Every November is a barometer of cross-border e-commerce. In November of this year, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the establishment of the cross-border e-commerce department of the import and export company, Phoenix Artist Material received a big gift package for growth. The sales volume in November hit a new high, up 140% over the same period last year. In particular, "Black Friday" and "network Monday" two days of sales have set new records, reaching the previous year’s single month sales. It is expected that the annual sales in 2020 will exceed 10 million US dollars. This means that the cross-border e-commerce department, which has been established for three years, has officially entered the multi-million dollar club. “In the future, cross-border e-commerce will keep pace with traditional foreign trade and become the twin engines of Phoenix’s take-off.” said Chen Weihong, chairman of Phoenix Artist Material.

With the development of e-commerce in the world, more and more traditional foreign trade enterprises have opened up cross-border e-commerce business, especially under the pandemic crisis this year, European and American countries have implemented home office, social restrictions and other measures. The prevalence of "home economy" has not only spawned a surge in the overseas market of some home consumer products, but also accelerated the shift of global consumer market from offline to online as a whole. The Cross-border E-Commerce Department of Phoenix Artist Material seized this opportunity in time and started to make efforts in early March this year to increase the delivery frequency, increase new products and optimize inventory management. On the basis of Amazon’s good operation in the United States, it has opened sites in Canada, seven European countries, Australia, Singapore, Japan, etc., and plans to open sites in Middle East countries such as UAE, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, etc. From having only one e-commerce store on Amazon, to operating on two e-commerce stores on Amazon and eBay at the same time, from having only one site in the United States, to having sites in major countries in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, from a team of only 2 people at the beginning to a team of 7 people now, it has surpassed the starting stage to the stage of large-scale expansion and has become the first brand of painting materials on Amazon.

Wu Qinjing, manager of cross-border e-commerce department, said, “Because Amazon’s overseas warehouse has strict restrictions on the storage capacity, once the product is not sold in time, it will face high rent, so it must be accurately put into the target market. In cross-border e-commerce business, it is very important to select products. Even if every product can’t be popular, at least it should be in a great demand”.

The so-called "know yourself and know your enemy", the cross-border e-commerce department, on the one hand, paid close attention to the market every day, studied and judged the needs of users, and bade for similar competitive products in order to improve the accuracy of the target market; on the other hand, the department strictly managed the internal of the company, sped up the development of new products, made a good performance in external drainage and brand promotion, and developed different models and sizes of picture frames for traditional advantageous products such as picture frames and picture boards, added new varieties including high quality pure linen artist frame, black coated picture frame. Phoenix Artist Material also increased the investment of pigment products such as Phoenix brand high-grade watercolor pigment and casting propylene.

Brand marketing is also a powerful tool for cross-border e-commerce. With the help of the flow of Facebook, Youtube and other social networking sites for brand promotion, through the setting of discount code to facilitate sharing outside the station, post display on the product details page and other promotion means, to attract more users. Product evaluation is also very important for online consumption, product evaluation often directly determines whether consumers place an order, as a result, sellers attach great importance to product evaluation. In order to ensure the authenticity and reliability of product reviews, Amazon strictly restricts sellers from contacting users to change adverse reviews, even the common operation of "cash back after giving five-star reviews" by domestic e-commerce is prohibited in Amazon. Once a buyer reports that the seller is suspected of inducing comments, the seller will face the risk of being closed. Therefore, as a cross-border e-commerce, Phoenix Artist Material adheres to the "user thinking" in the product development process, and achieve the ultimate user experience in all details such as product description, quality, packaging, etc., and attract users to give praise from their hearts.

In the face of the impressive performance of cross-border e-commerce, Li Jinsong, general manager of the import and export company, has maintained soberness. For the expansion of new business, the growth of new people, he is happy to see its success. “For the future Phoenix Artist Material to become a well-known art material brand in the international market, the operation ability of our cross-border e-commerce department still needs to be improved, which includes improving market forecasting ability, shortening product development and launch cycle, enhancing brand awareness and reputation and so on, in short, there’s still a lot of work for us.” as Li Jinsong said.

From the perspective of enterprises, the development of cross-border e-commerce is not only the internal demand for the transformation and upgrading of traditional foreign trade enterprises, but also forces enterprises to speed up the transformation from "customer thinking" to "user thinking". Li Jinsong says, “Phoenix Artist Material has been mainly OEM for many years, belonging to a typical "traditional manufacturing + traditional foreign trade" type enterprise. Although Phoenix Artist Material have been deeply engaged in the European and American markets for many years, it has mainly dealt with channel operators rather than end users for a long time, and it doesn’t have the overall and real grasp of the consumer market. However, the cross-border e-commerce business is aimed at a wider number of uncertain end consumers, the traditional thinking of serving big customers in foreign trade will no longer be applicable. We must change to the perspective of users and have an accurate grasp of consumers’ psychology. We should develop new products and optimize the supply chain from the perspective of end consumers and have a keen understanding and insight into the consumer market and consumption trend.

Big data shows that more than 90% of users on Amazon platform are used to "silent order", which means the key to their decision is the product itself including the detailed description of the product, the evaluation of other users, the past use experience, etc. Only the products with high cost performance, detailed and accurate page display and good reputation can attract more users. This poses a higher challenge to the ability of manufacturing enterprises. The old OEM thinking of seizing a few major international customers can no longer meet the needs of the new format of cross-border e-commerce, only those foreign trade enterprises that focus on products, quality and international marketing can do the best in cross-border e-commerce. It is the only way for Chinese enterprises to go to a broader international stage through cross-border e-commerce to build a professional brand and lead the international development with brand.