As consumers continue to shop at overseas online sites, loyalty and repurchase patterns have become key indicators for retailers and brands. To gain a deeper understanding of this and other cross-border e-commerce trends, DHgate Group has teamed up with the University of Hong Kong to release a white paper, titled “The Cross-border E-commerce Repurchase Revolution: Consumer Behavior Insights and Market Opportunities.”
The aim of the research is to offer strategies that enhance shopper loyalty and repurchase rates, “providing guidance for the sustainable development of the cross-border e-commerce industry,” the report’s authors said, adding that the data revealed several challenges to loyalty and repurchase behavior.
“These challenges include the diversification of user needs, the differentiation of shopping experiences and the cultivation of brand loyalty — all of which have become pressing issues for cross-border e-commerce platforms to address,” the report noted.
In response, the experts at DHgate Group, the online wholesale marketplace platform, and the university have come up with several strategies to bolster repurchase rates and customer loyalty. The first is to optimize site traffic. “The short-term goal is to optimize traffic attraction and distribution mechanisms to support sellers’ branding efforts and multiplatform sales channels, thereby reducing operational risks,” the authors said adding that it is also important to provide sellers with traffic support “to address the conflict between product homogenization and buyers’ personalized demands.”
They also suggested localizing warehousing and logistics. “The long-term goal is to encourage sellers to integrate their industrial chains, establish overseas warehouses and develop their own logistics systems,” the report stated. “The overseas warehouse model can improve logistics contract fulfillment efficiency, reduce operating costs and enhance overall fulfillment performance.”
The report also recommended leveraging emerging technologies to help refine operational functions and cut operating costs while taking advantage of economies of scale. They suggested strengthening research, development and application “of technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and blockchain to improve operational efficiency and optimize user experience.”
