The breaking news has spread among the cross-border e-seller community: the Payoneer Forum will be hosted in Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shenzhen, and Yiwu, one after another this summer. The theme is ‘Reevaluation of E-commerce’, hosting Amazon, Wish, Lazada, JD and other major marketplaces, as well as top sellers in the industry.
Let’s take a look at the forum in Guangzhou on May 29th, with the subtheme ‘Transition’:
The Forum was to start at 1:30 p.m. but many people arrived as early as an hour prior, just to walk around the booth and enjoy the “appetizers”: Payoneer goodie bags, which came with a coupon book. These coupon books allowed recipients to gather information and included limited time discounts at select service providers.
Patrcik De Courcy, Payoneer Head of Asia Pacific, gave an opening speech to the full house of 700 attendees. Then it was the Payoneer Team’s show time! To our loyal customers, Payoneer usually functions as an account, a tool, maybe the voice on other side of the phone. But this time, the customers got to meet the team in person. The local BizDev and Marketing teams shared insights on compliance, flexible ways to receive payments, customer care and B2B escrow service.
Shawn Zhao, Payoneer Head of Greater China made a strong statement that Payoneer not only satisfies users’ direct needs by localizing services, but also makes innovations ahead of users’ expectations, supporting the industry in the long run.
Amazon Japan BizDev, Soft Line and CE teamed up to provide trending information and strategies for different markets and categories.
By walking us through the data, Sonia, the Amazon Japan BizDev Manager, told the audience that the tradition of e-commerce in Japan dates back to the 1980s and the local customers are very used to online shopping. Ranking 3rd among all websites and 1st in e-commerce in Japan, the huge traffic has benefited Chinese sellers with surprisingly big revenues.
Sho Su from Amazon Soft Line gave an in depth analysis of soft line. As a fast-growing category, Sho gave practical suggestions per different sub-categories. For instance, apparel sellers should pay great attention to local popular items, and bear in mind the cultural differences and localized designs. Sellers of pet goods should focus on pet apparel, accessories, and health food; pet furniture is also a promising market.
Chris Yang from the Amazon CE Team introduced the new trend of cross-border M2C. So far Chinese sellers are doing great in CE, but can always push it to next level with detailed description pages, taking advantage of FBA, and comprehensive marketing.
The co-founder of 1000shores, Sam Liu, shared great insights in ‘Manufacturers: How to Evolve in Cross-Border Scenarios’. Sam argued that manufacturers should take back the pricing power by establishing their own branding and adding value to it. Sam also explained the process of building a brand: First, utilizing Amazon exposure, as it’s the most cost-effective way to globalize a brand. Second, product lines should go with the branding and deliver the special features, and product lines should consist of hot-selling, revenue-generating, and brand-image-delivering items. Last but not least, sellers must take control of all aspects of branding, including setting up an official website, social media interaction, establishing an Amazon page and customer support.
Tea break session was prime time as well. Attendees rushed to the Payoneer booth for information, and some of them even initiated the one-minute registration process via their mobile phones.
After the relaxing tea break, it was time for the exciting elevator pitches from the sponsors. Each of the selected sponsors, ChannelAdvisor, HJ Logistics, Globebill, SFC Logistics, SellerGrowth and Winit had 100 seconds to showcase their products and services. SellerGrowth even gave a ‘WOW time’ of 50-seconds, with a well-produced video.
After the exciting elevator pitch session, Fang Fang, Director of Wish, elaborated on the concepts that drive the company. By grabbing user data from Facebook, Wish is able to target different customer groups and present them with products they need. Wish also works towards leading traffic, targeting the right customers, and customer support, so sellers can focus on receiving orders and providing products.
Ruiming Hu, the Brand Director of Aukey, gave the perfect closing speech. He discussed the mindset transition from rookie to successful seller. It takes courage and vision for ‘the first man to eat crab’, while for e-sellers, every stage to make progress is ‘eating crab’. Director Hu shared the stories of ‘three interviews’, ‘three trends’ and ‘three must-knows’, as well as the product developing strategy: searching for seasonally updated products, innovative products, realignment products, trending products, and revolutionary products.
The final upsurge was the raffle session. 30 lucky attendees from the WeChat Wall interaction were awarded big surprises: MacBooks, xGimi Z4Xs, SellerGrowth online courses and Kindles.
By providing cross-border payment solutions, the multi-currency, multi-marketplace, multi-industry services Payoneer offers enable you to develop both in your comfort zone and your challenge zone. Whenever you endeavor to enter new marketplaces, foreign selling countries or if you’re switching between B2B and B2C, Payoneer is always there to support you for a smooth journey.