Valuable Insights | Amidst the Rapid Growth of Cross-Border E-Commerce, Another Layer of Opportunities Quietly Emerges!

Brand globalization has become a trending topic, enticing everyone with immense potential profits. However, for companies, conducting thorough research and developing a solid plan before jumping on the bandwagon is the best strategy to avoid becoming collateral damage.
For marketing service providers, opportunities come with business transformation and upgrades. Embracing change early is essential to reap the benefits.

--Webpower

Due to special factors, global offline consumption has been suppressed, leading to a boom in online shopping and a rapid growth in cross-border e-commerce performance. According to the "2021 H1 China Cross-Border E-Commerce Market Data Report," the scale of China's cross-border e-commerce market reached 6.05 trillion yuan in the first half of 2021, with the market size expected to reach 14.6 trillion yuan for the entire year. In contrast, the cross-border e-commerce import and export volume was 1.69 trillion yuan in the just-concluded year of 2020. Moreover, in the first half of 2021, the import and export structure of China's cross-border e-commerce showed: Exports accounted for 77.5%, roughly three times the amount of imports. All signs indicate thatChina's cross-border e-commerce export industry is entering a period of developmental dividends.

 

Correspondingly, there has been a surge in overseas marketing demands from cross-border enterprises, but facing an unfamiliar overseas marketing environment, how will enterprises truly "go global and establish a stable presence"? This is a pressing issue for marketing service providers to address. This article, from Webpower's unique perspective, will reveal the opportunities and challenges facing cross-border enterprises and marketing service providers.

1.

Brand Cross-Border Expansion

Email Marketing Cannot Be Ignored

When a brand goes global, establishing a presence in local markets and expanding into overseas marketing is imperative. However, for small and medium-sized brands, the cost of overseas marketing and customer acquisition is not necessarily lower than in domestic markets. The effectiveness of the marketing spend, the ability to consistently acquire customers, and the potential to drive sales become major concerns for many brands looking to expand internationally. WebpowerJimmy, General Manager of Webpower's Digital Marketing Division iDigitalForce, believes that for cross-border marketing, one must be pragmatic and align with the local consumption environment, starting from the basics. Among these, the role of email marketing cannot be underestimated. This is determined by the usage habits of overseas consumers and the unique attributes of email marketing itself.

01 Overseas Market Usage Habits

Email may not be the primary communication tool in China, but it is used much more frequently abroad. Data shows that in everyday life in the United States, 58% of adults check their email as the first thing they do each morning. On average, each working professional checks their email 30 times during a workday. At the same time, according to research by Statista, 49% of people prefer to receive promotional emails that meet their needs. Due to better email usage habits and frequency overseas, email marketing has substantial development opportunities. In the United States alone,

over 90% of businesses use email marketing, Including well-known companies like Amazon.You can see, Email marketing has become a norm abroad, making it a fundamental marketing operation for brands expanding cross-border. immense demand also creates opportunities for cross-border marketing service providers. Adapting to overseas email marketing environments and regulations, planning effective cross-border strategies, and serving outbound enterprises well have become new challenges for domestic marketing service providers.

. Low Cost, High Return

Email marketing is widely used abroad due to local environmental and cultural reasons, but fundamentally, it’s driven by factors of cost and return on investment. The famous lawyer incident marks the beginning of email marketing: a lawyer couple's strategy of sending bulk spam emails, although inappropriate, demonstrated the immense potential of email marketing by earning $100,000 with just a $20 expenditure.In fact, according to the DMA report, every $1 spent on email marketing generates an average return of $32.

This immense profit allure is a double-edged sword. It brings benefits to cross-border brands and fosters the development of the email marketing services ecosystem, but it also raises issues about permission-based email marketing and data security. Starting in 2018, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect. This regulation is a vital step in strengthening personal data security and protection, earning the title of "the strictest data protection regulation in history" and "the strongest regulation in the era of big data." It has global applicability, grants greater rights to data subjects, and entails stricter accountability for data controllers and more severe penalties for non-compliance.

Hence, Under the premise of compliance, conducting cross-border email marketing and selecting the best email marketing software for foreign trade are essential considerations that cross-border brands and marketing service providers must adhere to.

