As consumers continue to shop at overseas online sites, loyalty and repurchase patterns have become key indicators for retailers and brands. To better understand this and other cross-border e-commerce trends, DHgate Group partnered with the University of Hong Kong to release a white paper titled “The Repurchase Revolution in Cross-Border E-Commerce: Consumer Behavior Insights and Market Opportunities.”
The study aimed to suggest strategies to increase shopper loyalty and repeat purchase rates and “provide guidance for the sustainable development of the cross-border e-commerce industry,” the report authors said, adding that the data revealed several challenges to loyalty and repeat purchase behavior.
“These challenges include diversifying user needs, differentiating shopping experiences, and fostering brand loyalty, all of which have become urgent issues that cross-border e-commerce platforms need to address,” the report said.
In response, online wholesale market platform DHgate Group and university experts devised several strategies to increase repeat purchase 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 activities and multi-platform sales channels and reduce operational risks,” the authors said, adding that it is also important to provide traffic support to sellers “to address the contradiction between product homogenization and buyers' personalized demand.”
It also proposed localizing warehousing and logistics. “The long-term goal is to encourage distributors to integrate their industrial chains, set up warehouses overseas, and develop their own logistics systems,” the report said. “The overseas warehousing model can improve the efficiency of logistics contract fulfillment, reduce operational costs, and improve overall fulfillment performance.”
The report also recommended leveraging emerging technologies to help improve business capabilities and reduce operational costs while leveraging economies of scale. The report suggested stepping up research, development and application of “technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and blockchain to improve operational efficiency and optimize user experience.”
