We've never considered any other e-commerce site; Amazon is a well-deserved first choice. Zhongxiang Group mainly deals in commodities. Since 2020, traditional foreign trade has been impacted, and the pressure to develop business has doubled. You can only win if you love to fight. This is an imprint engraved in the bones of the people of southern Fujian. Find breakthroughs in difficult situations and seek development under the epidemic!Mr. Huang led a group of brothers to begin studying the cross-border e-commerce circuit and exploring the Amazon Nugget Path. “Many young people around me have seized the trend of cross-border e-commerce, entered the market with 30,000 or 50,000 start-up capital, and have now reached hundreds of millions or even more than 1 billion dollars. However, in the case of traditional foreign trade, to reach a volume of 1 billion dollars, the initial investment costs are far higher than e-commerce business. Cross-border e-commerce has created such a miracle, completely beyond our imagination. ” Mr. Huang said this. In 2020, Zhongxiang Group began to conduct cross-border e-commerce market research and prepare to enter the market.

The best way to learn is to get close to great people. Although it has experience in traditional trade, for Zhongxiang Group, cross-border e-commerce is a completely unfamiliar field, and it is urgent to practice internal skills. Fortunately, there are many excellent Amazon sellers in Quanzhou. Coupled with the warm and hospitable nature of people in southern Fujian, it has created a good atmosphere for cross-border e-commerce communication. “Most of my learners are big sellers in all categories on Amazon. These seller friends are all very young, enthusiastic, and love to communicate and share. At the time, we just walked the dark path, learning, communicating, and practicing again and again. Eight in the morning to one or two in the evening is the norm. Everyone is doing their best!” The Minnan people's “if you work hard to win” spirit was fully reflected in Mr. Huang and his team members. Mr. Huang said that he often leads his team to Amazon's official courses, online and offline seller meetings, and doesn't miss any opportunity to grow. Although it was inevitable to step over holes and pay tuition fees during the study process, senior management of the company allowed everyone to grow through trial and error, which gave the team strong support.

Mr. Huang said, “We are a traditional trading company. The post-90s account for about 60% of the team, but there are also quite a few post-70s and post-80s members. Compared to most cross-border e-commerce companies, the average age is older, but the working attitude of everyone who dares to compete and win is always young and upbeat. Coupled with our experience in traditional foreign trade, a cross-border team of more than 40 people has been able to sell tea very well. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

I'm from Anxi. There are hundreds of thousands of people growing tea around me. Naturally, tea is the first choice category for cross-border e-commerce. Although full of enthusiasm, it is difficult to export tea products. For most regular category sellers, the main difficulties in cross-border e-commerce operations are accurate product selection, cost control, supply chain management, and brand building, but for Zhongxiang Group, the difficulties encountered are far more than these. What if there are few food sellers in cross-border e-commerce and no one communicates? China's customs export requirements are strict, the import standards of the destination country are not uniform, and the quality requirements are high. What should I do?In order to be able to open up a link for the cross-border export of tea, Mr. Huang and his team spent a lot of time and money on layout and sorting, and continuous learning and exploration. What is said, the customs are sad and the customs are over!Only then did Zhongxiang Group achieve some results and became a dark horse for Amazon's e-commerce site.

Mr. Huang said, “I know it's difficult to export tea, but I'm not afraid. As a native of Anxi, I grew up with the aroma of tea. I have strong feelings and dependence on tea. I also hope that the efforts made by Zhongxiang Group now will help the development of the tea industry belt. Many people want to export food, but they are afraid when they hear about the FDA certification process. In fact, the complexity and cost of the entire process is not as high as people think, so don't be held back by your own imagination. If any sellers are interested in this track, we are happy to exchange and share so that everyone can take fewer detours. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

When talking about sharing some experiences with new sellers in the food category, Mr. Huang emphasized that there is only one rule for success, which is to operate in compliance. Sellers are in a dark place in categories such as 3C, home, and clothing, but for the newly unlocked food categories, sellers can start a store business as long as they operate in compliance. Seems like this, it's not that difficult to export food.

