Localization accelerates, AliExpress Brazil enters a harvest period

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Wang Xiaojun

In the context of significant changes in foreign trade, focusing on "localization" has become an important strategy for major cross-border e-commerce platforms. As one of the key points of the localization strategy, overseas warehouses are becoming a focal point for competition among cross-border e-commerce businesses.

According to Wall Street Insights, from AliExpress, one of the "Four Little Dragons" of overseas expansion, during the recently concluded overseas 618 shopping festival, its Brazilian overseas warehouse local inventory continued to explode, becoming the secret weapon for merchants to achieve explosive orders, with sales achieving a 4.3 times increase compared to daily sales. The top three categories with the highest growth rates were consumer electronics, computer office supplies, and outdoor sports.

In recent years, AliExpress has focused on local shipping in Latin American markets such as Brazil, hoping to leverage the efficient logistics fulfillment capabilities of overseas warehouses to effectively shorten delivery times for cross-border merchants and further enhance the purchasing experience for consumers.

At the same time, starting in June this year, AliExpress has also increased support for merchants in Brazilian overseas warehouses, hoping to attract more merchants to settle in.

Specific measures include: increasing subsidies for brands going overseas with a subsidy of 10 billion; resource allocation within the platform, including search traffic, early bird subsidies, SD field subsidies, and local shipping identification transmission; enhancing off-site promotion resources, with special live streaming support from local influencers; and providing dedicated one-on-one service from account managers, offering full-cycle incubation support from zero sales to explosive products.

The combination of stocking overseas warehouses and a series of support policies from AliExpress has brought immediate results to some brand merchants' sales.

It is reported that during a brand-specific live broadcast jointly held by a consumer electronics brand and AliExpress Brazil's national station in June, the GMV transaction surged more than 10 times compared to normal, with a cumulative viewership of 120,000 and over 10,000 comments, ranking first globally on AliExpress for that day.

With the changing global trade situation, there is a consensus that cross-border e-commerce will inevitably shift from growth at all costs to focusing on profitable growth, transitioning from simple "low-price exports" to a high-value-added strategy of "branding."

On the AliExpress platform, some Chinese brands are also achieving this transformation.

During this year's overseas 618 period, a batch of high-ticket, high-tech domestic emerging brands also exploded in the Brazilian market through stocking overseas warehouses.

AliExpress data shows that the average price of game controllers from 8BitDo saw a more than 26-fold increase compared to the 328 shopping festival; the domestic cycling brand THINKRIDER, with a single product price exceeding $500, sold out on the first day of sales; a Shenzhen solid-state drive merchant stocked over 50,000 units in the Brazilian overseas warehouse, selling more than 10,000 units in just three days, with the remaining inventory also sold out within a month.

On the road to globalization, localization has become an important development strategy for cross-border e-commerce platforms, which not only enhances consumer experience but also helps resist geopolitical risks.

In fact, not only in Brazil, but since the beginning of this year, AliExpress has been continuously strengthening its efforts and has made localized layouts in multiple markets.

In May this year, AliExpress integrated with more than 10 leading overseas warehouse service providers to become "certified warehouses," covering markets in the United States, Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Poland Products that join the certified warehouse can receive the "LOCAL+" label and appear in the local exclusive channels established by AliExpress in key markets.

At the same time, since the beginning of this year, AliExpress has been actively recruiting local merchants in markets such as the United States, Germany, and Poland, accelerating the expansion of its overseas local business.

In the second half of last year, AliExpress clarified its dual-track driving strategy of "self-operation + entrusted management." Specifically, AliExpress now covers a diverse model operation across all categories, supporting overseas entrusted management and POP models for merchants stocking goods overseas, and supporting full entrusted management and POP models for merchants stocking goods domestically.

With a diverse model operation and localization strategy, AliExpress has already targeted its running direction in the competition of the second half of cross-border e-commerce