How do small sellers choose cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, AliExpress and eBay?

Today we invited a seller to analyze how to choose a cross-border e-commerce platform.

【AliExpress】

We started to focus on AliExpress in February 2016. AliExpress has indeed made many people make money, but it does not mean that you can make 100% of the money if you enter. Before 2016, AliExpress encouraged sellers to sell goods in bulk and use the model of mass distribution to obtain traffic.

Why do we need to distribute goods in large quantities? Because AliExpress wants to enrich its products. Only when there are products will people go to the platform to consume. I remember that there was a model of Taobao sourcing one piece at a time. I don’t know if it still exists now.

In 2016, AliExpress happened to be upgrading and required corporate sellers to join. This was also a development need. After all, if goods are to go abroad, they cannot develop without any guarantee. In around February, there were also reports that Tmall sellers were invited to join. It can be seen that AliExpress is no longer a platform that only downstream sellers can play with.

We also uploaded a large amount of goods in the early stage, but the traffic was pitifully small, basically no. Later we tried the through train, but remember, orders placed through the through train are not profitable. I just regarded it as a fake order, and spent 1,000 yuan to sell 3 products. How embarrassing~~~

Later, we saw a small hit product in a certain category and launched one ourselves. The conversion rate was around 10%-20%. But it was still not profitable. In the end, we gave up on AliExpress.

Summarize:

1. Only sellers with capital and supply advantages can afford to participate in AliExpress. If you want to do AliExpress, you need to be prepared for price wars.

2. Product selection is very important. Even if it takes you a month, you should choose carefully. This way you can save a lot of costs when promoting.

3. If you can’t choose any good products, then just follow the hot selling ones!!!

4. Small teams are not recommended to do AliExpress

【wish】

When Wish was on AliExpress, it occasionally put up products, with about 100 products, and there was traffic, but no orders. Later, there were only 2-3 orders occasionally. Wish had no other way to get orders, it had to distribute the products, distribute the products, and distribute the products.

I don't specialize in Wish myself, so I don't have any experience to share with you. If your company has sufficient staff, you can consider sending 1-2 people to be responsible for Wish.

【ebay】

eBay is a very good platform. The gameplay of this platform is also very simple, that is, massive distribution of goods. However, this platform also has some of its own characteristics!!!

1. The backend is all in English. You need to get familiar with it for a while. After you are familiar with it, it is quite user-friendly. The backend was just revised in August.

2. You must [remember] not to touch infringing goods on the eBay platform. Because there are Americans on eBay who buy fake goods, then go to court to file a complaint and freeze your PayPal, and eBay will not remind you!!!

Important reminder: If you infringe, your APP will be frozen first, but your eBay store will be fine. You can only receive payments, but cannot withdraw or transfer money. In other words, your account has been invalidated. All the money you have sold will be cleared!!! eBay and APP are two companies, and eBay will not remind you if there is a problem with the product.

3. Some policies on eBay are also very abnormal. For example, there is no problem with your product, but if the buyer chooses to blame you, then you need to provide free returns! Even if your return policy states that if it is the buyer's fault, the return fee is borne by the buyer, it is useless. It depends on your luck.

4. Although eBay is a massive listing model, there is still a limit on the number of products you can list. The monthly fee is $24.99, and you can list 250 items per month. Of course, there are also intermediate and advanced levels, which you can check in the backend.

5. One advantage of eBay is that the money is immediately credited to the account, without the buyer confirming receipt. Direct credit to the account~

To summarize:

1. eBay is a model of mass distribution, which requires you to invest a lot of manpower to list. If you have sufficient manpower, you can consider it. [Manpower]

2. If you want to distribute a large amount of goods, you must solve the problem of inventory and ensure that your products are in stock. If the buyer orders a product that is out of stock, your order loss rate will increase. [Source of goods]

3. Fast payment [money]

【Amazon】

Amazon is the last platform I contacted, and it is also the platform I mainly work on. When doing business on Amazon, you need to put all your focus on the product. You can't do a large number of products on Amazon like you do on eBay and AliExpress. Every product on Amazon needs to be carefully selected, and each one is the best of the best. Don't just randomly distribute products, it will not be good for your store.

You can often see stores with only 1-2 products on Amazon, and they still sell very well. So when you do Amazon, you should focus more on the products. If you do Amazon, you must do FBA. If you don’t want to do Amazon well, then it’s up to you to do it yourself.

When doing FBA, you have to deal with inventory issues. Small sellers need to control their own inventory. Don’t be crushed by your own inventory. Some sellers sell a lot of goods in a year, but they just can’t see the money. Where does the money go? It’s all in the inventory.

Amazon generally takes half a month to get paid. If you have a batch of goods in stock and a batch of goods on the way, it will take half a month to get paid. If you don’t have around 20,000-50,000 yuan in funds, it will be difficult to do business on Amazon. Of course, you can ship goods yourself.

Summarize:

1. It is best to prepare around 20,000-50,000 yuan of funds to do business on Amazon. This is my personal recommendation.

2. Doing business on Amazon requires a long-term investment. The cost may not be recovered in 2-3 months, but it will still be good if it is done well in the later stage.