Select high-quality suppliers, strictly control quality from the source, and kill the “spark” of returns in the cradle. One of the biggest challenges facing the cross-border e-commerce industry is the high product return rate. Countless sellers are worried about store sales, but as sales increase, return rates also increase. Returns not only increase logistics costs, but also reduce store ratings.

Mr. Huang said, “Our store's products have an almost zero return rate!Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

Mr. Huang is very proud to tell us that the store also has a rating of 4.5 or higher, and there is also a certain level of repurchase rate. This excellent report card is mainly due to accurate control of the quality of the source. Currently, most of the tea leaves on the market are purchased by tea farmers, but tea farmers do not have uniform standards during cultivation, picking, and frying, resulting in uneven quality of tea. For example, there are dozens of processes in the production process of Tieguanyin. Any deviation in any step may cause differences in the aroma of the tea leaves and the color of the tea soup, which in turn affects the quality of the product. As a result, Zhongxiang Group continued to search for cooperative factories with a certain size, production environment standards, and capable of meeting customs export filing requirements in the vast sea of “tea,” gradually surviving the fittest, screening high-quality suppliers, and strictly controlling quality at the source, killing the “spark” of returns in the cradle.

To solve the front-end supply chain quality problem, Zhongxiang Group only needed to control back-end sales and operations, and everything came to fruition. Cross-border e-commerce breaks through time and space limitations and realizes the global circulation of products through Internet platforms. As an important part of China's agricultural exports, tea products have ushered in more opportunities. Especially for some small and medium-sized tea companies, cross-border e-commerce has brought more room for development from another track. Fine management can not only effectively improve the timeliness of obtaining information through automated management methods, but also make more scientific predictions for product selection through input-output ratios, so that the huge number of SKUs can effectively fill the market gap and occupy market share without becoming redundant inventory that does not generate value.

To regain the glory of tea in foreign trade, we are not selling a drink, but a culture and a kind of life.

Mr. Huang said, “In its heyday, Chinese tea was comparable to luxury goods and led the world tea drinking trend. Currently, China's tea exports are still mainly low value-added products, and even lag behind countries such as Sri Lanka and India. This is very distressing. As an expression of traditional Chinese culture, the tea ceremony is very popular abroad, and in our brand promotion videos, the section about the Chinese tea ceremony will also have a relatively high hit rate. As far as our generation is concerned, if there is an opportunity, we still hope to do our part to further develop the traditional tea industry. Abbottt, Premiere Creative’s creative director.

Unlike traditional tea export models, cross-border e-commerce connects tea companies and consumers. Using big data analysis, it is easier for tea companies to grasp consumption trends and directions in overseas markets, understand overseas market needs, and flexibly grasp sales strategies. In order to expand overseas sales of tea, Zhongxiang Group adjusted its operating strategy in terms of product upgrades and brand promotion through big data analysis. Combine the lifestyle and tastes of overseas consumers, upgrade and innovate traditional processes, and add special flavors or functional products such as fruits and goji berries. According to the trend analysis of the US tea market on the Amazon website by relevant research institutes, American consumers are increasingly in demand for superfood teas rich in various nutrients and tea with benefits that can strengthen the immune system. [2]

According to Mr. Huang, brand building and promotion will be the focus of the next phase of work. Currently, overseas trademarks have been registered. Next, the focus will be on focusing on the two aspects of brand story and tea culture dissemination, posting relevant videos through social media, and at the same time promoting off-site traffic, thereby enhancing brand competitiveness and store sales.

Mr. Huang said, “Actually, the current results are far from my expectations. My goal is to turn Zhongxiang Group's tea products into unicorns for cross-border e-commerce. Let tea not only be a drink, but also a culture and a way of life. "

Going overseas through cross-border e-commerce is an innovative experiment in the tea industry, and it is also a blue ocean challenge. I also hope, as President Huang expected, that the success of high-quality cross-border sellers of tea products can drive the traditional industry back to the world and open up a new nugget track.