eBay full category sharing! Uncovering market trends and high-potential categories

At the sharing session, eBay's category management team provided an in-depth interpretation of the market trends of major categories for the participating sellers and manufacturers. Based on the big data of the eBay platform, they explored high-potential categories with strong development momentum and low penetration rate of Chinese sellers, provided sellers with an exclusive category development guide, and provided guidance on how to develop cross-border e-commerce business to the manufacturers present.

Technology-based consumer electronics

Technology-based electronic consumer products cover categories such as communication equipment, IT equipment, consumer electronics, large appliances, and small appliances. In 2019, the global market size will reach an unprecedented $1.03 trillion, and the online transaction rate continues to rise, with huge potential.

Communication equipment, IT equipment and consumer electronics products are characterized by rapid product updates, high demand and online sales as the absolute mainstream, and have been the categories that Chinese sellers have invested heavily in over the years.

The stereotype that home appliances are mainly sold in physical stores is undergoing a profound change. It is estimated that one-third of home appliances in the North American market were sold online in 2018, and this figure will rise to 40% in two years. According to eBay platform data, in terms of growth rate, driven by the widespread acceptance of sweeping robots and cordless vacuum cleaners, the home cleaning products and air conditioners/heaters in home appliances have grown the fastest; followed by large kitchen and bathroom appliances, security and smart home categories. In addition, the demand for small kitchen appliances, such as coffee machines and blenders, is still very strong.

Auto parts category

The auto parts category is one of the most competitive categories on the eBay platform in the market, and it is also the category growth champion in Greater China in the past three years. Auto parts have a very strong product supply advantage in Greater China. China's Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other regions are concentrated automobile manufacturing industry belts. With the increasing maturity of the cross-border e-commerce industry, more and more high-quality core auto parts products can be sold to overseas markets through eBay and gain more price advantages. The biggest opportunity for auto parts sellers in Greater China in the future lies in branded product quality and professional operation and sales. This time, the category manager focused on sharing the expansion opportunities of the auto parts category in the European market.

Home and Garden Category

The home and garden category has always been a pillar category for eBay's global market and Greater China's cross-border e-commerce exports. It has a huge scale and continues to maintain rapid growth.

Home furnishings are the locomotive of growth: the annual consumption of DIY and home improvement products in the United States alone is nearly one trillion US dollars, covering China's traditional foreign trade pillars such as tools, bathroom, lighting/lighting, electrical, and household hardware; and smart homes, as terminal devices of the "Internet of Everything", are being embedded in many scenarios in the home, such as intelligent security monitoring, garden irrigation, lighting/air conditioning, and energy management, creating a new market of hundreds of billions of US dollars in a few years. These business opportunities are superimposed on the rapid shift of home purchasing behavior to online purchases.

The home furnishing category focuses on indoor furniture and home textiles - these two categories are in great demand on the eBay platform and are growing rapidly. Furniture and home textiles are traditional Chinese export categories, and 70% of the subcategories on the eBay platform have not been effectively developed by sellers in Greater China. The global furniture market has a huge scale of billions of US dollars and is one of the fastest growing categories in the online market. Products such as bedroom furniture and living room furniture are waiting to be actively developed by sellers. Home textiles are a traditional Chinese foreign trade advantage category, with mature home textile industry belts in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong; and the main markets of the eBay platform - the United States and Europe are one of the markets with the largest demand for home textiles, with a high consumer repurchase rate. Therefore, the market demand for home textile products is highly consistent with the adaptability of sellers' products, and has the advantage of expanding exports through cross-border retail.

Industrial and commercial categories

Industrial and commercial categories are unique in eBay's global market ecosystem:

The customer base is mainly enterprise-level buyers

The products listed include a large number of industrial (such as manufacturing, R&D, construction, farms) and commercial service (such as restaurants, retail, medical/educational institutions, etc.) supplies.

In fact, this is a huge new blue ocean ecosystem. According to Forester's research report, more than 50% of corporate buyers in the United States are gradually shifting their purchases to online, with transaction value exceeding 10 trillion US dollars, and online transactions growing rapidly. 4. The industrial and commercial category is still a category that has implanted "professionalism" into the blood of operations. The public (agent) procurement behavior determines that buyers are more cautious in choosing listing descriptions, certification compliance, and pre-sales/after-sales services. Therefore, large sellers work together with "Chinese brands" in vertical industries to achieve complementary advantages and transform and upgrade to industry experts. This is the only way to achieve long-term success.

Fashion, health and beauty, sports and fitness

These two major categories performed well in various European sites with strong growth rates. Among them, fast fashion women's clothing, beauty DIY care products, anti-aging products, and sports equipment incorporating smart elements, such as smart watches and accessories, are all products with great development potential.