iResearch Consulting: Cross-border e-commerce export transactions are booming. How to respond to the new market landscape in the future?

According to the Zhitong Finance and Economics APP, iResearch Consulting released a research report stating that in recent years, global economic development has been under downward pressure, with factors such as epidemic control, supply chain crises, geopolitical disputes, regional protectionism, etc., affecting the development of import and export trade. However, due to the high cost of deglobalization, the prospects for trade in goods and services based on comparative advantages among countries and regions around the world remain promising. At the same time, the limited offline channels during the epidemic have accelerated the popularity of online transactions, further promoting the increase in global e-commerce penetration. With the advancement of industrial structure upgrading, policy incentives, and technological progress, China's cross-border export e-commerce has ushered in new development opportunities.

From the current situation, iResearch Consulting points out that the industry has experienced an evolutionary process from building information platforms, developing transaction services, improving service chains to ecological development. Currently, with the continuous improvement of compliance and supporting systems, the industry has officially entered a stage of high-quality development. Major platforms and service providers are increasing their efforts to integrate resources, enhance the convenience of cross-border export business, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry. Despite being affected by multiple adverse factors, the cross-border export e-commerce industry achieved a year-on-year positive growth of 9.4% in 2022, with a scale of 6.6 trillion yuan. It is expected that the industry will maintain a steady and progressive development trend in the future, and transaction volume is also expected to achieve new breakthroughs.

From the players' perspective, iResearch Consulting states that among platform operators, third-party and self-operated platforms complement each other's advantages. The rising traffic costs of third-party platforms and the prevalence of emerging social media marketing favor the development of self-operated platforms. Top cross-border sellers with a certain user base tend to have a multi-channel layout. Among brand merchants, there is a shift from integrating manufacturing and trade to going abroad based on brand strength. Various brand merchants are continuously strengthening their digital capabilities, accelerating the integration of the supply chain, and enhancing brand influence. Among service providers, they use their capabilities to help cross-border enterprises complete and optimize their business chains. The close supply and demand relationship between external service providers and cross-border sellers has accelerated the construction of the industry's ecological system, creating more value for the industry's healthy development.

From the perspective of product categories, iResearch Consulting believes that in the cross-border export B2C sector, the best-selling categories are traditional export advantage products such as apparel, footwear, 3C electronics, and home goods. Outdoor and beauty products will also see growth due to healthy lifestyle habits and industrial chain spillover effects. In addition, categories such as maternity and baby products, pet products, and wigs will also show certain growth.

In the cross-border export B2B sector, backed by manufacturing advantages, tools and equipment, light industry textiles, and home products are holding steady positions and will remain stable in the short term. From a long-term perspective, considering policy development directions and industry structural change trends, new energy vehicle parts and outdoor energy storage products are expected to become emerging potential categories, finding new market opportunities in underdeveloped energy regions overseas. At the same time, both B2C and B2B export products are showing a trend towards branding. The increase in branding rates will not only drive the transformation of the industry chain but also help optimize the profitability of cross-border enterprises and enhance their management capabilities.

From a regional perspective, iResearch Consulting points out that in terms of export destinations, China's cross-border e-commerce industry clusters are mainly distributed in the southeastern coastal areas close to industrial belts and with high export activity, aiming to quickly respond to market demands through the "front store, back factory" model Currently, the country is actively establishing cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones around industrial cluster areas to promote regional resource integration and infrastructure construction, providing various services for cross-border sellers to "go global", enhancing cross-border export efficiency, and supporting the high-quality development of new foreign trade formats.

In terms of destination, mature markets such as Europe and the United States remain the main targets for Chinese cross-border sellers. With the implementation of relevant free trade agreements and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) policy, emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East are gradually becoming new "gold mines" for cross-border sellers, diversifying China's trade partners.

In terms of trends, iResearch Consulting predicts the following:

1. Diversification of cross-border platforms: The competition in the overseas market is becoming more intense, and the characteristics of platform players diversifying and differentiating their layouts are beginning to emerge, providing cross-border sellers with more channel choices.

2. Multi-channel layout for sellers: Influenced by the trend of stricter platform compliance and market policy uncertainties, sellers tend to adopt a multi-channel layout to diversify risks. Offline and emerging media will also become key channels of focus and expansion for sellers, deepening their localization service capabilities and expanding traffic entry points.

3. Product-driven service exports: The importance of refined operations is highlighted by the branding of products and the development of multiple platforms by merchants. The increasing demand from cross-border sellers for various value-added services such as marketing, finance, and supply chain directly drives the development of the cross-border e-commerce service ecosystem.

4. Extension of platform service chains: By combining internal and external strategies to improve ecological layouts, leading platforms will maintain this business strategy in the future, accelerating chain expansion. Emerging players will follow the footsteps of leading players as their business maturity increases, enhancing competitiveness and monetization capabilities.

5. Deepening of cross-border service: The autonomy and resilience of China's cross-border services still need to be further strengthened. The optimization direction in the future will come from the construction or cooperation of overseas hardware facilities and key nodes on one hand, and from the deep insight into user needs and the mature application of related technologies on the other hand