Today, we’ve specially invited Yao Ting, Vice President of Marketing at Luoyang Shuangbin Office Furniture Co., Ltd., to share how Shuangbin has stood out from Luoyang’s steel furniture industrial cluster by relying on its integrated strengths in production, sales, and R&D, as well as its brand value building, and how it has expanded growth across multiple B2C and B2B tracks through differentiated operating strategies to become the TOP 1 seller in Amazon’s metal office cabinet category!

In 2010, Shuangbin was founded in the steel furniture industrial cluster in Luoyang, Henan, and from the very beginning, it chose to expand through traditional foreign trade. In its early days, Shuangbin leveraged the advantages of the industrial cluster in raw materials, components, equipment, technology, and talent to achieve rapid growth. However, as barriers to entry kept getting lower, more and more factories entered the space, pushing the traditional steel furniture industry into a Red Sea of price competition. As a result, companies no longer had the energy or capital to invest in technological innovation and product development. How to break out of this “vicious cycle” became an important question Shuang Bin needed to answer. However, in Shuangbin’s view, although cross-border e-commerce is an opportunity with great potential, that opportunity is only for those who are prepared. So before officially starting cross-border selling in 2021, Shuang Bin had already spent several years on strategic planning and positioning.

Mr. Yao said, “The emergence of cross-border e-commerce has helped us find an important way out of intense price competition. On the one hand, cross-border e-commerce has enabled Shuangbin to connect directly with overseas consumers online and understand their needs and preferences. On the other hand, it has also given Shuangbin the opportunity to choose a cross-border selling path for its brand, increase product premiums through brand building, and break free from cutthroat price competition. In 2021, Shuangbin started selling on Amazon, with the US as its first Marketplace. This approach was based, on the one hand, on the huge size of the US furniture market and, on the other hand, on Amazon’s strong influence and good reputation, which could help Shuangbin grow its overseas sales more quickly. First, cross-border selling requires a certain amount of inventory. In 2020, Shuangbin’s new factory, equipped with flexible manufacturing lines, officially began operations. Flexible manufacturing can produce customized products with special requirements for appearance, size, and other features, cutting the average time needed to create new product samples by about half. This better aligns with the future trend toward more personalized and segmented user needs, and it is also better suited to the development of cross-border e-commerce. Second, although flexible production lines have improved product customization capabilities, deciding what kinds of products to make still depends on deep insight into the needs of overseas consumers. To this end, Shuang Bin not only built a professional team in Shenzhen dedicated to product R&D and design, achieving integrated “industry-university-research” collaboration, but also worked with well-known overseas designers to connect with users through truly localized products and designs, boosting overseas sales. “

How does Shuangbin create localized products?
For example, one of our cabinets used to be 1.2 meters tall, which was a good fit for Chinese people. However, after we started cross-border selling, an overseas customer sent us a photo of themselves holding up the cabinet, meaning that the cabinet was really too small. This made us realize that the average body size of Asian consumers and consumers in Europe and the US is not the same. Consumers in different countries also have very different usage habits. For example, Americans are used to double-door cabinets, while Japanese consumers prefer sliding doors. This means our products must be adjusted to suit local conditions.

Through cross-border selling, Shuangbin fully leveraged the core strengths it had built up over nearly 10 years as a foreign trade factory, including design and R&D, as well as production and manufacturing. Within one year of launching on Amazon, sales of Shuangbin’s Yizosh brand increased by 1,000%. Today, Shuangbin is already the top seller in Amazon’s metal office cabinet category, and several products have been selected as Amazon’s Choice.

Because metal furniture is inherently a B2B category, Shuangbin adopted a dual-brand strategy as soon as it started selling on Amazon: the Yizosh brand focuses more on C-end consumers, while the Letaya brand focuses more on B-end business customers. This also led Shuang Bin to take a differentiated approach to cross-border e-commerce operations and build up its own successful experience in different segments. Before expanding into cross-border selling, Shuang Bin made building brand value and maintaining compliant operations one of its guiding principles, and built its core competitiveness in design, R&D, products, and other areas. However, in its first year of cross-border selling, Shuangbin, which was new to Amazon, still encountered some common issues and challenges on both the B2C and B2B sides:

First, issues such as inconvenient product assembly led to a low review rate for the brand. Second, because of the weight and size of its metal home furnishings, Shuangbin ran into some thorny issues with logistics costs and packaging damage rates. To address this, Shuang Bin also has targeted solutions.

President Yao said: ”To address issues with the review rate and negative reviews, Shuangbin continuously optimizes and improves product design every quarter, and keeps refining every detail in the installation videos and product manuals. To address more complex logistics issues, Shuangbin adopted a “four-step” strategy:
1 Built a strategic partnership with overseas warehouse service providers and effectively addressed cost issues through customized services.
2 Put a lot of effort into packaging, continuously improve container space utilization, and optimize product weight for last-mile delivery.
3 After problems occur during transportation, the factory’s agile supply chain can also respond quickly to improve the products and packaging.
4 For some smaller products, we actively tried Amazon Global Logistics and Fulfillment by Amazon to further improve the customer experience and logistics efficiency, and gain more traffic. “

After resolving these issues, Shuangbin cleared a path for the brand’s cross-border selling, and the next challenge was how to choose products. In this regard, Shuangbin, through extensive use of tools such as Amazon Product Opportunity Explorer and Marketplace Product Guidance, identified significant differences between B2C and B2B customers.

