As a famous city in China’s swimwear industry, Jinjiang Swimwear is renowned at home and abroad for its supporting industry chain. Recently, the Amazon platform also held the 2023 Swimwear Theme Sharing Conference in Jinjiang on this basis.

At the meeting, groups of data showed that as an important force in foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce has helped more and more companies set sail. As cross-border e-commerce enters a period of rapid development, companies have also upgraded from the original distribution model to a model of brand building and deep cultivation of the supply chain. Among them, the swimwear category has performed particularly well on cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon in recent years, becoming popular in the sea.

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Cross-border e-commerce has changed from a new business format to a normal state. This is a view shared by Phoebe, Amazon’s global store development manager.

This view has been verified by the data. From US$2.3 trillion in 2017 to US$5.2 trillion in 2021, global retail e-commerce sales have grown steadily year by year, and are expected to exceed US$6 trillion in 2023; the total global retail e-commerce accounts for a percentage of global retail sales year by year The increase is from 12% in 2018 to 18.8% in 2021, and is expected to exceed 20% in 2023.

There is no doubt that China’s cross-border e-commerce is in a period of rapid development, and cross-border e-commerce has become an important force in foreign trade. Among them, the performance of swimwear category is particularly outstanding.

In May 2022, the number of searches for swimwear products on Amazon’s US site exceeded 800,000, an increase of more than 81% from April. According to data from Euromonitor International, the global swimwear market has exceeded US$16 billion in 2020, and it is expected that the market size will grow to US$21.4 billion by 2025.

?Consumers’ vacation needs have shifted from travel and leisure to seeking new experiences. Consumers are becoming more bold in their choices of swimwear and are more willing to try novel styles and patterns. Some consumers even expressed the hope that swimwear can become wearable. to street wear. Therefore, the diversity of swimwear and scenes has become a bargaining chip for the swimwear track. ?Phoebe said.

In this context, many companies have seized the opportunity to charge. Hong Jiancheng, general manager of Fujian Hengxia Garment Weaving Co., Ltd., brought several groups of people from the company to attend the meeting. ?Each of them is responsible for different sections. Some focus on swimwear fashion trends, and some study product cost accounting. Everyone performs their duties and understands what is needed. ?Hong Jiancheng told reporters that the company has started operating Amazon in 2017, mainly targeting the three major markets of the United States, Japan, and France. In recent years, foreign trade orders have been affected to a certain extent. Cross-border e-commerce platforms have reduced many intermediate links and directly faced consumers, saving a lot of costs. This is an inevitable trend.

While favorable policies are helping Chinese brands to set sail, Amazon’s local services are also helping Chinese sellers ride the wind and waves. For new sellers, Amazon has launched an introductory gift package, including more than $50,000 in exclusive benefits for new sellers. In addition, as long as the brand completes the brand registration within 6 months after publishing the first ASIN available for purchase, it can receive a 5% rebate of brand sales (up to US$50,000), a US$200 Vine product discount, and a US$100 Transparency transparent plan discount.

? Cross-border e-commerce has already shifted from the distribution model to the era of brand building and deep cultivation of supply chain advantages. ?Phoebe told reporters that Amazon Logistics can provide sellers with a one-stop solution from product selection, packaging, shipping to after-sales service. Sellers only need to prepare a set of registration information to realize their global expansion plan of opening stores in multiple countries.

Clear brand positioning

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On the Amazon platform, swimwear is a fashion category. Based on past experience, Phoebe concluded that successful sellers operating fashion brands generally have the characteristics of being forward-looking, grasping product selection trends, operating accurately and efficiently, paying attention to brand promotion, building a stable supply chain, redesigning to prevent infringement, and efficient material security.

On this platform, an emerging cross-border brand from China is emerging? Cupshe. Cupshe has more than 1 million fans on Instagram and Facebook, and its DTC website receives 1 million visits per month. It has a high score of 97% on Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce platform.

Started with swimwear, its products are sold in more than 40 countries around the world. Cupshe has received hundreds of millions of yuan in financing only 6 years after its establishment.

As an explorer of China’s overseas brands, Cupshe’s development history is worth learning from. At the beginning, Cupshe was positioned as a fast fashion brand with a wide range of products and did not focus on swimwear as its main category.