. Precise Customer Maintenance

In addition to driving direct sales growth, email marketing plays a critical role in customer relationship management for many companies overseas. Those familiar with Amazon know that when you register as an Amazon user, you not only regularly receive its promotional emails but also get retention emails when you are about to abandon shopping on the site.
In reality, email marketing is far more sophisticated than simple bulk emails; it involves one-on-one precise targeting based on user insights and a personalized marketing approach. This user lifecycle-based operational strategy aligns perfectly with personalized user needs, giving email marketing a significant advantage in maintaining relationships with existing customers.

Two,

Focusing on Independent Websites

The DTC Model Aligns with Private Domain MarketingThis year, although it presents significant opportunities for cross-border enterprises, the large-scale account suspensions by Amazon in the first half of the year have served as a wake-up call for cautious companies. Facing increasingly stringent platform regulations, independent websites have become the preferred choice for businesses going global. Independent sites are not a new concept overseas, and they are often associated with the DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) model, which allows brands to bypass all intermediaries and directly interact with consumers, establishing a business concept based on user relationship management. From the perspective of domestic marketing strategies, this aligns perfectly with the current hot trend of "private domain traffic operations." Anticipating these trends and helping cross-border enterprises expand their overseas private domains is also one of the added services provided by domestic marketing firms.

. Overseas private domain marketing cannot simply replicate domestic strategies.

In domestic e-commerce, private domain traffic initially relied heavily on direct traffic diversion from traditional e-commerce platforms. However, this approach is clearly inadvisable or unprofitable overseas. Many overseas e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon, have control over consumer information. Sellers within these platforms have no access to user information since Amazon handles the shipping from its own warehouses. As a seller, you are only responsible for submitting orders via the backend, leaving you disconnected from customers. Even if you send messages to customers within the platform, they often choose not to respond.

Many savvy individuals consider including package inserts in shipments, similar to what is done domestically, but unfortunately, this practice is not tolerated by foreign e-commerce websites. A recent uproar in which major sellers on e-commerce platforms had their stores shut down was largely due to sellers placing review cards in packages, which Amazon deemed as manipulating reviews. Therefore, on traditional overseas e-commerce platforms, you cannot directly reach users, let alone drive traffic to build your private domain traffic system. This is one reason independent websites have gained popularity. Hence, cross-border enterprises must not simply copy domestic private domain operation models when expanding abroad. So, which email marketing software is best for foreign trade?

. How to do overseas private domain marketing

Independent websites, as brand-owned platforms, inherently serve as private domain traffic pools. According to Webpower, driving traffic to these sites in line with local marketing trends can be achieved through three specific strategies: collaborating with major KOLs, leveraging social media platforms for traffic, and optimizing SEO. These are similar to private domain traffic strategies used domestically; only the partners and platforms differ.

Three,Trends in Cross-Border Marketing

High-Quality Content and Enhanced Brand PowerCurrently, cross-border expansion is in an explosive phase, often referred to as a "blue ocean." However, in the future, as competition among global enterprises intensifies, competition among marketing service providers will also become increasingly fierce. It must be said that...Changes in the marketing environment are closely related to the iterations of the internet and media. The increasing usage of short video platforms like TikTok overseas signals the end of the era dominated by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. This shift brings about an upgrade in content marketing methods and an increased demand for quality content from users. Only high-quality content marketing can capture and retain users' attention. 

At the same time, building brand strength is crucial for brands looking to go global. After all, no one wants to spend extra time and money on an unknown brand. This is both a challenge for companies going global and an opportunity for marketing service providers. 

In the future, marketing service providers that align with the overseas marketing landscape and possess core competencies in content marketing and brand building will stand out from the competition.

Conclusion

Brand globalization has become a trending topic, enticing everyone with immense potential profits. However, for companies, conducting thorough research and developing a solid plan before jumping on the bandwagon is the best strategy to avoid becoming collateral damage. As for which email marketing software is best for foreign trade, that's also an important consideration. For marketing service providers, opportunities come with the cost of business transformation and upgrades. Embracing change early is essential to reap the benefits.

If you want to learn more about private domain marketing, email marketing, cross-border marketing, SCRM member operations, and other digital marketing topics, please stay tuned to Webpower!

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