With breakthroughs in core technologies such as CPUs, Mini PCs are becoming the top choice for office use for more and more users. Today’s featured company, Beelink, identified the growth potential of Mini PCs in 2017 and boldly began cross-border selling by leveraging the strengths of Shenzhen’s 3C industry cluster and the favorable timing of the cross-border e-commerce boom. In just five years, it became a major cross-border seller with annual sales of over 100 million on Amazon!
Today, we’ve invited Beelink Sales Director Zhang Muzhi to share how Beelink got its start in Shenzhen more than a decade ago, identified emerging trends step by step, used cross-border e-commerce to bring Chinese Mini PCs to the global market, and opened up a new growth path with its differentiated competitive advantages.

In 2010, the first-generation iPad was officially released, and its slim design and powerful performance sparked a boom in tablet purchases. In 2011, Beelink was founded in Shenzhen and began developing and designing tablet solutions, building up extensive technical expertise and R&D experience. Over the next few years, Beelink kept up with changing technology trends and expanded into niche areas such as TV Box and Mini PC, using concepts like “pocket PC” to shape tech trends. Its move into Mini PC also helped Beelink identify a new growth opportunity driven by technological change.

Zhang Muzhi said: “Mini PCs were previously used mainly for industrial control in settings such as outdoor large screens and parking systems, but around 2018, improvements in the performance of core components such as CPUs brought Mini PCs to a level suitable for light office work. Combined with the rise of remote work, Mini PCs began to show the potential to replace desktop computers. Today’s Mini PCs have both the portability of laptop computers and performance comparable to desktop computers, allowing them to replace existing office equipment and grow quickly. “

The trend toward remote work is not limited to China; overseas, it has become an unstoppable force. This also led Beelink to start paying attention to the cross-border e-commerce space. At the end of 2017, Beelink released its first-generation Mini PC. The following year, Beelink began cross-border selling in Europe and the US, chose Amazon from the start, and firmly pursued a brand-focused cross-border selling strategy with a long-term mindset to seek more sustainable business growth.
Over the following five years, Beelink’s overseas business quickly grew to account for around 80%. In 2023, Beelink’s cumulative sales on Amazon exceeded 330,000 units, with revenue of more than $100 million. Since 2020, its revenue has achieved 100% “explosive” growth for 3 consecutive years.

According to Mr. Zhang, Shenzhen, as a nationally and globally renowned consumer electronics hub, has provided Beelink with ample support and resources in areas such as supportive policies, industry talent, and supply chain assurance. For example, Mr. Zhang mentioned, “Some of our personalized needs, from ideas and design to small-batch trial production, can all find supporting resources in Shenzhen, enabling customized innovation within the smallest radius and the shortest time.” Today, Beelink has established two company-owned factories in Shenzhen and Hefei, creating an integrated cross-border selling model that combines production, sales, and research, leveraging industrial cluster advantages through independent innovation to build competitive barriers overseas.

In Mr. Zhang’s view, the advantages of the integrated production, sales, and R&D model are mainly reflected in several aspects:
1️⃣ From procurement and inspection to assembly, we have better control over the production process, and we conduct full inspections during quality checks to maximize product quality and user experience.
2️⃣ Better management of production costs results in more cost-effective products.
3️⃣ Can respond more quickly to external needs. For example, you can flexibly adjust production plans based on major promotions and optimize product configurations right away.

Zhang Muzhi said, “A one-in-a-thousand chance of a product quality issue becomes a 100% problem once it reaches the consumer. So our requirement for Class A core materials is 100% compliance, and our testing is refined down to every port. Compared with the brand’s reputation and the customer experience, these investments in product quality are worth it. In addition, we continuously optimize product configurations based on customer feedback. For example, in the industry, one FPC cable for connecting an external hard drive is provided by default, but customer reviews mentioned that this cable can easily break after repeated use, so all Beelink models come with an extra FPC cable to meet the needs of these customers. “

As a result, Beelink has solved a series of pain points that were common in Mini PCs in the past. From the ultra-thin, fanless T series for industrial control, to the EQ series focused on light office work, the SE series designed for professional office use, and the GT series for enthusiasts, it has built a complete product portfolio for different usage scenarios. This allows Beelink to offer better value for money and a broader product selection when competing with major international brands. When competing with other small and medium-sized brands, it can win through better quality and stronger brand power. This differentiated competitive advantage has also helped drive Beelink’s rapid breakthrough and accelerated growth overseas.

