As an old foreign trade enterprise that has been deeply involved in the textile and garment business for many years, world-famous brands and supermarkets are clearly on the “Friend List” of the rising sun. OEM is flourishing, but Mr. Zhu, CEO and founder of Xuri, sensed a hint of crisis — the traditional made-to-order operation model made the team lacked independent design capabilities and was unable to quickly obtain feedback from end consumers. This single business model no longer has lasting competitiveness. As a result, Xuri began initial testing of ODM in 2014, and gradually began experimenting with establishing its own R&D centers in China and New York to create its own fabric and pattern design team.

Gradually, President Zhu faced a new “spiritual torture”. How can the rising sun further build its own moat?President Zhu realized that if enterprises want to be proactive in market competition, the key is to conquer the mentality of overseas consumers by building brands, not simply to achieve growth through low price competition. In 2021, Rising Sun officially launched on Amazon. It is committed to enabling consumers to “spend less and buy higher quality products” through beautiful and practical designs and high-quality fabrics, and continuously explore “unique secrets” for brand building in actual overseas battles.

President Zhu said, “The cake in the adult home textile and clothing category is only that big, and there are too many people who share it.” Rising Sun's product line is very complete, but when it comes to “serious category 'internal' issues and sellers fight fiercely through price wars,” Rising Sun knows very well: on such a Red Sea battlefield, it is very difficult to create a hit model. Faced with this problem of product selection, which needs to be solved urgently, the rising sun gave their “answer.”

01 Build competitive barriers and quickly seize market vacancies
“In the field of baby textiles and home furnishings, there are no big global brands yet. This is an opportunity”. After analyzing the research data in the home textile category, Xuri was pleasantly surprised to find that although the market for baby home textiles is small, it is very suitable for Xuri. Moreover, the entry threshold for baby products is high, and compliance certification is very strict. This is the core advantage of Xuri. Years of overseas market supply experience have given them relevant qualification certificates for baby products. This has greatly enhanced their competitive advantage in this category. As a result, Rising Sun made a quick decision and chose the “children's textiles” category as a “knocking stone” to leverage the market. With ultra-comfortable fabrics and a design that is both stylish and practical, one of the products has now stabilized in the TOP10 of the BSR list, and has the opportunity to compete with well-known local brands.

02 Understand the differentiated market based on user needs
Homogenization competition is fierce, what to do?Nothing else is to firmly grasp the preferences and needs of consumers and establish a differentiated competitive advantage on the basis of ensuring product quality. Talking about how to find the right way to open product selections, Mr. Zhu opened up the conversation: “Online products must be intuitively understood by users. Through a selling point, they can communicate with consumers. These retained consumer voices are ultimately reflected in product updates and iterations. This is of extraordinary significance.” In the early stages of product selection, Xuri will not only understand changes in the market through traditional foreign trade supermarket orders, but will also use Amazon competitive analysis tools to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of competing products. Of course, Xuri's core style of play is to start from customer needs, dig deeper into consumer needs, combine the company's fabric advantages and process advantages, and develop products in depth.

Based on this way of thinking, the competitive advantage of the rising sun became apparent, that is, it is not afraid that the product will not “explode,” nor is it afraid of being copied by competitors. If a hot model appears, then use bundles and combinations, and the explosive product brings a new product to speed up the cold start. As the store accumulated more users, consumer feedback provided a broader range of ideas for product development in the rising sun. Some consumers mentioned the pain point that the product “slips off easily” in their reviews. Asahi's supply chain responded promptly as soon as possible. A “pocket” design was added to both sides of the product, which solved the problem of preventing slipping off, and also added the function of “placing everyday small items”, which further expanded the differentiated advantages of the product. The “user-oriented” differentiation strategy helped the rising sun to continuously meet the needs of consumers for updates, and also brought the distance with consumers.

03 Assemble an “omnipotent” R&D team to develop quality control capabilities
When demand comes, you know what kind of fabric should be used for this product, what kind of process we will use, and what kind of results it will achieve in the end. President Zhu believes that in the apparel industry, especially in cross-border e-commerce, R&D personnel must have no shortcomings. At the beginning of development, it is necessary to consider how the “pattern, material, and touch” reflect the “brand temperament” and whether the product can provide consumers with a practical and comfortable user experience. After establishing a “comfortable and practical” brand tone, Rising Sun did not compromise on this, and continued to innovate and incorporate new design elements based on continuing the previous style. “Only by taking the product to the extreme, and combining multimedia matrices and marketing topic KOLs to help channel the flow, can we achieve true integration of quality and efficiency.” Next year, Xuri will also build a new R&D center in Shanghai to focus on cultivating R&D talents in the three areas of “design, process, and fabric development” to further enhance competitiveness.

