With the advent of full custody, can sellers feel at ease as shopkeepers?
Fully Managed Officially Launched
It is clear that more and more platforms are moving to a fully managed model.
Recently, AliExpress officially launched a fully managed service model at the 2023 Merchant Summit. The official stated that hosting is an extension of the merchant service model on the AliExpress platform. For merchants with outstanding operational capabilities, or brand store merchants, they can insist on operating their own stores; if merchants have product advantages but are not familiar with operations and after-sales, etc. Choose full hosting and be a "hands-off shopkeeper".
It is worth mentioning that at the end of last year, AliExpress launched a pilot full-hosting model in the Korean market for sellers with commodity competitiveness. The platform is responsible for many complex links such as store operations, front-end pricing, logistics distribution, and after-sales service. The seller only needs to focus on the product and research and development, prepare the goods and store them in the warehouse, and will be relatively more free in terms of payment.
Today, in March, the order volume of AliExpress increased by 50% year-on-year, hitting a record high. In the Korean market, it even surpassed the local e-commerce platform Coupang, and won the first place in the downloads of shopping apps, which is enough to prove the feasibility of the full hosting model. Selling also took advantage of the opportunity to launch this service. By giving merchants more room for choice, it guides sellers to "take a two-pronged approach". On the one hand, the popular products are entrusted to the platform for full custody, and on the other hand, they can continue to promote high-margin products in their own stores. So as to strive for greater sales.
become the trend
Coincidentally, recently, Lazada, a Southeast Asian e-commerce platform under Ali, is also trying to provide fully managed services.
Not long ago, a number of sellers claimed that they had received official news from Lazada, saying that the platform is preparing for a fully managed operation model, which is expected to be launched in the Philippines at the end of May. The specific time has not been disclosed, but other countries will follow suit.
According to the official statement, sellers under the full custody mode are only responsible for the supply of products, and stock up to Lazada's domestic central warehouse or designated local warehouse-Xiyunda&Ya warehouse or official warehouse. It is recommended that the stocking volume is enough for 45 days of sales. The rest of the follow-up matters will be operated by the platform, and Lazada supports sellers to copy a fully managed store on the basis of the existing cross-border store, and those without a store can open it directly.
It can be seen that full hosting has become the general trend of AliExpress in cross-border business this year. In addition, at the end of last year, the first batch of foreign trade factories that joined AliExpress full hosting have exploded orders, and some factories have even been rejected for two consecutive replenishments Selling short in an instant makes sellers impatient. It is expected that the full custody model will become a key strategy in the future, and more sellers are bound to pour into it.
However, although the full hosting model is good, not all sellers can be hands-off shopkeepers.
On the one hand, taking Lazada's fully managed stocking requirements as an example, it is not suitable for small sellers with a single source of goods or no source of goods, and these sellers do not have enough financial strength to purchase goods in bulk.
On the other hand, the full hosting model is actually preparing for the training of sellers to become suppliers of the platform. At this time, suppliers who are actually factories will be more competitive, and will become key customers of the platform in the future, while small sellers can only watch big sellers take advantage of it, but they have nothing to do.
In general, the full hosting model has certain benefits, but it will also be a challenge for some sellers who have relatively low advantages. This means that sellers must improve their own quality and form their own characteristics in order to stand out in this competition.