How did this traditional foreign trade enterprise with 4,000+ employees and business spread across more than 200 countries around the world. How did it disagree with the situation when it first entered the cross-border e-commerce industry, and finally got along well on Amazon to complete this amazing counterattack?Behind this, there are not only major strategic adjustments, but also intensive work on operational details.

Today, when the digital wave is sweeping the world, Excelsior's experience has undoubtedly provided a sample with great reference value for many traditional foreign trade enterprises looking for new growth curves. Today, we spoke with Zhou Wenyi, head of Excelsior Group's cross-border e-commerce subsidiary, to reveal the key decisions behind this amazing transformation from “loss of 10 million” to “sales exceeding 100 million.”

Seller profile
Zhou Wenyi: Head of the cross-border subsidiary of Excelsior Group
Seller: Excelsior Group
Main categories: furniture
Entry site: US station
Joined: 2019
Outstanding performance:
Cross-border omni-channel
2022 sales of 20 million US dollars,
$45 million in 2023, doubling
US$120 million in 2024, an increase of nearly 200%
Expected sales of US$350 million in 2025

As a foreign trade giant rooted in Ningbo for 25 years, Excelsior was keenly aware of the trend that profit margins in traditional foreign trade businesses were being continuously reduced in 2019. Against the backdrop of an accelerated restructuring of the global trade landscape, management unanimously decided that it was time to find a new growth curve. Cross-border e-commerce has become their preferred direction for strategic transformation.

However, reality dealt a heavy blow to this foreign trade giant.

“For nearly two years in a row, we lost almost all of our investment in cross-border e-commerce, reaching the level of 10 million. Zhou Wenyi admits, “Despite having strong supply chain resources and foreign trade experience, we are like a 'beginner' on the new circuit of cross-border e-commerce, and have made many mistakes we would never make in traditional foreign trade. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

The turning point occurred in the fourth quarter of 2021. President Zhou is in danger and has taken over the cross-border business. Instead of making major changes in personnel or direction right away, she carried out a thorough review of the entire business.

The problem was quickly pinpointed at the starting point — product selection strategy.

The team's previous strategy was to choose what seemed to be the most effective “shortcut”: replicate proven hits on the market. But the shortcomings of this model are just as fatal — as a latecomer, Excelsior's products failed to establish a moat in terms of quality and price, and lacked a unique reason for consumers to choose themselves.

Among them, a pet ladder is a typical example of failure. It is true that it is a hot seller, but Excelsior's product is just an ordinary generic product, just like the original product on the market. When competitors began to iterate and improve designs, Excelsior stayed the same. More importantly, the product itself has defects in structural design and is not stable enough, which ultimately led to a high return rate.

This replay made President Zhou determined that Excelsior's cross-border path must fundamentally change course.

Zhou Wenyi, head of the cross-border subsidiary of Excelsior Group
“The current product mentality can no longer keep up with industry trends. We must highlight our strengths, not just what products are selling well in the town market. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

After understanding the problem, Zhou Wenyi immediately initiated a comprehensive transformation from strategy to execution. Her first key decision was to re-anchor the company's core racetrack.

“Instead of fighting in the low-threshold Red Sea, we should use our strengths to target the main players in the category — large pieces of furniture — and build competitive barriers. ” Zhou Wenyi analyzed.

This decision is based on three major judgments:
● Financial barriers: Large pieces of furniture place high demands on the seller's financial strength and supply chain management ability. This itself is a natural threshold that can filter out a large number of rivals that follow the trend. Excelsior has strong financial strength and can turn this high threshold into its own moat

● Supply chain barriers: Ningbo, where Excelsior is headquartered, is a nationally famous large furniture industry belt, and has unique geographical and supply chain advantages. This allows Excelsior to deeply link to a stable and high-quality supply network to obtain products and prices that are more competitive than competitors

● R&D barriers: A common problem in traditional foreign trade enterprises is “determining production by sales” and lack independent research and development capabilities. Zhou Wenyi decided to operate in reverse, invest heavily in product research and development, and create independently designed products with unique competitiveness

After the strategic direction was established, Zhou Wenyi quickly clearly divided the work tasks into two major sectors, which went hand in hand:
● Clean up old inventory: Resolutely clean up all old inventory that is backlogged overseas, at sea and at home, even if it means short-term book loss, to clear up barriers to starting a new business

● Reshape product selection logic: completely transform product selection from past procurement orientation to true product development orientation, and re-select products with user needs as the core

Zhou Wenyi has established an efficient new product development system for Excelsior:
● First step: extremely granular market analysis. Before developing a new product, accurately target the core target customer base through big data analysis and field research, and thoroughly explore their hidden needs or potential pain points that have not yet been met

● Step 2: Agile and efficient project formulation process. Once requirements are clearly defined, internal project planning meetings will respond quickly. A “project team” that includes all key players from product, appearance, structure to packaging will immediately take shape and jointly advance the whole process of a new product from concept to final implementation in a highly collaborative manner

● Step 3: Patent protection and continuous iteration. In 2024 alone, Excelsior's investment in overseas design patents was close to 1 million yuan, thereby establishing legal barriers and getting rid of homogenous competition. At the same time, the product will be continuously iteratively upgraded based on market feedback

This strict development system soon showed its power in actual combat.

A bold experiment in European simplicity
While everyone thought that the US market was a world of traditional American style, Zhou Wenyi's team discovered an “abnormal” signal through market insight: European-style furniture with a simple shape and strong sense of design is being favored by more and more American consumers, especially among young people aged 25-40.
Zhou Wenyi did not hesitate, resolutely pioneered the layout, and gathered research and development forces to target the development of simple European style furniture. Facts have proven that these seemingly “non-mainstream” European-style products stood out from the traditional American style as soon as they were launched, and became a model for Excelsior's “surprising victory”.

