震坤行陈龙：工业用品跨境产品力致胜 做深比做广更重要

This article summarizes key insights from a speech by Chen Long, Chairman and CEO of ZKH, at the 2022 Global Digital Trade Conference's Cross-border Industrial Internet Summit. Chen shared direction and practical experience for cross-border expansion of industrial goods, arguing that product strength is the core competitive advantage, deep market penetration is more valuable than broad surface expansion, and the optimal path is "cross-border trade + cross-border manufacturing".

1. Industry trend outlook: China's industrial manufacturing sector has entered an era of exporting manufacturing capacity, shifting from pure product exports to global manufacturing serving global demand — an inevitable trend of economic development. For cross-border expansion of industrial goods, the core competitive advantage lies in product strength, rather than offline services.

2. Practical takeaways: Sellers should focus on a precise, curated selection of products. Keeping a small number of SKUs for the same application scenario cuts supply chain costs and improves efficiency far more than broad SKU expansion. Brands should move away from the old low-price, low-quality model and build competitiveness through quality and value-for-money. New entrants can prioritize entering smaller non-English speaking markets, which face less competition and allow faster growth. Firms must also familiarize themselves with local regulations and achieve compliance in advance. The performance of ZKH's own branded personal protective equipment (PPE) line confirms that premium, patent-protected products grow faster and are more likely to capture top market positions.

This speech provides trend analysis and practical direction for cross-border industrial goods brands, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Industry and consumer trends: China's industrial manufacturing industry has entered a new phase of exporting manufacturing capacity, and the shift from pure export trade to global manufacturing and global service is an inevitable trend. Overseas B2B clients are increasingly demanding supply chain stability and localized services, and some are willing to pay a premium for local supply, creating new market opportunities.

2. Product R&D and selection direction: Brands need to abandon the traditional low-price, low-quality competition path and build competitiveness around core product strength. Selection should focus on precision and curation: keep only a small number of SKUs per application scenario to optimize supply chain costs and efficiency. Prioritizing patented, technically advanced, high-quality products makes it easier to win B2B client approval and achieve rapid growth.

3. Channel entry and risk notes: New market entrants can prioritize small non-English speaking regions in Europe and the US, where competition is limited and growth is faster. Firms need to prepare for compliance in advance and familiarize themselves with each country's regulatory requirements. Small and medium-sized brands can expand collectively via cross-border service platforms to reduce the cost and risk of independent expansion.

This speech outlines clear trends and practical experience for cross-border industrial goods sellers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Trends and opportunities: Cross-border expansion for industrial goods has upgraded from pure trade export to exporting manufacturing capacity, and global manufacturing serving global demand is an inevitable trend. Against the backdrop of current external changes, localized manufacturing is increasingly favored by clients, creating abundant new market opportunities.

2. Market entry opportunities: Sellers looking to expand overseas can prioritize small non-English speaking countries in regions such as Europe. These markets have lower competition, better overall growth prospects, and make it easier to scale quickly.

3. Experience and risk warnings: Selection should stick to precision and curation; avoid盲目铺SKU。Keep only a small number of SKUs per application scenario to optimize supply chain costs and efficiency. Abandon the old low-price, low-quality path, and compete based on quality and value-for-money. Prepare compliance for different target markets in advance to address the fragmentation of national regulations. Small and medium-sized sellers can expand collectively via cross-border service platforms to effectively reduce the cost and risk of independent expansion.

This speech provides clear direction for Chinese industrial manufacturing factories looking to expand overseas, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Industry trends and business opportunities: Chinese industrial manufacturing has entered a new phase of exporting manufacturing capacity. The shift from pure export product sales to local manufacturing serving local overseas clients is an inevitable trend. Overseas clients are demanding higher supply chain stability and faster delivery, and increasingly prefer local supply, creating new opportunities for Chinese manufacturing capacity to expand overseas.