Before officially selling on Amazon in 2018, Beelink had many years of experience in OEM manufacturing. After building its own factory, Beelink developed stronger R&D, innovation, and quality control capabilities, and was ready to enter cross-border e-commerce. But even so, in the initial stages, Beelink faced a number of unexpected problems and setbacks.
First, consumers in different countries and regions overseas have very different purchasing power and needs, which creates major challenges for selling high-ticket products like Mini PCs, and gaining insight into these differences is not easy. To this end, Beelink chose the method of “crowdfunding” to test the acceptance of products by overseas consumers, adjust and optimize product configurations, and determine the growth potential of products in different countries and regions. At the same time, Amazon's Vine program, customer reviews, etc. also provided Beelink with an important channel to learn about overseas business opportunities.

Zhang Muzhi said: “In 2020, Beelink crowdfunded a high-performance Mini PC in the GTR series. The original target was HK$200,000, but the final total reached as much as US$400,000. At the same time, we recognized that consumers’ demand for high-end product performance far exceeded expectations, so we increased the product memory from 16 GB to 64 GB, which is still “far ahead” even now. In addition, we will also use differentiated strategies for other product lines. For example, in response to the trend of “trading down” among business users, we will launch products with a better balance of price and performance to improve the value for money of our business products.
At the same time, Amazon customer reviews are also an important channel for us to understand user needs and expected use cases. For example, a consumer mentioned in a review that the Wi-Fi signal strength of a certain Mini PC weakens after a distance of more than 4 meters. We did not find this issue in our own repeated tests before. It was only after we recreated the customer’s usage scenario for testing that we unexpectedly found that the Wi-Fi module and the machine’s metal casing could interfere with each other at certain angles, which allowed us to adjust the Wi-Fi module’s design in time. “

Second, Mini PCs are high-ticket products, and how to increase brand awareness and sales is also a core issue that Beelink needs to tackle. According to Mr. Zhang, high-cost products should pay attention to two points. One is to build brand trust and eliminate customer concerns about new brands through timely responses to user messages and perfect after-sales support; second, they must never “talk for themselves”; the other is to provide trust and endorsement for the product through professional evaluation to build popularity among target customer groups.
Therefore, Beelink adopted a two-pronged strategy, on and off Amazon—on Amazon, Beelink is especially good at using a combination of Amazon Advertising tactics to increase brand and product visibility, drive large-scale traffic to Listings, and, in line with the growing trend toward video content, optimize Listings with creative assets such as images, videos, and 3D animations to create an immersive shopping experience, build a complete marketing loop, and accelerate sales conversion. Of course, Mr. Zhang also mentioned that you must ensure the accuracy of descriptions for parameters such as CPU and memory, as this is the top priority.

Zhang Muzhi said: that whether it’s Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, or Amazon DSP, we use them all. We’re still a small and medium brand, and one clever way is to use Sponsored Display to target ads precisely to the product detail pages of similar competing products from big brands, especially during their major promotions, so more shoppers can see options with similar configurations but more competitive prices, helping ads reach the right audience effectively. “
Off Amazon, Beelink works with professional overseas KOLs to take apart products and provide detailed reviews and demonstrations, showing real usage scenarios such as video clips. For example, during the launch phase of the new GTR7 in the second quarter of 2023, Beelink provided 56 devices overseas for review and promotion, generated millions of impressions across multiple channels, and increased sales during the launch phase.

Based on these effective operational methods, many of Beelink’s ASINs were successfully included in the Best Sellers Rank. For example, the hottest MINI S series sold more than 54,000 units in 2023, accounting for 16.4% of sales, and became one of Beelink’s bestselling flagship products.
Zhang Muzhi said: “The Mini S in the light office series features a simple exterior design that better aligns with overseas consumers’ aesthetic preferences. More importantly, we achieved differentiated functionality at the same price point. For example, some IT manufacturers may use Wi-Fi 5 for the wireless module to control costs, but we use a Wi-Fi 6 module. Although the cost may differ by $2–$3, the customer experience is completely different when it comes to transmission speed. This product is also one of our best-selling products, accounting for almost a quarter of our shipments from our Shenzhen factory. “

After achieving steady growth in established Marketplaces, Beelink is also looking for opportunities to expand into emerging Marketplaces. According to Mr. Zhang: “Beelink is focusing on expanding into marketplaces such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Australia, and will later launch marketplaces in the Americas, such as Mexico and Brazil. We can see that emerging Marketplaces have enormous potential. For example, during Prime Day on the Australia Marketplace, order volume can reach more than 10 times the normal daily level. Also, across all Marketplaces, Beelink chooses FBA. First, given the product’s average order value, FBA offers better security. Second, it provides a better delivery experience for end customers. Overall, we will keep a close eye on all emerging Marketplaces. As long as purchasing power meets the standard, they are worth expanding into. 」

When it first started cross-border selling, Beelink mainly targeted C-end consumers. However, Mini PC’s inherently B2B nature in the industrial control field, along with its rapid adoption in the office sector, naturally led Beelink to focus on the B2B track, which has strong growth potential. In 2021, after first being introduced to Amazon Business, Beelink quickly became a “loyal user” and, as a result, reached a new group of business and institutional customers.