Relying on accurate market positioning and excellent product quality, Excelsior's overall return rate has been reduced by two-thirds compared to when it started, marking that its product strength has achieved a qualitative leap forward. This achievement not only means higher profit margins, but also represents an increase in consumer recognition.

Zhou Wenyi, head of the cross-border subsidiary of Excelsior Group
“Traditional foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce are only different business models, but in essence, they have not changed the fundamentals of commerce, that is, 'finding needs and meeting demands'. Therefore, when we develop cross-border e-commerce, we start from the fundamentals of the business. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

For the special category of bulky furniture, even with good products, sellers still face three major problems:
● Complex product assembly: Consumers are not professional installers. If the instructions are not clear and easy to understand, complicated installation will directly lead to customer dissatisfaction and high return rates
● Strict packaging protection: In long-distance, multi-link cross-border transportation, if the packaging is not strong enough, the risk of product damage is extremely high
● High-cost logistics distribution: Large items are large in size, heavy in weight, and high logistics costs. Sellers need to make accurate decisions between transportation costs and delivery efficiency

At a “Benefit Enterprise” event held by Amazon Global Store, Excelsior learned about the Amazon Seller Growth Service and decided to join the service to seek professional support. This proved to be a smart move. The intervention of Amazon's exclusive consultants provided accurate and effective solutions to these long-standing problems.

Many sellers often fall into the misconception that the installation instructions they have provided are sufficiently detailed. However, from the consumer's point of view, in the face of a bunch of unfamiliar plates and hardware, the installation process is often more time-consuming and laborious than expected.

Amazon's exclusive consultant discovered during the review that the product still has some room for optimization and improvement in terms of installation. Mr. Zhou also believes that the product installation process is the key to improving customer satisfaction, so he decided to upgrade the product manual.

She said that a good manual is more than just a piece of paper; it is a key touch point in the user experience and the last bridge of communication with users. Therefore, it is impossible to put too much effort into the ease of reading of the instructions, the clarity of the illustrations, and the rationality of the steps. It's also one of the most straightforward and effective ways to reduce return rates.

In complex cross-border transportation chains, especially under non-Amazon's official logistics system, the package circulation process is often more “rough” than you can imagine. For large pieces of furniture, if the packaging is not strong enough, it is very easy to break after several transfers and handling, leading to product damage or loss of accessories. This is not only a direct financial loss, but also a disastrous customer experience. Excelsior's level of package protection is already excellent, but Amazon's exclusive advisors still recommend that Excelsior further optimize to continue improving the customer experience. Inspired by this, Excelsior has equipped a dedicated packaging designer, and the requirements for drop tests are also higher than industry standards.

Logistics is the lifeblood of large furniture operations. Excelsior's decision-making logic in this process goes beyond simple cost comparisons, but is based on strategic considerations of overall benefits.
● FBA priority principles: As long as the size and weight of the product meet FBA's entry standards, FBA should be preferred. This decision coincides with the advice of Amazon's exclusive advisors, as FBA has unrivaled advantages in delivery time, shipping safety, and customer trust
● Choose overseas warehouses carefully: For products that exceed the FBA size limit, you must choose professional, formal, and large overseas warehouses to cooperate to ensure the stability and reliability of self-delivery

More importantly, Zhou Wenyi said that when making large pieces of furniture, you should not fall into a one-sided mentality of “only shipping costs.” Many times, sellers only compare the direct cost difference between FBA and self-shipping, while ignoring hidden costs. For example, choosing FBA shipping can often save quite a bit of money in advertising bidding and traffic acquisition due to faster delivery speed and higher customer trust.

Furthermore, when Excelsior participated in the sellers' own Prime project (SFP), in response to challenges in warehousing configuration, system setup, and delivery performance, exclusive consultants helped Excelsior plan inventory management and optimize logistics system configuration through systematic interpretation of SFP indicators, which ultimately greatly improved Excelsior's order processing efficiency, which not only gained valuable Prime traffic, but also won customer satisfaction.

Zhou Wenyi, head of the cross-border subsidiary of Excelsior Group
“After joining the Amazon Seller Growth Service, we received meticulous support, covering all aspects of the operation, and felt very caring. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

Looking ahead, Excelsior's growth engine will focus on the online layout. According to President Zhou, 90% of Excelsior's future new customers will come from online expansion. Therefore, in the next 10-year plan, cross-border e-commerce will always be Excelsior's unswerving core strategy. Excelsior will also continue to work with Amazon to further cultivate and expand global sites, so that consumers around the world can experience excellent Chinese products and services. Currently, Excelsior has begun to expand its European sites, and will lay out more extensive sites in the Middle East, Australia, and Canada in the future.

For traditional sellers who are watching to cross borders, President Zhou's advice is very pertinent: “It's never too late to enter the market across borders. It mainly depends on your strengths and strengths, and whether you can make effective use of them. ” And the next step is to choose a main position worthy of deep cultivation, such as Amazon, and further develop the advantages.

Zhou Wenyi, head of the cross-border subsidiary of Excelsior Group
“Amazon is huge, the rules are transparent, and the support system for newbies is perfect, making it a great choice for new sellers. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

From initially getting lost in the shortcut to replicating popular models, to now being more comfortable on the path of independent research and development; from a high return rate to a two-thirds drop in return rates. Excelsior's path to Amazon has not been easy, but every step of the way has been solid and powerful. It profoundly proved that in any form of business, returning to user needs, building on one's own advantages, and striving for excellence in every aspect of product and operation is the only path that is difficult but correct. For all Chinese sellers on the road, this is also the path to long-term success.