The U.S. Department of Commerce is likely to lift most of the increased tariffs on Chinese goods in the near future, and last week's news is undoubtedly good news for Chinese sellers and factories. At the same time, due to the hot property market in the West during the new crown epidemic, this year's home improvement market has grown rapidly.

In today's article, Hui.com will focus on the recent changes and trends in global trade and e-commerce, so that you can see why Amazon's sales growth is slowing down today, but the independent website is changing by leaps and bounds, and how you can seize this opportunity!

Part 1: The e-commerce model of commodity platforms gradually peaks

In order to ease domestic inflation in the United States, the US Department of Commerce is likely to cancel most of the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods in the past five years in the near future. The reason behind this is undoubtedly that China still maintains its status as the world's factory. At this stage, no other international port can easily provide a complete industrial chain, fast domestic logistics and large-scale international ports like China. However, if we sum up the reason behind it in a few words, it is because: Chinese goods are cheap.

Indeed, after China joined the WTO in 2000, global merchants were surprised to find that Chinese goods were so cheap, which gave birth to Alibaba International Station represented by B2B and a large number of overseas B-side buyers. And the world financial crisis in 2008 made all western consumers start to cross these B-end dealers and directly look for cheaper goods online, which made Amazon and a large number of Chinese sellers. However, the 2020 epidemic has caused Chinese sellers to turn inward, and today, as the epidemic in the West draws to a close, Amazon’s sales have also begun to slow.

Looking at domestic e-commerce again, Taobao’s dividends have long passed, and Douyin’s development in the past few years is undoubtedly because many domestic sellers have found another publicity model under the serious involution of the platform. But now, it seems that Douyin has also begun to lose its growth momentum.

Here Huiwang hopes to let everyone see not only the changes in the sales model, but a fact that we need to see clearly after this series of changes: Can low prices allow enterprises to continue to survive and develop?

Just imagine, a product with low profit originally needs to be placed on the e-commerce platform to compete with other sellers for price, and at the same time, it needs to continuously increase the advertising fee to gain exposure, and it has to consider constantly changing methods and looking for celebrities to mention consumers. interest. Is this money too hard to earn?

Part 2: Buying trends from Amazon, Wayfair, Houzz?

In the context of the recovery of the global economy after the epidemic, consumers' shopping habits are also changing. In the picture below, you can see: Auto Supplies and Travel are now ranked #1, followed by Home Improvement and Furniture, where orange represents goods and gray represents services. In the context of furniture and home improvement as a strong growth category at #2, almost Consumers will value both services and goods.

For this reason, let's now compare three different platforms, Amazon, Wayfarer, and Houzz, to see why their positioning determines their sales:

1. Amazon

Amazon is a full-category online platform, and the conversion rate mainly comes from three aspects: the number of SKUs, low prices, and transportation. And this also determines that almost all Amazon customers will find lower-priced small items on Amazon. Because they can hardly see the description of product practicality and the advice of third-party professional organizations outside the Listing page;

2. Wayfair

Recently, more and more Hui members have asked about Wayfair, and there are smooth communication channels between Huiwang and Wayfair officials. It is more of a vertical category platform, focusing on furniture and home furnishing. Efficient delivery is also available. It is for this reason that many North American consumers prefer Wayfair when looking for larger pieces of furniture. Wayfair's advertising competition is not fierce, and it can even help sellers to operate to a certain extent, and also provide some product stickers and recommendations. However, there is no recommendation from a third-party professional body.

3. Houzz

Huiwanghui members should have a certain understanding of Houzz, but this platform is still relatively unfamiliar to most Chinese sellers. It is also a platform based on home improvement, furniture, and furniture categories, but unlike Wayfair, its conversion rate mainly comes from three aspects:

(1) High-quality content (pictures, videos, articles) allows customers to see the characteristics of the product more than the price;

(2) Combine with a large number of localized designers and provide customers with complete solutions from interior design, furniture placement, product recommendation, etc.;

(3) Houzz also has a product market, but compared with Amazon and Wayfair, Houzz's sales are more from the recommendation of designers, rather than the purchase of customers.

Because of the above reasons, Western consumers pay more for the overall item on Houzz. The average amount paid for a single order is more than 10-20 times that of Amazon, and more than 5-10 times that of Wayfair. The profit of a single product is basically Between 1.5-3 times of Amazon and Wayfair.

Part 3: Rapidly forming new hotspots: independent stations + customized products

Although we have compared three different platforms above, combined with the problem of unsustainable low-price competition that we mentioned in the first part, we hope to let everyone see: Western consumers are now more willing to spend money on the overall plan, rather than single product.

We divide it into different industries to give you different successful cases, so that you can see what the current independent station should do:
1. Home furnishing category

website:

Through: Let customers provide information – choose a designer – choose a style in three simple steps, Havenly can provide customers with overall interior design and furniture selection solutions

2. Electronic product category

website:

Through: Let the customer provide the budget, and the apartment structure, Co-Da can provide a complete set of solutions such as security cameras, home theaters, wires, plugs, etc. according to the customer's budget

3. Beauty and health

website:

Through: Let customers provide their own gender, hair quality, hair color, age and other information, without displaying any product and price on the Prose website, it has become the world's #1 personalized shampoo company, with product profitability and Growth far exceeds that of global top 500 companies such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever

4. Fashion

website:

Anomalie has become the go-to choice for many brides by: letting customers choose a wedding style, providing their own body size, and sending customers a simulation of how their wedding dress will look before it's made, and again, you can't see prices on their website, Everything is tailored to the client's budget!

5. Pet supplies

website:

By: Choose your pet's innovation, your pet's size, weight, gender, and your budget, Adore Pet Beds can customize a bed for any kind of pet.

Part IV: Advantages of Operation Mode of Independent Stations for Customized Products

Through the above cases, I believe you can find some common points, which mainly include:

Advantages of customized independent stations

1. Independent station operation to avoid low-price competition and high-priced advertisements on the platform

2. Emphasize the design and overall scheme, rather than the product itself. This makes customers more respectful of your experience and professionalism;

3. Do not emphasize low prices or even show prices, but let customers provide products with their own budget and expected product performance

4. Pay more attention to the overall amount of a single order, as well as customers' word-of-mouth and repeat purchase habits;

5. There is no need to stock up, everything is shipped after ordering, because it is customized, the customer has enough patience, and the merchant's capital flow is healthy

6. The return rate is low, because it is completely customized according to customer needs;

Part V: Issues that need to be paid attention to in the independent station of customized products

In addition to the above advantages, you also need to pay attention to the fact that if the customized product independent station involves installation, then you need to cooperate with the installer where the customer is located, and since "localization" has become an increasingly important selling point, everyone is likely to need It has a company in the country where the overseas market is located, and has certain customer service capabilities. It may cause some trouble for everyone.

In order to solve this problem, we will provide localized services and customer support in these three countries through Huiwang's companies in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom for Hui members who are conducting independent stations and B2B through Huiwang Zhiying. We hope to enable you to seize the new opportunities brought by customized products and packaged sales!