Amazon launched a seven-step methodology for factory transformation and cross-border transformation to help the majority of factory sellers go overseas with great energy!

Factory transformation is a seven-step process across borders,

Helping Chinese manufacturers to go overseas efficiently!

Download the seven-step factory methodology

A seven-step guide to going out to sea in a factory

Step 1: Product Development

Product development is the first step for a factory to go overseas, and it is also the most critical basic step.

The four core steps of product development

Determine the category

When determining product categories, it is necessary to analyze the capacity and growth potential of overseas categories, understand the competitive environment, clarify consumer demand, and make decisions based on one's own advantages.

Product definition

At the product definition stage, it is necessary to conduct in-depth competitive research and analysis, calculate profit margins, segment product attributes, and clarify entry points and reasonable positioning.

pricing strategy

Pricing strategies need to consider pricing formulas, applicable products, and analysis of advantages and disadvantages for different price bands, and formulate corresponding prices, coupons, and advertising strategies.

Selling plans

Develop detailed sales plans, including monthly and weekly goals, and make advertising plans. Through a systematic product development process, a solid foundation is laid for subsequent operations.

Product Development Learning Resources

Answers to common mistakes in factory product development

How to develop product pricing strategies and sales plans

AI's underlying logic and cues

How to use AI+Rufus to conduct category research

Step 2: Financial planning

Financial planning is the key to ensuring the healthy and continuous operation of the factory's cross-border e-commerce business.

Start from a single dimension

Detailed accounting of all costs is required to ensure reasonable profit margins:

Production costs

Logistics costs

Marketing

Store commissions

Starting from a holistic dimension

A complete financial budget plan is required:

Fixed costs (personnel remuneration, office production area, etc.)

Variable costs (procurement of goods, logistics, commissions, etc.)

At the same time, we should pay attention to cash flow management and plan the pace of capital investment reasonably.

Generally, stores with a sales target of 1 million US dollars in the first year require about 50-70% of the total investment in cash (such as product costs, logistics preparation, etc.). The remaining 30%-40% are operating expenses (such as commissions, advertising fees, FBA fees, etc.) that can be directly deducted through subsequent seller back-office payments

Note: Repayments for new accounts in the early period will be delayed by a certain percentage, mainly due to the actual account situation.

Financial planning learning resources

Step 3: Team Building

Team building according to the size and level of investment in the factory
● Leading companies (7-11 people)
● Medium-sized companies (5-8 people)
● Small businesses (4-7 people)

Core positions include: team leader, account operation, supply chain coordination, art design, after-sales service, etc.

The salary structure of enterprises of different sizes is also different, and generally includes two parts: basic salary and performance bonus. Take a medium-sized enterprise as an example. The total monthly labor investment is about 27,000 yuan. The team's performance evaluation should set reasonable KPI indicators, such as sales, profit margin, account health, etc. At the same time, attention should be paid to cultivating the team's cross-border e-commerce operation mindset to achieve a shift from traditional foreign trade to a new retail model.

Team building learning resources

Factory team function construction

Step 4: Flexible supply chain

Flexible supply chains are an important support for factory transformation to cross-border e-commerce. Compared with traditional foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce is mainly distinguished in the following two aspects:

In production mode

Compared with traditional foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce requires a more flexible production model:

Small batch multi-frequency production to reduce production MOQ

Adjust raw materials, packaging materials and production line configurations

Improve product quality management and focus on small-batch quality inspection

In terms of timeliness management

Compared with traditional foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce requires the formulation of a complete financial budget plan:

To shorten the end-to-end procurement production cycle, use Amazon KPI management tools to improve efficiency

It is recommended to set up a special cross-border e-commerce production team to flexibly adjust production priorities according to the platform's off-peak season

Pay attention to consumer feedback, optimize product design and process in a timely manner, and build a high-quality supply chain system

Flexible supply chain learning resources

Step 5: Logistics preparation

According to the production cycle, logistics timeliness and other characteristics of different categories, scientific preparation plans are formulated to ensure that inventory levels not only meet sales needs, but also that the backlog does not take up too much capital.

When it comes to selecting logistics solutions, there are three main models:

Pure FBA mode

Worry-free and efficient, suitable for most standard products.

FBA+ overseas warehouse model

It is suitable for products with strong seasonality and high restocking time requirements.