Mr. Yao said: “First, there are significant differences in usage scenarios between C-end and B-end customers. B-side products are more commonly used in settings such as schools and hospitals, while C-side products are more commonly used in settings such as homes, yards, and garages. Second, business customers place more value on an overall shopping experience that includes product quality, value, and service, and are relatively less sensitive to product prices. Consumer customers, on the other hand, have higher expectations for product design and functionality. Third, in terms of product materials, metal furniture for consumers is very well suited to combining with various new materials, such as wood and leather, which helps break through product-level homogenized competition. However, business customers are much more accepting of pure steel products than consumer customers, and may even prefer products made entirely of steel. “

How can you use data for product selection insights?
For some storage cabinets used in office settings, steel products are actually more expensive than wood products, but we can see from Amazon data that these steel products have strong potential to replace wood products in certain settings. This is because the structure of wooden products often falls apart easily after being moved, and there are also some shortcomings in terms of environmental friendliness. So we found that although steel cabinets may cost twice as much as wooden ones, they still sell very well. This is the opportunity you can see behind the data.

Based on these differentiated insights, Shuangbin also adopted a differentiated product development strategy, continuously seeking innovation in product features beyond basic storage functionality. On the one hand, it actively explores integrated innovation with new materials in the consumer market; on the other hand, in the B2B market, it focuses on scenarios such as schools and businesses to improve the practicality and durability of its furniture, while continuously optimizing the service experience for business customers. Based on differentiated product selection and operations, Shuangbin also adopted different marketing strategies for the two brands. Mr. Yao said that the main difference in brand strategy between Yizosh and Letaya lies in their different target audiences. When creating ad creatives, one brand focuses more on practical demonstrations of strength, while the other leans more toward emotional creative marketing. They also differ in how they combine advertising products and in the extent to which they use Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display. In terms of off-site marketing channels, the choices of influencers and websites will also be slightly different.

Because metal storage cabinets naturally fit B2B use cases, Shuangbin began using Amazon Business tools and services across marketplaces from the very start of its cross-border selling journey, which became one of the key drivers of its rapid growth. Currently, in the more consumer-focused Yizosh Brand Store, B2B sales accounted for 20% in 2023; in the more business-focused Letaya Brand Store, the annual share of B2B sales was even higher, reaching 34%. More importantly, expanding B2B opportunities has enabled Shuangbin to secure multiple large orders worth tens of thousands of US dollars in a row!For example, in August 2022, a U.S. chamber of commerce contacted Shuangbin’s operations team through Amazon Business’s Custom Quote Engine. In subsequent discussions, Shuangbin won over the customer with its professional approach, strong capabilities, and high-quality service. The American Chamber of Commerce placed a one-time order for more than 300 products at an average price of $300 each, bringing the total order value to as much as $100,000!

However, in Mr. Yao’s view, the reason major customers choose Shuangbin may not be just price—they place more value on professional service and quality assurance. Mr. Yao mentioned that this professionalism comes from Shuangbin putting itself in the customer’s shoes at every stage, from logistics, pickup, and installation and use to after-sales service, and striving to create a better experience for customers. At the same time, it also depends on the support and help of Amazon Business.

Mr. Yao said, “In addition to traditional foreign trade, Amazon Business has provided us with an effective way to directly reach overseas business customers, supporting Shuangbin’s overseas growth in four key areas:
First, Amazon Business has many business customers with bulk purchasing needs, greatly expanding the customer base.
Second, Amazon Business online direct procurement shortens the transaction chain, cuts out intermediaries, and increases profits.
Third, the tiered pricing model not only improves transaction efficiency, but also helps increase conversions.
Fourth, Amazon Business’s “official endorsement” can quickly build trust between business customers and Shuang Bin, helping close deals.
Business users tend to have higher repeat purchase rates and stronger brand loyalty, and they are relatively less sensitive to price. For example, one of our customers has consistently bought lockers and storage cabinets from our store. Some sellers in the same category actually price their products $20–$30 lower than ours, but they value our professionalism and timeliness, from presales quotes to responses to inquiries, as well as our professional after-sales service. That’s why they have continued to choose us, and their largest order was more than $30,000. ”

In this process, Mr. Yao also summarized a few key takeaways on how to maximize the advantages of Amazon Business:
01 For products with clear B2B attributes, such as metal furniture, you can set business prices and quantity discounts (BPQD) for all products. Currently, B2B customers can account for 50%–60% of sales for some of our products, and 10%–20% for others, but in fact, all the products we currently sell have business buyers.
02 For tiered pricing, you can evaluate it based on past purchase order data and the current product profit margin, and keep adjusting it.
How do I set up “business pricing rules”?
Path: Amazon Seller Central > Inventory page > Add business pricing/quantity discounts for your ASINs.
💡 With this pricing tool, you can offer Amazon Business customers tiered discounts to efficiently increase purchase intent and drive order volume.
03 Amazon and Amazon Business have many promotional discount events. Every year, Prime Day is a great opportunity to increase traffic and sales, and “Black Friday and Cyber Monday” as well as the back-to-work/back-to-school season are also important moments. For example, during this year’s “Black Friday week” period, Shuangbin’s product sales grew multiple times over. Of course, whether to participate in these promotions should also depend on your actual situation.

The rapid growth over the past few years has shown Shuangbin the huge potential of cross-border e-commerce. In 2024, Shuangbin will actively build localized teams overseas to give local customers a more professional, timely, and high-quality service experience. At the same time, Shuangbin will also set up a dedicated team to build a clearer, more distinct brand identity, aiming to establish Yizosh and Letaya as professional global brands for steel storage solutions within the next five years.

What advice would you give to Chinese sellers who want to expand overseas business opportunities like Shuang Bin?

Mr. Yao said, “I actually suggest focusing on five areas: first, products; second, costs; third, service; fourth, efficiency; and fifth, the team. In fact, from the beginning until now, and into the future, Shuangbin has always focused its efforts on these five areas. More importantly, you need to be clear about why you want to do cross-border selling. For Shuang Bin, we want to move towards real specialization, branding, and localization, and I think Amazon is our best choice. “