The Importance Of Corporate Brand Culture Seems To Have Nothing To Do With The Annual Turnover Of 1 Billion

A company or product without brand culture is nothing in the eyes of consumers, let alone the recognition in the capital market

"Even if you lose money, you should stand up for independence!" Li duo saw the necessity of independent station.

"If you don't have your own brand independent station, you're still just a seller. The capital market won't like me," he said

As a big seller of 3C category cross-border e-commerce with annual turnover of more than 1 billion US dollars, Li duo hopes to achieve 10% of the company's total sales volume within one year.

There are more and more cross-border e-commerce sellers similar to Li duo. When they want to make their business into a business and take the road of branding, they find that being an independent station is one of the few choices.

Wei Zhe, founder partner and chairman of Jiayu fund, pointed out that for sellers, Amazon and independent station should not give up. The purpose of independent station is not to sell goods to consumers, but to form instantaneity and closed loop in user feedback.

"If the independent station is completed, there is a chance to become a" dual material landlord enterprise. " He said.

Overseas consumers' habit of shopping on the official website of the brand and the cost of overseas traffic did not rise significantly. These two backgrounds make the independent station of cross-border e-commerce a major trend, not just a tuyere.

Independent station is not a new thing, but the main business model of cross-border export e-commerce, which was born in 2004 before the rise of platform e-commerce.

Contrary to the independent station of DTC brand which is advocated now, some popular independent stations in the early years are irresistible to decline.

Old school independent station: department store model is out of date

Before 2008, independent station of distribution mode led the market for several years. This is also the era of "lying down and making money.".

"At that time, Amazon and other platforms were not strong, and there were few competitors. Relying on the huge information gap, early independent station players represented by DX, lightin the box, banggood Valley, focalprice, etc., developed rapidly and enjoyed a good time." A supplier of Lanting Jishi told Yibang power.

For example, in 2006, DX (dealextreme. Com) integrated B2C independent station was launched. In 2009, it was jointly invested by IDG and Xue Manzi. It was quickly acquired by Yibao in April 2010 and listed on the back door; Founded in 2007, Lanting Jishi was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013, which has become a good story of China's cross-border e-commerce retail export; Founded in 2006, Banggu is a comprehensive independent station mainly engaged in 3C electronics. In 2018, the daily visits of the website exceeded one million, and Alexa ranked among the top 500 in the world

After more than ten years of ups and downs in the cross-border e-commerce independent station market, the appearance of "old school" independent stations has declined a lot compared with that in the period of ＂.

Since 2012, DX share price has been declining. As of June 2013, the share price of DX is only HK $0.32, and the market value is only HK $1.6 billion (US $200 million). In 2015, DX founders reduced their equity holdings by nearly 1 / 5. According to its financial report, by 2017, DX's revenue was about 20.87% lower than in 2016. According to the data of an industry observer, compared with about 2011, the flow of DX master station has decreased by about 70%.

Five years after its listing, the shares of Lanting collective fell all the way. Because the stock price was lower than the minimum standard for listing, it was warned by the NYSE to delist, which led to the withdrawal of shareholders. Financial reports show that from 2013 to 2019, Lanting Jishi has been in a state of loss. In addition, compared with $550 million at the time of listing, its market value is now about $339 million.

In addition, some early independent stations, such as dinodirect and tinydeal, have been closed.

"Today, the old digital integrated independent station such as global e-buy has been thunderstruck. The rate of the only remaining banggood is not optimistic. " In the opinion of Mike, a cross-border practitioner, there are few really good old-fashioned independent stations, while most other independent clothing stations are mainly copying Sheen's low-cost and fast fashion.

(based on the data monitored by similarweb from March 2020 to February 2021)

"From the few independent stations that have won the favor of capital over the years, it can be seen that some old-fashioned independent stations are" outdated "and their growth is weak." Mike said that most of these independent stations are department store mode, self purchasing and self selling, and there is not much room for imagination.

"In the early years, the business of these independent stations of distribution type has developed relatively large, which is characterized by poor information and operational efficiency, but in fact, the competition barriers are not high." Bruce, a cross-border e-commerce operator, also said, "today, the volume of these old-fashioned independent stations is still larger than that of most of the emerging brand independent stations. But in the long run, the industry and the capital market are generally not optimistic about this model. "

Bruce pointed out that compared with the independent station of the general distribution mode, the industry vertical independent station (i.e. the independent station of high-quality distribution mode) showed stronger vitality“ The most typical one is sheen, which is now being sought after by everyone. Its website traffic has increased nearly tenfold compared with 2017. " He said.

(based on the data monitored by similarweb from March 2020 to February 2021)

"As long as the supply chain management is good and the products are sold enough, the vertical independent station can develop into a brand independent station. For example, one of the most powerful parts of sheen is that it has made supply chain management close to * *. At the same time, another big gap between the ordinary independent station and the brand independent station lies in whether there is real communication with consumers and whether the social media operation is well done A business planning to enter the sheen open platform said.

In its view, when the early Internet dividend is gone, in the mobile Internet era of diversified and fragmented front-end traffic, the possibility of copying a sheen is almost zero.

"Sheen was the first group of players to take social media dividends, and it was also an early app maker. Now it is impossible to achieve this level through an app. The cost is too high, and there is no such promotion foundation. Not to mention the moat at the end of the supply chain that Sheen has built over the past few years. " Sun Hongda, a partner of nut capital, who is concerned about cross-border sea going, also expressed similar views to Yibang power.