MFN+ overseas warehouse model

Suitable for special products such as oversized items and dangerous goods.

In terms of inventory management, focus on:

Maintainable sales weeks (WOC)

Inventory Performance Index (IPI)

Surplus inventory ratio

Aged inventory

Logistics stocking learning resources

Step 6: Operational Practice

Operations is a critical part of turning early preparations into actual sales.

Complete the product detail page
(Listing) Production and optimization

The essential elements of a high-quality listing include a concise and prominent title, a high-definition and eye-catching main image, 6 attached images with multiple angles and scenes, etc., a well-designed product video (showing the actual use of the product, functional demonstrations, and dynamic display of core selling points), and a professionally produced A+ page (including high-quality images, clear product specification sheets, segmented product descriptions, brand stories, and buyer FAQ areas), etc.

Make full use
Amazon marketing tool system

Including in-site advertising (SP, SD, SB), DSP display advertising, social media promotion, etc., based on the factory's reasonable in-site advertising budget in the early stages, the new product promotion stage is mainly SP advertising (manual advertising: automatic advertising ratio is approximately 8:2). As new products grow, more advertising types, such as SB, SBV, etc., have begun to be expanded one after another.

Promotional aspects

Take good advantage of daily promotion tools (coupons, flash sales, etc.) and large-scale promotion nodes (Prime Day, Black Friday, etc.). New factory sellers need to consider the discount intensity of different types of big promotions in advance, plan product prices in advance to ensure certain product profits, etc.

Operational practical learning resources

How to use AI to efficiently create images

What is a qualified hexagon trader

Three sentences to create an AI assistant that understands Amazon's business (Part 2)

Step 7: Brand Building

Brand building is an important path for factories to achieve long-term sustainable development. In the short term, it is necessary to complete the transformation from traditional foreign trade to cross-border e-commerce; in the long term, it is necessary to establish independent brand value.

Brand building is divided into four levels

Establishing recognition

Establish brand recognition through brand flagship stores, brand stories, etc.

Main products launched

Use A+ pages, Vine plans, etc. to create the brand's main products.

Increase visibility

Increase brand awareness through various advertising and marketing tools.

Increase loyalty

Increase brand loyalty by relying on customized brand promotions, user interaction, etc.

See the brand to build more courses

Factory Transformation Seller Stories

Amazon Global Store provides successful cases and precautions for factory-type enterprises to transform into cross-border businesses to help them get started efficiently.

The Foshan furniture factory started from scratch,
How to sell over 100 million dollars a year (Part 2)

Henan gun cabinet factory transformed into a cross-border one
The secret to success revealed

Can judges also do border crossings?
Listen to the business experience from the factory owner in Anhui

Factory trip to the sea question and answer area

Common mistakes made by factory sellers

Factory mentality dominates, relies too much on its own production capacity, and ignores consumer needs

Misunderstanding performance:
- “Our factory is good at making A products, so we want to promote this one on Amazon too”
- Direct inventory clearance from factory inventory, ignoring product marketability
- Blindly pursuing “big but complete”, listing a full range of products causes resources to be scattered

Recommended practices:
- Conduct detailed category analysis and drive product selection through systematic data
- Make good use of Amazon Logistics's new product entry discount program, and test small-batch delivery to verify consumer feedback

Blindly following the trend, serious homogenization of product selection, and lack the ability to innovate on its own

Misunderstanding performance:
- Blindly chase the Best Sellers list and ignore the life cycle of popular models
- Male model products are directly on the shelves, homogenization is serious, and there is a lack of innovation
- Ignore intellectual property risks and touch the red line of compliance

Recommended practices:
- Combining category trends and consumer reviews to find unmet consumer needs and differentiate products
- Improve your own innovation and product development capabilities, and broaden product development channels
- Check patent compliance in advance, such as design patent brand terms, and pay attention to patent protection for your own products

Product updates are slow and iterative capacity is weak

Misunderstanding performance:
- A product has not been revised for two years, and the competitor has been updated to the fourth generation
- Negative review concentration points have not improved for a long time, and the BSR list continues to decline and is overtaken by competitors
- Long new product development cycle, missed peak season window

The right way to do it:
- Observe the product iteration frequency of leading sellers in the category to improve their own development efficiency
-Establish a “negative review-driven” product upgrade response mechanism