“Are there any opportunities to transform traditional foreign trade into a cross-border one?” This is a question that has been raised repeatedly by many foreign trade enterprises in recent years. The shift from TOB to ToC is not about “selling products” through a different channel, but rather a restructuring of the entire product logic and operation style. For many foreign trade sellers, it's not that they don't want to do it; they aren't sure if they can do it well.
However, Qingzhou Electric's experience over the past ten years handed over a clear questionnaire.

Mr. Shen
Founder of Qingzhou Electric
Main categories: household appliances (electric pressure cookers, juicers, outdoor refrigerators, freezers, etc.)
Main sites: US Station, Europe Station, Japan Station, Australia Station, Middle East Station, Singapore Station
Outstanding results:
● Amazon's annual sales exceed 100 million
● A variety of home appliances have consistently ranked No. 1 in the same category on Amazon Europe and the top 5 in the US

Before switching to cross-border e-commerce, Mr. Shen had been deeply involved in the traditional foreign trade industry for more than 10 years, and also set up a factory. He mainly used the OEM model to supply home appliances to overseas customers, and accumulated rich product experience and supply chain resources. However, as profits from foreign trade orders have been reduced layer by layer in recent years, he has begun to gradually realize that the traditional foreign trade model is gradually losing room for growth, and a new way out must be found.

In 2015, by chance, he attended an Amazon Global Selling Summit event. At the conference, a cross-border seller in the household category shared his story of achieving rapid business growth by going overseas across borders. Although the product categories are different, Mr. Shen was deeply moved by the C-side opportunities.

Mr. Shen, founder of Qingzhou Electric
“Cross-border ToC may be the next growth window for traditional trading companies, and I want to seize this opportunity as soon as possible. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

After returning to the company, he immediately began preparations, quickly completed Amazon registration, and launched the US site and European site simultaneously.

Cross-border crossings were quite new at the time, and there wasn't any experience around him that could be learned from, so Mr. Shen directly “moved” the existing products online and thought about running first and then talking about it.

But reality is often far more complicated than anticipated. After several batches of products were launched, user feedback was mixed. Some were very successful, others had average responses, and even attracted some bad reviews. A juicer is still fresh in Mr. Shen's memory.

This product was well received by domestic and B-side customers, but after it went live in the US, consumers didn't buy it, and feedback that it was “blocked,” “difficult to clean,” and “not easy to use” followed.

He was also impressed by another thing. When translating product specifications at the time, the team directly followed the ToB period template. Although the content is detailed, almost all of them are technical parameters, and they are not translated from the user's perspective. As a result, the product was clearly fine, but due to unclear instructions, returns and bad reviews continued.

However, these setbacks did not discourage President Shen; on the contrary, they strengthened his determination to do cross-border e-commerce.

Mr. Shen, founder of Qingzhou Electric
“At the time, we determined that the failure was mainly due to immature product selection and operation. However, the needs of overseas C-end users have made us realize that being Amazon actually has great potential. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

After experiencing this “Waterloo,” Mr. Shen was keenly aware that to do a good job in cross-border business, past experience alone is far from enough; it is necessary to rethink product differentiation from the user's perspective.

He took the team to “take root” in the review area, analyze user feedback one by one, and gradually find the key reason why the juicer failed — it turns out that the usage habits of American consumers are clearly different from domestic ones.

Domestic users mostly use it to extract fruit and soft vegetables, while American users prefer high-fiber ingredients such as celery and wheatgrass. Since the machine cannot squeeze these ingredients delicately enough, not only is the juice yield low, but it is also easy to clog, which in turn affects the ease of cleaning and the overall user experience.

To this end, the team fully optimized the juicer:
● Optimize the screw pattern to prevent the slag from increasing the juice yield;
● Optimized structure, easy to disassemble and clean;
● Compatibility is tested repeatedly to ensure that ingredients of different softness and hardness can be used.

After multiple rounds of polishing, not only is the function more stable, but the user experience has also been greatly improved. The return rate has been reduced from the initial 20% to 5%, making it one of the main products of Qingzhou.

Mr. Shen, founder of Qingzhou Electric
“Differentiation isn't necessarily about how many new features you have, but whether you can actually make users use it easily in places that others have overlooked. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

In the product matrix of light boats, there is a popular product - an outdoor refrigerator. Its “birth” was not an accident, but stemmed from the team's in-depth exploration of the needs of overseas users.

European and American users are passionate about traveling outdoors and by car, and generally prefer cold drinks. Many people are used to putting an insulated box in the car to hold ice cubes, but this method has poor cooling effect, short storage time, and the user experience is far from ideal.

After discovering this demand, Mr. Shen immediately set his sights on outdoor refrigerators that few people made at the time. Compressor-cooled refrigerators not only provide more stable cooling, but are also more suitable for long-term use, which can greatly enhance the convenience and quality of outdoor life.

As a result, Qingzhou launched the first generation product, and it didn't take long for the team to discover that there were still quite a few user pain points to be solved. The refrigerator is sometimes fixed to the car, sometimes placed indoors as a small freezer, and many users need to move it frequently — for example, from home to the car, or back and forth during camping, which is quite difficult to carry.

At the same time, there is also feedback from users that when using the refrigerator at night, the refrigerator is placed next to the bed or close to people sleeping, and the noise of the compressor during operation interferes with rest and affects the experience.

