As a leader in the field of disposable kitchen supplies, the products produced by Whale Elephant are of excellent quality and are exported to many countries. However, as market competition becomes more intense, whales are also beginning to face development bottlenecks: the capacity of traditional offline channels is becoming saturated, and the overall growth rate of the industry is slowing down. Against this backdrop, whales urgently need to find new breakers. At the end of 2023, Whale Elephant made a bold decision — to enter Amazon and try out cross-border e-commerce.

The decision was not a whim. According to the data, the kitchen category is becoming one of the fastest growing and most promising categories on Amazon, and the growth in some segments is particularly evident. At the same time, sellers in the main kitchen category in China are being recognized by more and more overseas users on Amazon's European and American sites.

Mr. Zhu: “Since there is strong demand for disposable kitchen supplies in overseas markets, there are also quite a few cases in the industry where cross-border e-commerce has achieved good results, so why can't we do it?"
After months of preparation, Whale Elephant successfully launched on Amazon US on December 16. Although the team has just been formed, and they have no experience in Amazon operations, and everything has to start from scratch, the team is still very confident.
The confidence of the Whale Elephant team comes not only from accurately hitting a subdivided track with potential, but also another important factor. According to President Zhu, compared to other types of sellers, factory sellers like Whales have unique competitive advantages:
● First: Purchaser-side costs are controllable. “We purchase products directly from our own factory, which can effectively reduce storage and inventory costs, and at the same time prioritize the supply supply of Amazon stores, which is highly time-efficient. ” Mr. Zhu introduced it.
● Second: As a factory seller, Whale Elephant's knowledge of disposable kitchen products can be called the “ceiling” of the industry, and has significant advantages in terms of technical support and product development.

Mr. Zhu: “This comprehensive ability to control the industrial chain enables us to take an advantageous position in market competition. Once there is a problem with the product, we can respond quickly to market changes through efficient collaboration with the factory to meet the diverse needs of consumers. "
Together, these advantages have built a “moat” for whales in fierce market competition, and they are also the driving force behind the transformation of cross-border e-commerce.

However, there are plenty of ideals, and reality is very boring, and going out to sea across the border is not as “smooth sailing” as initially thought. Although thorough preparations were made before entering Amazon, including formulating an operation plan under the guidance of the Amazon account manager, and successfully completing the early stages of brand registration and product certification, whales still inevitably stepped on some pits during the actual operation process. Of course, stepping on the pit was a lesson, but it was also a valuable experience.

First, there was a problem with the pace of preparation and delivery. Due to unfamiliarity with the operation process and insufficient emphasis on “planning,” the goods originally planned to be shipped to the US in three batches were all shipped at once. The direct result of this was that all of the goods were piled up in a warehouse for 50 days, and they couldn't be sold at all in a short period of time. The additional storage fee was over 3,000 US dollars, which greatly increased costs and expenses.
Mr. Zhu's experience says, “The preparation plan needs to be more accurate and targeted. Mr. Zhu explained that eating is smart, and now the team can make very detailed sales predictions. Previously, it was monthly, but now it is accurate to every day, and at the same time, it also carefully plans the time and method of delivery. Such adjustments not only increased inventory turnover, but also effectively controlled storage costs. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

The second challenge is product pricing. It is obviously not possible to simply and crudely raise the shipping price from offline factories and directly sell it in stores, because cross-border e-commerce also has logistics, warehousing, advertising, etc. Pricing is determined not only by cost, but also by market conditions. How to grasp the scale of pricing is obviously an uncompromising problem for whales involved in online channels for the first time.
Mr. Zhu said from his experience: “Originally, we wanted to use the factory advantage to make the price better and more friendly to the people, so the initial price was low. But the consequence of this is that after removing the discounts and costs, we have almost no profit margin. Afterwards, we began to find benchmarks for ourselves, use the product data with the highest ranking products as a reference basis to track their sales movements and performance in the US market, and test the extent of the price increase based on our own product characteristics and cost structure. Although repeated pricing adjustments will have a certain impact on sales, in the long run, the benefits definitely outweigh the disadvantages. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

In this process, the account manager also provided great help to the whale elephant. Continuing to provide first-hand information, data analysis, operation guidance, etc., and with priority support for the factory supply chain and the rapid learning and adjustment of the operation team, the whale elephant gradually gained a foothold.

Although it has been less than four months since entering Amazon's US site, Whale Elephant has already made a name for itself in this segmented circuit, successfully surpassing 300,000 US dollars in cumulative sales. According to President Zhu, there are currently only 5 products on the market, and sales are expected to increase significantly as other products are launched one after another.
Mr. Zhu also shared his own set of methodologies on how to quickly achieve a cold start of the product and make a profit in the early stages of entering the market under the premise of being a novice seller.

Normalize cost reduction and efficiency
Mr. Zhu: “For the disposable tableware category, I don't think the high-customer unit price strategy is applicable; after all, it is a temporary solution for users. "
For them, these 4 months are 4 months to open up the market situation and 4 months to continue to increase capital efficiency. Sales are just as important as profit, because the ultimate goal of the business is profit.

To meet the challenge of high costs, whales have adopted a number of strategies. In the early stages of promotion, whales often used the strategy of issuing coupons to attract consumers. This method has been proven to be very effective, and can quickly issue orders and harvest seed users. As orders gradually stabilized, the frequency of sending coupons gradually decreased. The accuracy of ad delivery is important.
Mr. Zhu: “Previously, our advertising share was as high as 60%. As we began to manage advertising more accurately, eliminate keywords with poor results, and concentrate our budget on keywords that can bring about actual conversion, the share of advertising costs has dropped drastically, which is close to the industry average. "
Also, for products with low customer unit prices, warehousing and logistics costs are significant. “We rely on the rapid responsiveness of our supply chain and implement a small-batch, multi-frequency delivery model to ensure that we always have an appropriate amount of inventory in the FBA warehouse and during transportation to ensure a healthy business-to-sales ratio as much as possible. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

Step by step, small team of four to play big business
Referring to the back and forth changes from traditional factories to cross-border e-commerce, President Zhu pointed out with deep emotion, “The biggest difference is the change in the way customers interact. Under the traditional factory model, we need to see people, and we mainly rely on exhibitions or face-to-face business visits to achieve transactions; in cross-border e-commerce, we deal more with data, and decisions are simpler and more efficient. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

Mr. Zhu: “Whale Elephant's operation on Amazon can be described as starting from scratch, and the team structure was gradually established. Currently, there are only four people. My wife and I are responsible for connecting the supply chain and running the store, and two other colleagues cooperate. As a new cross-border seller, we still need to improve our operations, so we didn't expand on a large scale from the beginning, but rather learned, honed, and added. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

As can be seen from the conversation with General Manager Zhu, their entire team is very resistant to “loneliness.” It is also through this down-to-earth and quiet way of working that President Zhu can lead the whale elephant to continue to settle down and upgrade during the cross-border journey. President Zhu said that at present, their top priority is to refine operations and make products step by step at their own pace, rather than blindly following the rhythm of the outside world. Once they gain a foothold in the US market, they will consider entering more sites, including Europe, Japan, etc., to further expand their business footprint.
Mr. Zhu: “Online channels are the core of future development. We have set a small goal for ourselves. We hope that sales in the US will exceed 5 million US dollars this year; by the end of 2025, we hope that online store shipments can account for 20% to 30% of the factory's production capacity. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.