2. Product production and design direction: The core competitiveness of export products is product strength. Factories should focus on improving product quality and technical content, developing premium patented products, and shedding the old low-price, low-quality label. Selection should be refined and precise; avoid盲目 expanding into too many product categories. Focusing on a small number of products per application scenario makes it easier to control costs and win client approval.

3. Expansion path insights: Independent expansion for small and medium-sized factories comes with high costs and large risks. These factories can expand collectively via cross-border industrial service platforms, sharing the platform's compliance, sales and manufacturing resources. This model supports both trade-based expansion and localized overseas manufacturing via the platform, effectively lowering the barrier to entry for cross-border expansion.

This speech reveals industry trends, client pain points and development directions for service providers in the industrial cross-border expansion space, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Industry development trends: Cross-border expansion of industrial goods has entered a new phase, shifting from pure cross-border trade to a combined model of cross-border trade plus cross-border manufacturing. Client acceptance of localized manufacturing is rising, and demand from small and medium-sized manufacturers for collective expansion is growing rapidly, leaving significant room for future growth for cross-border service platforms.

2. Core client pain points: When small and medium-sized Chinese manufacturing factories expand independently, they face high compliance barriers, fragmented national regulations, high expansion costs and large risks. Single factories struggle to meet the dual demand for trade expansion and localized overseas capacity layout. As B2B clients raise requirements for supply chain stability, they also need supporting services from third-party providers.

3. Development directions for service providers: Providers should strengthen their compliance service capabilities to help partners navigate the regulations and supply chain challenges of different countries. They should also build a service model that supports both trade-based expansion and shared overseas manufacturing, enabling high-quality industrial clusters to expand collectively to meet market demand.

For marketplace players operating in the cross-border industrial goods space, this speech shares the following key insights:

1. Core market demand for platforms: A large number of small and medium-sized industrial manufacturers currently have cross-border expansion demand, but single-firm expansion carries high costs and high risks. They need platforms not only to support trade-based expansion, but also to connect overseas manufacturing resources to enable localized production. The core opportunity for platforms lies in aggregating industrial resources to lead collective expansion for enterprises.

2. Platform operation direction: Platforms should adhere to the product-first strategy, guide participating merchants to refine and deepen their product selection, avoid盲目 expanding categories and scale, and encourage merchants to develop high-quality, technically advanced premium products. Keeping a small number of SKUs per application scenario improves overall supply chain efficiency and reduces costs.

3. Market expansion and risk mitigation: When expanding into new markets, platforms can prioritize non-English speaking regions, which have limited competition and faster growth. Platforms should build a professional compliance service team familiar with fragmented regulatory requirements across different countries, empower merchants to solve compliance issues, and mitigate compliance risks. They should also explore a model that supports both cross-border trade and shared cross-border manufacturing, helping merchants achieve global manufacturing and global sales, and enhance the platform's core competitiveness.

This speech proposes new industrial trends, emerging problems and an innovative business model in the field of industrial cross-border expansion, offering high reference value for academic and industry research. Core content is as follows:

1. New industrial trends: Cross-border expansion of Chinese industrial goods has entered a completely new phase. It is no longer just pure product export trade, but has upgraded to the export of Chinese manufacturing capacity, moving toward the overall direction of global manufacturing serving global demand. This is an inevitable result of economic development law, and also aligns with client demand for supply chain stability amid changing international conditions.

2. Emerging industrial problems: Cross-border expansion of industrial goods now faces a host of new problems, including fragmented and rapidly changing regulatory requirements across countries, rising trade barriers, high costs and risks for independent expansion by small and medium-sized manufacturers, and the fact that pure cross-border trade can no longer fully meet overseas clients' demand for localized services.

3. Innovative business model: The speech proposes an innovative cross-border service platform model that combines "cross-border trade + cross-border manufacturing". By aggregating resources from high-quality industrial clusters, the platform enables collective expansion and shared manufacturing, helping enterprises pursue both trade-based expansion and localized overseas manufacturing. This enables the upgrade from "Made in China, sold globally" to "Chinese companies manufacture globally, sell globally", while also validating the feasibility of the path of curated product selection and product-driven competition.