Does eBay still have an advantage now? What is eBay's core competitiveness?

The year is coming to an end, and some friends have asked me if there are still advantages in doing business on eBay now, and if it is too late to do it now? In fact, the threshold for joining eBay is relatively low. For e-commerce platforms, it is just that everyone shares a huge cake, but some platforms do better and get a bigger share of the cake. As long as you have that ability, just go for it.

So what are the advantages of eBay now? What is its core competitiveness?

eBay's core competitiveness: supply chain

There are two dimensions to the strength of a supply chain: one is depth, and the other is price negotiation ability.

1. Integration depth: Here we have to mention the importance of focus. Only by cultivating specific categories can we strengthen the depth of the supply chain and strengthen the control of product quality and cost. For example, Wanfang, by selling a few tablets, can make over 100 million yuan a year, and it can be distributed. To achieve this, of course, it is not just about selling computers, but cultivating the supply chain behind it and releasing it through brand products.

2. Price/cost: Because there is no localization advantage, most of the cross-border user groups are very sensitive to prices and have high elasticity. At this time, the price negotiation ability determines the life and death of pure traders. In this regard, the CEO of Youkeshu said that "only three foreign trade companies with large SKUs can survive, and the rest can only be small and beautiful." Here, it is a game of scale and extreme cost control, which is painful for everyone. Compared with retail prices, it is bloody. You can judge for yourself.

eBay's core competitiveness 2: sales channels

Channels are important, but I still put them after the supply chain, because as I have analyzed before, products are the only thing that can be used to compete. Only with products and positioning can we consider the right channels. There is no good or bad channel, only suitable or not. There are three major forms of cross-border e-commerce exports:

1. The number of high-quality accounts on third-party platforms: There is nothing to say about being a third-party platform. The number of high-quality accounts directly determines the growth of sales, especially for flea markets like eBay that do not have many promotions. For a long time, this has been the only truth. After AliExpress came up, because there were many ** and many promotions, many artificial variables were added. In addition, on Amazon, everyone is fighting for the control and ranking of each listing, so products and some brand barriers are very important. But in general, the mortality rate of accounts on third-party platforms is very high, so high-quality accounts that have accumulated business reputation over time have become core competitiveness. Ability to adapt to platform rules: Platform rules determine the exposure rate of products and directly affect sales. There is no need to say more about this. Just say one thing, you must configure product lines, pricing, and supporting services for different platforms. The platform rules are determined by the platform, and you must not try a tried-and-tested approach on a new platform.

2. The costs of different traffic sources vary greatly. When the conversion rate is roughly the same, traffic determines sales, and traffic cost and conversion rate jointly determine the cost per customer. At present, the costs of various traffic known to mankind are soaring, so SNS operations must be placed at the top of the priority list.

Conversion rate: Conversion rate multiplied by traffic cost equals customer cost. Conversion rate is a systematic project for ** websites. Under the large SKU approach, it is basically impossible to deeply optimize the customer purchase experience. Small and beautiful is possible.

Repurchase rate: A high repurchase rate can reduce the cost per customer. I won’t say much about this. In fact, what we think about every day is how to increase sales and reduce the cost per customer.

3. The core advantage of distribution comes back to supply chain capabilities, so I won’t go into details.

Ebay's core competitiveness three: logistics

The importance of logistics will increase in the future because services must also be attached to the logistics chain.

1. Delivery from China: The bargaining power over logistics channels, and then the control power. In the case of insufficient logistics resources, the bargaining power over logistics channels determines the speed of delivery; large sellers generally consider building their own logistics channels, which can be seen, just like the well-known large seller Guangzhou Banggu. Banggu also has a well-established e-commerce company Fit Logistics, which can greatly strengthen its core competitiveness. Small sellers sometimes find that the products of large sellers cannot compete directly with the price, and there are many ways in it.

2. Shipping from overseas warehouses. This actually tests the seller's sales forecasting ability. Overseas warehouses require sellers to have high scheduling capabilities, so sales forecasts must be more accurate to ensure that inventory does not accumulate in large quantities, otherwise the cost will be extremely high. The greatest value of overseas warehouses should not be in saving costs (special categories will save, but not all, some will actually be higher) to improve customer experience, service response capabilities, extend sales cycles, expand the range of categories that can be operated, etc. (Any of these points, whichever is successful, is a blue ocean)

As the competition gap narrows, the core competitiveness may still have to return to the essence of consumer demand. People often talk about: branding + localization + omni-channel operation, just like Coase explained any economic problem with cost.

Ebay still has a great advantage now, after all, eBay has a large scale. The above is the content about eBay's core competitiveness in this issue. If you want to get more eBay information, please continue to pay attention!