General

According to the observation of Huacheng's import and export data, consumption has a significant pull on China's economy, and import consumption continues to be an important driving force for consumption upgrading. Recently, Tmall Global and Deloitte China jointly released the Research Report on China's Import Consumer Market 2022, which states that the epidemic has not changed the development trend of China's consumption upgrading. China's continued opening up has also helped the scale of high-quality imported consumer goods continue to expand. The import consumer market has shown a comprehensive growth trend, and has shown diversified, personalized, online and other characteristics. The market has broad prospects.

In the opinion of Zhang Tianbing, the partner in charge of Deloitte's consumer goods and retail industry in Asia Pacific, import consumption is deeply integrated into the work and life of Chinese consumers, which better satisfies consumers' yearning for a better life. At present, although the import trade is still facing uncertainty risks, thanks to the strong consumer demand and the continuous optimization of the port business environment, the import of consumer goods continued to grow at a higher rate than the overall import in the first half of this year. "With the rapid development of free trade, the further reduction of tariffs, and the holding of trade promotion activities such as the International Fair, plus a series of factors such as the development of e-commerce platforms and the innovation of overseas brands, import consumption will develop rapidly."

Overall growth of import consumption

As the second largest importer in the world, import trade has become an important way for China to meet domestic consumption demand. According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, the total import of consumer goods in 2021 will reach 1.73 trillion yuan, up 9.9% year on year, accounting for about 10% of the total import. In the first half of 2022, the import rate of consumer goods will continue to grow faster than the overall import rate. In the first half of 2022, the import volume of consumer goods will reach 1 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of about 11.1%.

At present, nearly 40000 overseas brands from more than 90 countries and regions have settled in Tmall Global, and nearly 8500 overseas brands were added last year. During the "Double 11" this year, there were 750 overseas brands on Tmall Global whose sales increased by more than 100% year on year, and 20 new overseas brands whose turnover exceeded 10 million yuan. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

At the same time, many new consumption trends are emerging. Import consumption has become more diversified and personalized. Import consumption has also emerged from traditional import categories such as cosmetics, mothers and babies to more small groups. The new fashion lifestyle of young people began to emerge during the "Double 11" period: from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. on October 31, the growth rate of land surfboard sales exceeded 3000% year on year, the growth rate of vinyl record player sales exceeded 530% year on year, the growth rate of cycling equipment sales exceeded 500% year on year, and the growth rate of Luya fishing equipment sales exceeded 220% year on year.

The Report also shows that the penetration rate of import consumers is growing at all levels. From the perspective of gender, female consumers have become the absolute main force of overseas shopping. According to the data of Tmall Global, female overseas shopping users will account for 72% in 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 15%. The consumption amount of female overseas shopping users has maintained a double-digit growth. At the same time, the "other economy" has also increased significantly, the import consumption boundary of male consumers has been expanding, and cosmetics, watches and health care products are the most preferred import categories. From the perspective of age, the proportion of turnover of "post-90s" and "post-00s" users has continued to increase, exceeding 50% by the end of 2021, leading consumers of other age groups. The data of Tmall Global also shows that in 2021, the amount of overseas gold panning of "top 60" consumers will increase by 16% year on year, the amount of "post 60" consumers will increase by 27%, and the number of users and turnover of "post 65" consumers will increase by more than 50% annually.

The epidemic has gradually changed consumers' lifestyle, shopping style and category demand, which are also reflected in import consumption. With the return of consumption to families and their own needs, the consumption data of imported outdoor products, cosmetics and personal care products has grown rapidly. At the same time, in the trend of high-quality health preservation, healthy and beautiful functional food is more popular. In addition, the number of people living alone is increasing, and the demand for companionship and emotion is becoming more and more strong. The black technology equipment for diversified entertainment activities is more sophisticated and personalized pet products.

Digital operation enhances competitiveness

Facing China's import consumer market with broad prospects, overseas brands still face challenges from the supply chain, channels and operating costs. Affected by the epidemic, the performance ability of imported brands has declined, and offline channel operation is limited. At the same time, under the intense competition on the track, the operating costs of businesses and the difficulty of incubating explosive products have continued to increase.

According to the analysis, with the accelerated restructuring of the global industrial chain, value chain, supply chain and service chain, the import and export scale of cross-border e-commerce has increased nearly 10 times in five years. The new business types and models represented by cross-border e-commerce are a major boost to the future of import brand intensive cultivation. Innovative models such as global purchase and bonded zone have broken the traditional barriers to import trade and eliminated the potential market window period for overseas brands. The digital transformation+asset light model can help overseas businesses reduce the cost of overseas brands entering the Chinese market, and can rapidly expand and effectively contact Chinese consumer groups. In combination with comprehensive digital analysis of consumers, brand penetration has been steadily improved.

Since its entry in 2013, a2 milk company has been deeply rooted in the Chinese market for several years. However, since the outbreak of the epidemic, due to the implementation of epidemic prevention and control policies in various countries, the brand has faced difficulties such as slow shipment, fewer flights, crowded ports, high freight and longer transportation cycle, and some products are out of stock and cannot be purchased. Since April this year, the brand has opened the link from the Cainiao Bonded Area to the epidemic area through the Tmall a2 overseas flagship store, and then delivered to the consumer community through the EMS guaranteed supply. Under the combined mode of logistics terminal and Cainiao Bonded Warehouse, the brand has timely met the needs of consumers. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

As a professional probiotic brand in Australia, Inos officially entered the Chinese market in February 2022, landing on Tmall Global and opening a brand flagship store. Since entering the Chinese market, the brand has realized that in the face of China's personalized consumer needs, the brand needs content marketing with more finely differentiated groups and functional scenarios. By subdividing the target audience and pain points, combining the response scenario content and product selling points, it produces thousands of graphic content, which is accurately pushed through social platforms. At the same time, we will deposit user information and build an intelligent exclusive customer service and private domain membership system. Over the past six months, the number of fans in the store has rapidly accumulated more than 40000, with a monthly sales volume of nearly 10000 yuan. It has entered the top 100 new trend brands of Tmall Global, and Huacheng's import and export data observation report.

"The import consumer market continues to be full of opportunities and imagination." Dong Zhenzhen, general manager of Tmall Global, said that in the past three years, the growth rate of China's imported consumer goods has continued to lead the overall consumer goods market in China, and the import cross-border e-commerce has maintained an average annual growth of nearly 20%, which is an important growth engine of the entire consumer market. "Behind the growth of the market, we can see that Chinese consumers have a strong interest in global brands and a strong demand for advanced consumption. The rise of a more diversified, personalized and professional consumption trend will continue to promote the vigorous development of the import consumption market."