Zhang Muzhi said: “Domestic corporate buyers may be more willing to choose well-known major brands, even if our products are more competitive. However, buyers at overseas companies place more value on performance and price-to-performance ratio, which creates a great opportunity for new brands like us. On the one hand, we can directly show business customers our product quality and comprehensive after-sales support, increasing their awareness of and favorable impression of the brand; on the other hand, Amazon Business also provides a certain level of backing for closing transactions, removing very cumbersome and complex communication steps and solving the trust issue in transactions.
Currently, Beelink is focusing on two key B2B segments: T-series PCs for industrial control applications and devices designed for light office use, providing the stable quality business customers need through better materials and stricter production standards. Whether from Amazon Business performance or through traditional foreign trade channels, we have seen that Mini PCs show strong growth momentum. “

Low return rate + high repeat purchase rate + huge orders
Strike gold in the blue ocean of business procurement and earn tens of millions of dollars
In Mr. Zhang’s view, B2B business customers are not only relatively less price-sensitive and have a higher average order value, but also have higher repeat purchase rates and lower return rates. For example, in the US Marketplace, Beelink's return rate for B2B orders in 2022 was only 0.1%, while the return rate for B2C orders reached 6%, a 60-fold difference. In terms of repeat purchases, business customers have also shown a very high level of brand loyalty. For example, a business organization in Australia placed more than 40 orders in total and purchased 200 Mini PCs, and has become one of Beelink’s many stable overseas business customers.
Today, Amazon Business has become an important growth engine for Beelink. B2B sales rapidly climbed from $8.3 million in 2021 to more than $22 million in 2023. Its share of the overall business also increased from 18.3% to 23%, and the highest share, in Italy, reached 28%. Beelink also receives more than 80 inquiries each year through Amazon Business, including many high-value large orders. Currently, Beelink’s largest order to date totaled as much as $56,000 for 150 devices, and online business purchasing saves on advertising, promotion, and after-sales costs, allowing greater savings to be passed on to business customers and making it easier for Beelink to win large orders.

Zhang Muzhi said: “Our largest business purchase order was in 2022. The customer found us through Amazon Business’s Custom Quote Engine and wanted a product with a configuration similar to that of a major brand, so we customized it based on their needs. The advantage of this approach is that for this order, I don’t need to factor in the costs of advertising, promotions, returns, and so on, which better helps us win large orders while maintaining profit margins and drive higher transaction volume at a lower cost. “

While using Amazon Business, Beelink also built up its own experience and methods. For example:
1️⃣ Use data as a reference to reasonably set business prices and quantity discounts (BPQD) to help drive sales growth. Based on its business needs, Beelink set corresponding discounts for 1, 2, 4, and 10 or more units to maximize profit and sales.
Business Price and Quantity Discounts (BPQD)
Path
Single ASIN setup: Seller Central > Manage Inventory > business pricing rules/Add Quantity Discounts
Bulk ASIN setup: Seller Central > Pricing > Automate Pricing > Create New Pricing Rule
Business Discount Auto Analysis: Seller Central > B2B > Business Discount Analysis
2️⃣ Amazon’s Prime Day, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and a series of exclusive promotions for Amazon Business, such as the back-to-business season, can also bring additional traffic, and capturing this traffic can also help increase sales. For example, during the January–February back-to-business season in Europe and the US, Beelink gained better visibility in Amazon Business promotional events by offering strong business discounts (more than 5%). Combined with social media teasers and promotion, sales on its European and US Marketplaces increased 25% and 38% month over month, respectively.
3 ️ EK Beelink will also optimize listings in a targeted manner according to the needs of corporate buyers, display key product points that enterprise users focus on, and drive the conversion of B-side traffic. For example, for the T series used in industrial control, Beelink highlights features such as fan design and Wake-on-LAN in the listing, making the product presentation more targeted.

In addition, during its cross-border selling journey, Beelink also received support from Amazon’s dedicated account manager. For example, the dedicated account manager provides timely and effective guidance and support in areas such as Account Health protection, unusual order handling, and listing review. They also regularly summarize data, compare Beelink’s own operational data with broader market data, and identify targeted directions for optimization. For business customers, Amazon’s dedicated advisor can also provide Beelink with the percentage of orders placed by Repeat customers across different time intervals and the percentage of orders placed by Repeat customers in the overall market, allowing Beelink to run precise targeted advertising for business customers in specific time periods.
With dual business opportunities in both B2B and B2C, Beelink successfully brought its self-developed, innovative Mini PC to overseas markets and gained a firm foothold amid fierce competition. In President Zhang’s view, there are still significant growth opportunities in cross-border e-commerce. As long as we stay committed to fundamentals such as compliance and innovation, Chinese innovation will create even greater opportunities globally in the future, helping more Chinese companies take center stage on the world stage.