In 2016, Cupshe began to focus on market segments, took the road of branding, created a professional brand line of swimwear, and successfully opened up the North American market. In 2017, Cupshe became the No. 1 swimwear online sales seller in the North American market. In the same year, the company quickly expanded into the Australian and European markets and doubled its expansion. In 2018, the brand's customer volume and traffic growth reached a new level, and sales also reached a new annual growth high. In 2019, Cupshe became one of the top 100 cross-border import and export brands in China. The brand was named one of the top 15 most global brands in China by Google 2020 BRAND Z in 2020, with annual revenue reaching US$150 million; it received strategic investment of more than 100 million yuan in 2021.

Some fast fashion brands may clearly target Generation Z consumer groups, but Cupshe is different. It targets a wider audience, such as stay-at-home mothers and plus-size women. One of the ruffled one-piece swimsuits, the Cupshe Ruffled Monokini, has received 12,000 five-star reviews on Amazon.

The founder of the fashion and travel media website Whismy Soul has become a loyal customer of Cupshe in the past few years. If he wants to buy affordable and popular styles, especially bikinis, he will choose Cupshe brand products.

Thanks to its clear positioning, Cupshe, which is deeply involved in vertical fields, has boarded the rapid growth train.

Although the main category is swimsuit products, from the Amazon store and independent website, Cupshe still subdivides them into categories such as one-piece swimsuits, bikinis, dresses, cover-ups, and plus-size swimsuits. Among them, one-piece swimsuits and plus-size swimsuits have higher sales volume. Especially one-piece swimsuits, there are many products with over 10,000 reviews and close to five stars. The prices of products in this category are also relatively concentrated, with most being around US$30.

The promotional copy and pictures of its products also reflect its brand positioning and philosophy. For example, the promotional copy will emphasize that the product is designed with different body shapes and sizes in mind and is highly tolerant of body shapes. Show female confidence, etc. This kind of publicity has also achieved results. In product evaluations, quite a few consumers believe that the product is very suitable for pregnant women and postpartum women.

Understand consumer portraits

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Understanding consumer portraits can help sellers seize growth space. Coco, the business development and account manager of Amazon Europe, said that the United States, Japan, and Europe are the main battlegrounds for cross-border fashion categories. In the next three years, the United States will usher in an annual revenue growth of up to 97.5 billion U.S. dollars in fashion category e-commerce, and Europe and Japan will Followed by high growth of US$70.2 billion and US$21.8 billion respectively, which are higher than the global average.

If the seller’s sales market is in North America, Coco believes that the United States, Canada, and Mexico are good choices, while for European sites, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy are recommended. In addition, emerging sites such as Australia, India, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore can also be considered. ?Many people choose to start their first overseas trip in North America. Considering inventory factors, I suggest that you use the United States as a warehouse and then ship from the United States to Canada, Mexico and other countries. The consumers in this place are young and have strong spending power, which is consistent with the attributes of the platform. ?

Coco said that 74% of US consumers use Amazon to search for products, 20% of US consumers shop online at least once a day, and 63% of US consumers shop online at least once a week. When American consumers choose new products, they listen to recommendations from friends. The concept of "Made in China" is deeply rooted in the minds of American consumers, who most often buy goods from China. Clothing and shoes are the first choice for American consumers to purchase online, and they prefer products with free shipping.

At the European station, the situation is different. Coco said that more than half of European consumers are worried about environmental problems caused by the development of e-commerce and hope that merchants will take green and environmental-related measures, so they prefer environmentally friendly shopping. Half of European consumers do research before online shopping, and more than 40% of European consumers pay more attention to buyer reviews.

?Fashion products are the first choice for European consumers to shop online. Low prices and diverse choices are the primary reasons why they choose to shop online. European consumers expect to see a variety of delivery options on shopping websites, such as door-to-door delivery, express locker pick-up, physical store pickup, and scheduled delivery. ?

According to the Technavio report, long-sleeved swimsuits, innovative smart swimsuits, and comfortable fabrics have become the three hottest trends in swimwear in 2022. In light of the harmful effects of UV rays, which can cause tans, rashes, sunburns and, in extreme cases, skin cancer, consumers are increasingly concerned about their skin health and looking for swimwear that can cover a large part of their body , long-sleeved swimsuits have become the most popular type of swimsuit. In response to consumer demand, some suppliers have launched innovative smart swimsuits that protect consumers from UV rays, ensuring that their products gain a competitive advantage in the market, which also has a positive impact on the swimwear market.

It is worth noting that comfortable fabrics have always been an important factor in Americans choosing swimwear. For example, adidas AG provides consumers with swimwear that uses high-quality fabrics to provide comfort and design, and can be used whether consumers are participating in swimming competitions or traveling to the beach. (Reporters Shi Shanmei Dong Yanjun)