Therefore, President Shen decided to further resolve user pain points based on these scenarios:
● Innovative portable design: adding wheels and levers to the outdoor refrigerator effectively solves the problem of difficult handling;
● New intelligent experience: In order to solve users' concerns about not being able to control the state of the refrigerator while driving, they are the first brand to add a Bluetooth+WiFi dual-mode control system to outdoor refrigerators. Whether at home or in the car, they can check and adjust the refrigerator temperature in real time through a mobile phone to improve the user experience;
● Noise reduction treatment: In order to solve the noise problem, Mr. Shen specially collaborated with the compressor supplier to repeatedly polish and test, and finally reduced the noise from 45 decibels to 30-35 decibels to achieve “silence”.

The new product has received widespread praise since its launch, and sales have also increased significantly compared to the first generation products.

Mr. Shen, founder of Qingzhou Electric
“Every unresolved requirement is the direction of product optimization. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

In the US, Mr. Shen also noticed a detailed scene overlooked by most people: many restaurants in the US often have a fixed size reserved space under the checkout counter to refrigerate drinks, light meals, or desserts. However, there is almost only an old local brand on the market. The product style is old, the price is high, and the user experience is not ideal.

After noticing this opportunity, President Shen immediately arranged for the team to sample and test. It took 9 months to launch a customized display case with more complete functions, novel style, and updated materials. Not only did it fit the space, but it was also more cost-effective.

As soon as it went online, this counter display case was sold quickly, which also made Mr. Shen more certain about the importance of “making products that the locals really need.”

After ten years of persistence and exploration, light boats have also accumulated a lot of experience on the road of crossing the border. Now I've found my own style of play.

In the same category, there is a huge difference in usage preferences between US and European consumers. Facing consumer groups with different habits and preferences, multi-site operations cannot directly “copy and paste” products; if a product is to be accepted more quickly, it must be localized. For example, the same wine cabinet:
● In the US, the kitchen space is generally spacious, and users prefer to embed the wine cabinet in the cabinet or under the Nakajima counter, so the built-in wine cabinet sells the best;
● In Europe, because the kitchen space is generally small, there is no special space reserved for embedding; instead, freestanding wine cabinets are more popular.

In addition to adapting the spatial structure, Mr. Shen is also further expanding the product direction according to the drinking culture of different regions.

For example, at the US station, they introduced a two-in-one design of red wine cooler+drink cabinet. Red wine is refrigerated on the left side, and everyday drinks such as carbonated drinks and beer are stored on the right. This dual temperature zone and double door design not only meets the “alcohol storage” usage needs of American households, but also makes the usage scenarios more malleable. This all-in-one cabinet, which costs 900 US dollars per unit, sold 1,000 units in two days during the Black Friday period.

Mr. Shen, founder of Qingzhou Electric
“Good localization is not only as simple as language and packaging; the 'adaptation issues' of product structure and function itself are more important. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

In response to the return issue, Qingzhou has set up a dedicated customer service team to cover pre-sales, in-sales and after-sales service processes. Users can quickly obtain support through the hotline, and the return rate has dropped significantly.

At the promotion level, outside the site cooperates with experts through social media operations to drive exposure and conversion; the site focuses on optimizing product detail pages around conversion efficiency, and focuses on displaying test data, comparing selling points and professional evaluations when launching new products, enhancing user trust and shortening decision-making paths.

Mr. Shen said that building a brand is a long-term thing, and Qingzhou has been steadily accumulating along this path. Today, the brand has a certain understanding in overseas markets. In order to maintain the trust of users, each new product will clearly present the core selling points on the A+ page. Combining authoritative evaluations and comparisons with competing products, the advantages are explained as simply and directly as possible.

With continuous feedback from real user reviews, product reputation continues to consolidate, and the brand has gradually established a stable sense of trust among overseas users.

Mr. Shen, founder of Qingzhou Electric
“I think Amazon has provided a relatively low starting point for those who want to become a brand, giving us an opportunity to grow step by step into a truly large-scale brand. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

Over the past ten years, Qingzhou has completed the transformation from 0 to 1 with differentiated products, refined operation, and a steady pace, and in the future, they hope to go further. At present, Qingzhou has expanded Amazon's Middle East and Australia sites, and has also set up overseas teams to continue optimizing brand and product planning.

In the face of today's growing number of sellers who want to change but are still hesitating, Mr. Shen also shared a few tips and suggestions.

It's not too late to enter the game now, but you can't “try first and then talk” like you did ten years ago. Today, trial and error costs are high, and once a product has problems, bad reviews, or returns, it is easy to damage team confidence.

President Shen suggested that the first step in transformation should be solid: clarify who the users are and what their needs are, and then decide on the product and style of play.

Although there are more and more cross-border sellers nowadays, there is still plenty of room for domestic e-commerce.

President Shen suggested that you might as well start by breaking down categories or segmented scenarios and innovating according to needs. If you have no ideas, you can also refer to what local brands are doing in the US, and then combine their manufacturing advantages to follow up the implementation.

For many traditional foreign trade sellers who are on the path of transformation, the 10-year growth path of light boats, from hitting a wall everywhere in the early days of going overseas, to breaking 100 million in annual sales, is a long-term path worth learning from. It's never too late to switch overseas. Find the right pace and make up for shortcomings. I believe more and more Chinese brands will steadily advance on the path of crossing the border.