Cross-border e-commerce platforms Amazon and AliExpress, which one should novice friends choose?

Many novice friends will ask this question. In fact, the source of the entanglement of this question does not understand these two platforms.

If you don't have any foreign trade or cross-border e-commerce or domestic e-commerce experience, my suggestion is to start simple. AliExpress is a better platform to start with. AliExpress is a cross-border e-commerce platform under Alibaba. The platform was established in 2010, and it has been almost ten years since its development. The decade of cross-border is also the decade of growth of AliExpress, and AliExpress has also experienced a lot in the past 10 years.

The beginning of the rise of cross-border e-commerce was the prosperous period of traditional foreign trade. At that time, the most contacted companies were foreign trade exports. My first formal job after graduation was also a foreign trade job. I have worked in traditional foreign trade for a few years and learned a lot of foreign trade knowledge. Traditional foreign trade is mainly in the form of B2B. The customers are wholesalers and traders, and there are also small orders, which account for only a small part.

At that time, the payment method could only use Western Union, paypal, T/T payment, and large amounts can be paid by letter of credit. The payment method is relatively rigid, for example, we have to go to the bank to withdraw money for Western Union. The current cross-border e-commerce has completely changed these. Payment is directly on the cross-border e-commerce platform. We can use third-party payment collection tools such as International Alipay, Payoneer, PingPong, etc. to transfer into RMB.

Cross-border e-commerce has changed the payment method, changed the consumption habits of end consumers, made cross-border shopping more convenient, and greatly improved the shopping experience. This is also one reason why cross-border e-commerce can quickly rise.

AliExpress now mainly adopts the self-delivery method. After foreign customers place an order, we use economic logistics, postal registered parcel, worry-free logistics, E-mail treasure, or international express to send customers' packages from China to the destination country. Now AliExpress is also vigorously deploying overseas warehouses. After we prepare the goods overseas, we can also directly ship to customers abroad, saving delivery time and improving customer experience.

The world is changing fast, and our thinking must change in time. The survival of the fittest is an eternal principle.

Novice friends can start with the simplest platform. AliExpress is better to start. If you are a Taobao seller, you may be familiar with the backend interface of AliExpress. As long as you have a business license and a public account, you can open a store smoothly by paying the platform deposit. We can make up for other operational matters through learning.

The general process of cross-border e-commerce is to select products-put on shelves-optimize products-issue orders-purchase-deliver goods. This process is not complicated. Doing Taobao with China is actually a general idea, but the customer groups and logistics methods have changed.

Next, let me talk about Amazon. Amazon is the largest cross-border e-commerce platform. It has attracted a large number of cross-border e-commerce sellers to enter, which proves that it has enough charm. Amazon's operational thinking is different from AliExpress. Amazon focuses on products and stores, takes the boutique route, and has a complete FBA delivery method, which can greatly save our delivery and communication costs, but there are also many hidden costs. For example, Amazon's long-term storage fees, final delivery fees, warehouse storage fees, CPC advertising fees, etc. Amazon's barriers to entry and operating thresholds are higher than those of AliExpress. In addition, Amazon needs a lot of financial support and a lot of stocking. This is my deep experience.

If you are a novice, you can start with AliExpress, slowly learn the basics of Amazon, and then turn to Amazon. Experienced friends suggest to do both platforms, this does not conflict. Reasonable allocation of our time, energy and resources, and multi-platform development are also issues to be considered as cross-border e-commerce sellers.

We can't put all our investments in the same basket, we can focus on which cross-border e-commerce platform to choose selectively. Nothing is absolute, do the right thing at the right time and leave the rest to time.
Novice Area:https://www.zeshuiplatform.com/
Novice Area:https://www.zeshuiplatform.com/