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CHINA: On 15th April 2022, Una Brands held our first Amazon seller meetup in Shenzhen, Cross-Border Ecommerce | The Inside Scoop, to connect with Chinese brand owners and introduce Una’s business model. Despite being the first of its kind, the event received full-house attendance, and featured a power-packed speaker lineup including Founders of brands acquired by Una, senior ecommerce industry investor, Zhou Shengwen, and a representative from Fintech company Airwallex.
Following significant investment into cross-border ecommerce in recent years, today’s brand owners are faced with a plethora of challenges as they struggle to remain competitive. Cross-Border Ecommerce | The Inside Scoop offered a new perspective on these challenges, where we delved into how brands can continue to profit post-acquisition and benefit from the upside of scaling with ecommerce aggregators’ expertise.
Event Highlights
Our event line-up included engaging, interactive sessions with industry leaders whose backgrounds ranged from Venture Capital to cross-border payments. Attendees also had the chance to have their questions about Una’s acquisition process answered by our team, and hear directly from 2 of the Founders of our acquired brands regarding their experience with Una.
Rachelle Wu
Senior Associate, Una Brands (China Acquisitions)
Topic: The Ins-and-Outs of Cross-Border Ecommerce M&A
Started at the bottom and now we’re here: Rachelle outlined the process of exiting a brand via M&A through an in-depth analysis of 200-300 boutique sellers. From the purchase and sale of cross-border brands to what goes into the valuation of brands gearing for an exit, her analysis incorporated dimensions like category, growth, and SKU count to demonstrate how brand owners can ride a second wave of growth through an acquisition with Una.
Xu / Luo
Founders of Best-Selling Amazon Brands (Home & Living)
Topic: How I Sold My Amazon Business | Tales from Founders
“Selling your brand is a process of building a relationship with the buying party, and establishing mutual trust and respect.”
Two of the Founders of our acquired brands joined via livestream to share how their perspectives towards an acquisition changed as Una worked with them every step of the way. One of the Founders, Xu, noted that he and his friends had been very apprehensive about the model at first, and had even experienced multiple restless nights after submitting his financial data for Preliminary Due Diligence. However, the thoughtfulness and attention to detail demonstrated by the Una Brands team throughout the entire process reassured him that his brand was in the right hands, which led to his eventual decision to sell to Una.
From Zero to Hero: As businesses ride the cross-border ecommerce wave, how can brands without a track record win over consumers? For Luo, Founder of a boutique Home Appliances brand, the key to success lies in not blindly following trends. “Before hopping on the bandwagon, ensure that you can guarantee the finest product quality for your consumers. Something as small as the design of a button or knob can significantly affect your customer’s experience and damage your reputation. Be diligent — test, gather feedback, iterate, and always invest in ironing out kinks in your logistics to ensure a positive experience for both your team and consumers.”
Zhou Shengwen, Joe
Senior Cross-Border Ecommerce Industry Investor & Entrepreneur
Topic: The Logic Behind Venture Capital and Building Your Long-Term Strategy
“Investing in cross-border ecommerce businesses requires adopting a global perspective, you need to be able to think long-term to determine opportunities to achieve scale.”
A veteran in cross-border ecommerce investments, Joe has worked with both Tier 1 US and China venture firms to invest in numerous cross-border unicorns over the years. Beyond his expertise in investments, Joe also has hands-on experience with SAP consulting, which has enabled him to found his own internet company, Unad Technology, which helps Chinese brands expand through cross-border ecommerce.
Wondering whether your business is worth staying in for the long haul? Joe offered three long-term perspectives on future developments in cross-border ecommerce:
The role of probabilities: In the battle for major sales, brands will need to take a more calculated approach to spending to ensure the highest returns on their cross-border investments
Quality over quantity: As platforms tighten controls on site traffic management, brands should ease away from a “spray and pray” approach with low prices and high traffic, and focus on building high quality relationships with consumers who value the brand and are willing to pay a premium
Finding the balance between product and brand: As new entrants continue to flood the market, brand owners must strive to find the sweet spot between having a great product and building a strong brand that resonates with consumers and secures mindshare
Leeh Li
Account Manager, Airwallex
Topic: A Cross-Border Perspective to Financial Compliance
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