吴灼辉：中国品牌出海的下一步 是让产品、渠道与组织形成合力

This article is a curated transcript of a talk by Wu Zhuohui, Vice President of Anker Innovation, on Chinese brands going global. It outlines key shifts in the current cross-border expansion landscape and the new capabilities required for success, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Three fundamental changes have reshaped the cross-border landscape: intensifying competition has driven sharp increases in advertising click costs and product costs, significantly raising entry barriers; the market has shifted from the single-platform era to a multi-platform era, where growth is difficult to achieve relying solely on one platform; and overall capabilities are now required, rather than being able to launch a business with just one hit product.

2. In this new environment, brands must focus on three core priorities: first, identify unmet real consumer demands, and develop product innovations tailored to specific user groups and use cases; second, define clear positioning for each channel when building a multi-channel footprint, so different channels work in synergy rather than operating as isolated storefronts; third, strengthen core internal capabilities including compliance, marketing, AI adoption, talent development and supply chain management to withstand uncertainty.

Drawing on Anker Innovation's own growth experience, this talk outlines current consumer trends and directions for capability upgrading for cross-border brands, with key takeaways as follows:

1. The cross-border operating environment has fundamentally changed. The traditional "three-pillar" strategy of solid products, e-commerce operations and localized marketing has become basic table stakes that are no longer sufficient to stay competitive. Systematic upgrades to product development, channel strategy and organizational capabilities are now required.

2. Product R&D direction needs to be adjusted: instead of competing only by addressing negative reviews or piling up top-tier specifications, brands should shift to identifying unmet needs of specific user groups in specific use cases, and build products tailored to those needs. Anker's successful line of adapted outdoor security cameras designed for US farms is cited as an example.

3. Channel strategy should follow a multi-channel synergy model, with each channel serving a distinct function. For example, direct-to-consumer websites act as brand hubs to accumulate user assets, while other marketplaces focus on driving conversion. This arrangement lets traffic and brand awareness reinforce each other to create combined value rather than internal friction. Brands must also build out core capabilities including compliance and localized marketing in advance.

This talk outlines current industry risks and opportunities for cross-border sellers, and lays out clear actionable directions, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Current industry risk overview: Entry barriers for cross-border expansion have risen sharply, and intensifying competition has driven a massive increase in advertising CPC costs. For consumer electronics categories, the cost per click has risen from $0.2-$0.3 a decade ago to $0.5-$0.6 today, and can reach as high as $100 in extreme cases. Specs-driven competition has also pushed up production costs, and growth is no longer feasible relying on a single platform.

2. Opportunities: China still boasts globally leading supply chains and a large pool of engineering talent, leaving substantial room for emerging cross-border brands to grow. Omnichannel multi-channel operations have become the dominant trend, and sellers can leverage professional third-party services to quickly close capability gaps.

3. Actionable recommendations: Proactively identify unmet consumer needs; define clear positioning for each channel when building a multi-channel footprint to achieve synergies; address compliance requirements in advance; prioritize AI enablement and talent development; and strengthen supply chain foundations to improve risk resilience.

This talk clarifies product demand trends and offers insights on transformation and upgrading for factories looking to tap into cross-border business, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Product design and manufacturing demand has shifted: the market no longer prioritizes maximum specifications above all else, and instead values products that solve real pain points for specific groups in specific scenarios. For example, outdoor security cameras do not need 4K resolution to be competitive—they just need to meet the needs of weak network connectivity and off-grid power for farm use cases. Factories should adjust R&D and manufacturing to focus on scenario-specific demands.

2. Business opportunities: Chinese brand globalization is still growing strongly, and omnichannel operations have raised higher requirements for supply chains in terms of warehouse layout, fulfillment efficiency and quality control. Factories with flexible production and stable quality control capabilities will gain more partnership opportunities.

3. Insights on transformation: Cross-border brands are increasingly prioritizing digitalization and AI empowerment. Factories can leverage this trend to advance their own digital upgrades, better align with brand requirements, improve their own competitiveness, and capture the growth dividends of the cross-border expansion trend.

This talk outlines development trends of the Chinese brand cross-border ecosystem, identifies core pain points for globalizing brands, and clarifies business directions for cross-border service providers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Industry trends: Chinese brand globalization has evolved from the early stage of single-platform hit product operations to a new phase of omnichannel brand growth. Demand for integrated services is growing rapidly, and single-function operational services no longer meet brand needs—full value-chain service support is now required.

2. Core pain points for brand clients: Most brands currently face challenges including soaring customer acquisition costs, stagnant growth on single platforms, lack of expertise in multi-channel synergy, insufficient compliance capabilities, and a shortage of qualified talent. They urgently need external service providers to close these capability gaps.

3. Strategic business directions: Service providers can learn from the model of Anker Innovation (formerly known as Haibei E-commerce): leverage the methodologies, technical systems and talent pools accumulated by leading brands, deliver customized services for different brands covering the full range of functions including multi-platform operations, marketing and data analytics, and partner with service providers across different segments to jointly drive brand growth.

This talk analyzes cross-border sellers' core needs for platforms, and clarifies directions for platform merchant acquisition and operational adjustment, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Shifts in sellers' core needs: Sellers now broadly accept the multi-channel layout trend and are no longer satisfied with operating on a single platform. They need different platforms to align with their omnichannel strategies, help them address growth, cost and user accumulation goals simultaneously, and sellers are also demanding increasingly robust compliance-focused operating environments.

2. Directions for platform operations and management: Different platforms should clarify their differentiated positioning, highlight their strengths in areas such as brand awareness building, user accumulation or sales conversion, refine platform compliance rules, provide clear operating standards for sellers, and reduce sellers' compliance risks.

3. Directions for platform merchant acquisition: Emerging Chinese cross-border brands with strong product capabilities, brand awareness and comprehensive operating capabilities have high growth potential, so platforms should prioritize onboarding these brands. Platforms should also develop operational tools that support multi-channel synergy to reduce sellers' multi-channel operating costs.

Drawing on Anker Innovation's practical experience, this talk summarizes new industry trends for Chinese brands going global, and proposes a new capability framework and business model, offering high reference value for industry research, with key takeaways as follows:

1. New industry trends: Chinese brand globalization has entered an entirely new development stage. The early model of single-platform hit products and simple localized marketing is no longer viable, and competition is now systemic across product development, brand building, channel strategy and organizational capabilities. Multi-platform omnichannel operation has become the industry mainstream.

2. New industry challenges: The sector now faces a series of new challenges including sharply rising advertising costs, specs-driven competition that pushes up overall industry costs, a shortage of qualified comprehensive talent, rising global compliance requirements, and more complex supply chain management, posing new tests for industry development.

3. New empirical conclusions: The talk puts forward a new capability framework of "identifying unmet consumer demand – building synergies across multiple channels – strengthening comprehensive core capabilities". It also highlights a new business model where leading brands output their accumulated capabilities to help other brands expand globally, offering a new development path for the industry.