President Zhu said that the supply chain foundation built up over the years of traditional foreign trade has indeed lowered the starting threshold for adapting to the rising sun's “small order quick reverse.” How has the supply chain become “soft”?According to President Zhu, there are three main points — flexible decision-making, flexible design, and flexible production. He also gave an example. “I have high requirements for team members. They must not only be familiar with design, process, and production, listen to the voices of consumers, and make quick decisions, but also understand the availability of fabric accessories, grasp fabric trends, and mix them in the proofing workshop and large truck workshop, so that a complete closed loop can be formed. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

Less than half a year after launching on Amazon, the store already has 120+ SKUs. It is worth mentioning that each SKU is a pattern and style specially developed by Rising Sun for Amazon stores. President Zhu said that if they want to overtake the curve in cross-border e-commerce, enterprises must not forget their original intentions and be willing to invest. This kind of investment is not in terms of capital, but is reflected in the mobilization of resources within the enterprise and the level of emphasis placed on it from the top down. In this cross-border transformation, President Zhu and his wife personally led the “supervisory battle”, selected foreign trade “veterans” familiar with overseas markets and internal resources to act as project leaders, and made every effort to fight the opening battle. The “strong backing” of the enterprise enabled Xuri's cross-border e-commerce department to make bold decisions as soon as possible and to mobilize corporate resources in a short period of time. From design pattern to sample production to product launch, every step is responsive and timely. Through the continuous accumulation of orders, the ability to respond quickly is further enhanced, and a virtuous cycle in the supply chain is realized.

Since the launch of Amazon, GMV of the Rising Sun has maintained rapid compound growth in just a few months. However, for Zhu, what is more important than “running” in sales is building brand influence. “Building a brand is actually very simple; often the original intention determines the height a brand can reach.” President Zhu knows the truth that building a brand is a long marathon. Therefore, in the face of this “protracted war,” he maintained a consistent attitude: “I believe that long-term management will become a springboard for the rising sun to the past and the driving force for the brand's continued development. ” The direction of Asahi branding is also very clear. “We will stick to the 'willing to invest' route. Next, we will focus on brand image building and lean operation, and make good use of Amazon's brand tools so that the brand can truly have an emotional connection with consumers.”

Optimize the A+ facade to stand out from the competition
What features of our products do users pay attention to?What information can help consumers make quick purchasing decisions?What we need to do next is to think empathically, stand from the perspective of consumers, and actively answer their questions. “Designers must not have 'hard' wounds. We have used some designers. The design is very good, but it is difficult to implement because they don't understand the process and fabric, and there is no way to achieve a good presentation of a good design.” President Zhu mentioned that in the clothing industry, especially when doing cross-border e-commerce, designers must have no shortcomings.
01 Use close-up lenses to highlight product details, use text to emphasize the exquisite craftsmanship of the enterprise, and gain the trust of buyers;
02 Show images of the actual use of the product, so that buyers can quickly understand the practicality and advisability of the product;
03 Use the new A+ brand story feature to share the brand's unique story and maintain a consistent omnichannel image on Amazon and social media, such as using a logo, color, or structure combination related to the brand image.

Focus on overseas social media and master traffic secrets in actual combat
In the new year, Rising Sun will use multiple channels to allow brands to have direct conversations with overseas consumers using an independent image.
Precise marketing strategies
Use group communities on overseas social media to focus on accurate users and enhance the activity of core users.
KOL Talent Strategy
Choose expert collaborations that match the brand's tone, and use new marketing methods such as “atmospheric clothing” on overseas video media to increase the brand's penetration rate with the concept of “comfort, practicality, low carbon and environmental protection.”

Partnering with Amazon to make “brands go overseas” fun
After a new product is launched, it is a traffic support period for product growth, and it is also a golden period for us to make good use of this traffic. Amazon helps our brands be recognized and remembered more quickly overseas. At the beginning of the transformation, Xuri focused its operations on the “drainage+optimization” model, and used supporting service systems such as Amazon's logistics network to continuously refine its “internal skills.” President Zhu also mentioned that during the Black Friday promotion period, Amazon DSP advertising not only gave the brand plenty of exposure opportunities, boosted product reviews, but also helped Xuri make products and iterations that better met consumer needs. “At the Cross Border Summit, we noticed that Amazon launched a number of brand-related initiatives. ” President Zhu said that the rising sun will still keep up with Amazon, hoping to increase brand awareness and increase opportunities for product sales through more Amazon brand promotion tools.