many people have become accustomed to online communication, "offline meeting" is still the most important part of promoting business cooperation.

"Through face-to-face communication, we shared the sales growth rate of the platform and the cases of partners, which significantly boosted the confidence of overseas partners." In Liu Peng's view, the Expo has released China's policy signals to the world, and more new categories have grown rapidly through the Double 11. The new demand of Chinese consumers means that a larger market is beckoning.

"We just need to run to our partners as soon as possible, encourage them to come to China, and put the investment and budget for next year in China."

Liu Peng described the trip as "non-stop and full of harvest". In this trip, there are two important contents. One is the core categories and key businesses that maintain their vitality on the platform, and the other is the expansion of characteristic categories and new businesses with growth.

As the first stop of the delegation's visit, Japan is close to China in terms of consumption attributes, and its product strength has always been praised. Its mother and baby, health care, beauty, home and other categories have great attraction to Chinese consumers. Tmall Global has also deepened cooperation with the well-known Japanese fast moving consumer group Kao, one of Japan's pharmaceutical groups, Ledun Pharmaceutical, and other businesses. In the future, it will introduce personalized categories such as killing, health care, and health.

In Europe, where luxury culture has accumulated, the delegation visited Samaritaine, a department store brand in Paris, France, DFS, a global duty-free shop in Europe, and other places to deepen cooperation in digital, and to think about how to present luxury products to Chinese consumers more efficiently and vividly.

In addition, the business invitation group also came to Bordeaux, France, where nearly 10000 wineries gathered. At present, there are still many uncertainties in the sales of French wine industry belt, and wineries are looking forward to such a big market as China. According to Liu Peng, they hope that through Tmall Global, the high-quality wines, rare Mu Tong, Lafite, Dragon Boat and other first-class wines from Bordeaux wineries in France can reach the table of Chinese consumers directly, and reach the sales of global industrial belts through direct supply.

The consumption culture and popular trends set off in overseas markets have also been captured by the investment groups one by one.

The trend of outdoor sports in China this year started in Europe, and their profound accumulation of consumer culture can be used for reference by the Chinese market. For example, Ebike, which makes riding easier, is popular in Europe and the United States, with more styles and functions. Every holiday, many cities in China are covered with tents on their lawns. In Germany, the more mainstream is roof tents. Because its installation and use are very convenient, it is called "home on the roof". This trend has spread in China, and perhaps soon China will start to "long" tents on the roof.

The demand for more subdivided beauty products has also driven the blowout growth of the new trend category of beauty products in the global market. For example, pure cosmetics, which focus on safety, non-toxic, health and environmental protection, are also popular in China today. Tmall Global cooperates with Detox Market, the most authoritative pure beauty platform in the United States, to build a brand matrix, which will be launched by the end of January next year. The beauty customization service launched by the Korean Amore Group can fit everyone's characteristics, and may also be introduced to the Chinese market in the near future.

In Japan, non-standard interest consumption such as motorcycle helmets, whisky and medieval second luxury has also been very popular in the Chinese market in recent years. Tmall Global and Japanese luxury online platform RECLO have discussed launching luxury goods identification and recycling services in China.

　　 The opportunity of cross-border e-commerce has come!

From purchasing basic functional commodities such as milk powder and big brand beauty cosmetics, to today, people are more interested in exploring and discovering new, personalized and self pleasing characteristic commodities and lifestyles, and overseas shopping has gone through a decade of ups and downs.

If the epidemic has the deepest impact on the industry, overseas shopping is one of them. On the one hand, the supply and transportation of overseas commodities are blocked, international flight capacity is reduced, and the customs clearance time at ports is prolonged, bringing some resistance. On the other hand, the blowout overseas shopping demand is realized on cross-border import e-commerce, which also forces the platform to improve infrastructure and service capabilities.

Therefore, the past three years are also called the dividend period of cross-border e-commerce. In the past three years, import cross-border e-commerce has maintained an average annual growth rate of nearly 20%, becoming a bright spot in China's consumer market.

In October this year, Tmall Global announced that its overseas direct purchase business was upgraded to "global exploration". This overseas warehouse business started in 2018, due to the long tail and non-standard goods, exceeded the accumulated quantity of goods of Tmall Global in the previous eight years in only three years.

There are always new opportunities in change. Since the epidemic, people have also stocked up health care products on Tmall Global, such as European health care products, and official ginseng in the South Korean Imperial Palace. Previously, data from Tmall Global showed that new categories such as Xiaozhongxiang, overseas whisky, vinyl records, and astronomical telescopes all had more than three digit growth.

"This year, on the Double 11, we tried to import ski equipment. Unexpectedly, it was sold out that day. On the contrary, our stock was insufficient. This is enough to show that some new consumption trends are exploding. For example, who would have thought camping would become popular?" Dong Zhenzhen said.

In fact, the niche commodities with rich geographical and cultural background need a more direct and immersive expression. Because of this, the live broadcast of overseas scenes has become the focus of Tmall Global's next efforts. Tmall Global has also established a global live broadcast alliance for this trip, including Japan, South Korea, Europe, the United States and other local popular broadcast organizations.

Different from the traditional shouting style of low-cost hot goods broadcast mentality, through the authentic expression of overseas celebrities and KOL (key opinion leaders), what drives is the discovery and resonance of new lifestyles. At the same time of bringing goods with local characteristics, Tmall Global is also importing China's mature live broadcast strategy into the local market for symbiosis and win-win results.

The liberalization of China's prevention and control policies is accelerating these cooperation, or will bring about a more vigorous situation.

Liu Peng said, "The current adjustment of China's epidemic prevention policy is a very positive signal. We see that in fact, it has accelerated China's expansion of domestic demand and import. Therefore, we believe that within 1-3 years, import will become a very dynamic market."

From the experience of European and American countries, the opening of prevention and control will first stimulate a wave of cross-border travel, but also indirectly stimulate the development of cross-border e-commerce.

"Every year, more than 100 million tourists travel abroad, which is actually a good driving force for Tmall Global. Only by seeing and experiencing in person can we affirm a commodity, pass it on by word of mouth, and buy it on Tmall Global." Dong Zhenzhen said.

If we say that in the past three years, Tmall Global has more to meet the alternative needs of people who are unable to go overseas shopping. In the future, with the opening of cross-border travel, people will be able to better understand more overseas good things. When they return to China, their consumption needs will be undertaken by cross-border e-commerce. In addition to amplifying the potential energy such as live broadcast, this is also the next business focus of Tmall Global, seize the rebound opportunity of outbound tourism, meet the demand of tourists for full link consumption at home and abroad, and constantly smooth the barrier brought by geography.