Where did you lose?
In 2018, the platform independent station experienced the final glory.
In the heyday of DX, there were hundreds of thousands of SKUs; Lanting Jishi also expanded rapidly from wedding dress category to comprehensive website in 2013.
This also means that platform independent stations like DX lack unique positioning in the minds of consumers. When shopping, they will directly compare it with large platforms like Amazon. For example, in the Latin American market, the "main battlefield" of DX at that time, in terms of search and price comparison, it directly benchmarked the platform with larger volume, such as Mercer, fastsell.
Relying on search traffic means that we must find efficient and low-cost traffic digging.
"When both Amazon and Google were in their infancy, Amazon's expansion strategy was to advertise heavily." A former Google executive disclosed to Yibang power that before 2000, a quarter of all Amazon's costs were spent on advertising. By 2009 or so, Amazon spent up to $600 million on traffic purchases, realizing "capital crush" in the e-commerce field.
In contrast, DX began to try to buy traffic in the form of paid advertising around 2012, and the price is already high. Moreover, due to the independent station like DX, there was no brand moat in the early stage, and it was difficult to grow by natural flow.
At the same time, another problem is beginning to emerge. In the early days, most independent stations established their market position by expanding SKUs and focusing on low prices. Due to the existence of information barriers and the dividends made in China, the * * rate was very high, but this price advantage disappeared after Amazon and other platforms "killed it".
"With millions of sellers, Amazon can find all the products you can think of in the market, and with low-cost traffic resources, it can keep the price of products very low." "DX and focalprice are both famous for their low prices, but their price advantages have become extremely fragile in front of such platforms as fastsell and wish," said a cross-border e-commerce seller who makes lamps
To be an independent station of platform level and massive SKU, the competition object is the third-party platform giant with expanding scale effect“ Independent station is essentially a seller. If he wants to do almost the same thing as Amazon, but he doesn't have the strong brand power of Amazon and has enough stakeholders, it is bound to be a desperate battle. " The sellers concluded.
"There is no unique label in the minds of consumers for an independent station based on" distribution. " A cross-border e-commerce service provider pointed out that one of the most distressing things for Amazon sellers is that consumers usually come for Amazon, not for brands.
Because of its historical accumulation, Amazon has done a lot of services that can not be done by a single independent station, such as self logistics, after-sales service and various kinds of shopping. This also makes Amazon's customer loyalty far higher than independent stations.
"The growth curve is getting steeper and steeper. I really haven't seen it." According to the service provider, most of the early independent cross-border stations have experienced a sub linear growth of opening high and going low.
"Of course, the key point is that compared with Amazon, the independent station has much higher requirements for operation capacity. In particular, independent station keyword purchase, most Chinese players can not fully grasp and understand its core content. At that time, those old independent stations made a certain flow scale and did not transform into the advantage of ＂ An investor said, "sheen, banggood Valley and gearbest are first Internet companies, and then e-commerce companies that sell goods. However, many traditional enterprises do not have this understanding."
Shoplazza, a craftsman of SaaS service shop in independent station construction, also said that for Internet competition, no matter where the competitors are, it is "face-to-face fighting". Now, the era of traffic has passed, and the dividend of made in China has gradually faded. The old school independent station and Amazon seller stand at the same running point. If the independent station has not accumulated its own core advantages, it is doomed to go down the road.

From vertical boutique to "brand"

The development route of "old school independent station" is no longer feasible - this is a common recognition in the industry.

Looking at the global market, for new entrepreneurs, DTC brand independent station is the most important choice for them, aiming at the capital market and telling a good brand story. For the "veteran" of independent station, the hope is to develop vertically.

"Nowadays, most of the vertical independent stations are gradually separated from the distribution mode and transformed into independent boutique stations. The core reason behind this is the upgrading of consumption and the increase of market options. In order to retain consumers, sellers have to" specialize. " Zhang Meng said.

Only vertical is considered professional. Explosive shop and fine shop are both distribution modes, which often lead to problems in delivery, even stepping on the red line of policy, and there is a probability problem in the issue of explosive shop mode. Compared with the explosive shop model, the refined shop model is at least reliable, and the website design is more sophisticated and more sustainable.

"In the long run, fine shop is also to be eliminated, only the brand independent station is the most mainstream mode in the future, but the start can start from the vertical boutique station." In Zhang Meng's opinion, most of the earliest independent stations are platform level distribution type, and few of them are vertical boutique stations. There are few independent stations that say to be brands from the beginning. They should "first improve the product line, accumulate social media operation, and then gradually become a complete brand".

"When some people see the success of sheen, they take it for granted that the high-quality independent station model it represents is successful. However, they ignore that behind the success of sheen, it is necessary to make the supply chain management, innovation and operational efficiency as high as possible." Zhang Meng said, "in the final analysis, independent station is just a tool to carry its commercial operation."

Take the "small innovation" of more than 10000 new products launched by sheen every month. Zhang Meng calculated the account: if there are 10000 new SKUs in a month, each SKU needs at least 3 photos, then each month needs at least 30000 photos, that is, 1000 photos per day; A large number of models and photographers need to be mobilized behind the scenes, and then the photos will be revised and uploaded. Countless details will be accumulated to determine the success or failure of the current situation, and the channel brand sheen will be created.

A cross-border e-commerce investor also pointed out that successful brands are benign and long-term, not just a business“ If you just want to make money simply and don't like to export value, it's doomed to go for a long time. " He said.

In his opinion, independent station is not a complete business, but an important sales channel. When doing independent station, what enterprises need to think about is whether they want to be a "seller" or a "brand"; The latter needs a complete system from product development to brand marketing.