AliExpress semi-hosting is fully launched, orders increase, sellers increase inventory

"After joining the semi-hosting, it is common for sales to triple"

“It’s only the first day of semi-hosting and we’ve already received orders!”

"I wanted to test the waters, but now semi-hosting accounts for 80% of my orders."

"How can I join AliExpress semi-hosting now?"

AliExpress's "semi-hosting" has recently become a hot word in the cross-border circle at the beginning of 2024. On January 16, at an AliExpress offline investment promotion meeting in Shenzhen, merchants surrounded the waiter one after another to ask about AliExpress's semi-hosting information. Chen Mingshun, a representative of the first batch of semi-hosting sellers and co-founder of Chushou Technology, shared the company 's huge changes on the stage.

Chushou Technology is a merchant that joined semi-hosting during the trial operation period . Previously, it adopted the traditional business model on AliExpress. After hearing that semi-hosting was specifically designed to solve logistics problems for traditional cross-border sellers, Chen Mingshun immediately decided to join. In just three months, semi-hosting achieved daily sales of over 10,000 orders .

Figure: AliExpress semi-hosting brings growth, and many merchants increase their inventory

At the sharing session , a seller asked how to become a top cross-border e-commerce merchant . Chen Mingshun said: "We only have one experience. When others don't understand and are still hesitating , we have already made plans! "

In Chen Mingshun's view, any new model of an e-commerce platform has a window period of several months for the outside world to understand it . This opportunity is for those merchants who act quickly . The faster they act, the faster they will receive orders . "Semi-hosting is not as complicated as imagined . It is just to upgrade the logistics for merchants , and everything else is the same. "

Another person who took the lead in joining the semi-hosting model is Li Haibo, a post-00s entrepreneur . Li Haibo had only been operating on AliExpress for half a year. Before joining the semi-hosting model, his business had been stable but without significant growth .

"Half-trust is a new model for traditional sellers . Joining is just to take a gamble! " Li Haibo said that after just one month of joining the half-trust model , the sales of his store doubled. With nearly 4,000 orders per day, Li Haibo excitedly said to the AliExpress clerk : "As a new seller, we have overtaken others."

Figure: Semi-hosted sellers posting orders

Recently, AliExpress has significantly increased its efforts to attract investment in semi-hosting services, and the official storekeepers have been encouraging the platform's self-operated sellers to join semi-hosting services. According to media reports, the number of inquiries about semi-hosting services has increased fivefold month-on-month in the past month.

Figure: AliExpress semi-custodial model rights and interests

In 2023, as the "Four Little Dragons Going Overseas" such as Temu, SHEIN, AliExpress, TikTok Shop and other platforms have successively deployed "full hosting", cross-border e-commerce platforms have "rolled" overseas, and the requirements for overseas consumer experience have gradually increased.

In August 2023, AliExpress's semi-hosting service began trial operation . Investment information shows that compared with full hosting, semi-hosting is more flexible. The seller's original operating model remains unchanged, and the warehousing /logistics services are handed over to the platform. The applicable range of goods is also wider.

Figure: Semi-hosted sellers posting orders

Simply put : Sellers operate their own stores (also known as POP stores) as before, including developing new products, communicating with users, etc. The platform solves the logistics fulfillment. Sellers only need to use the semi-hosted backend to publish products.

On January 8, 2024, AliExpress semi-hosting was fully launched, and all newly released products can enjoy semi-hosting services. More merchants have the opportunity to join semi-hosting.

For sellers, semi-managed logistics upgrades are a double-edged sword: logistics upgrades mean faster delivery and are more popular with consumers, but sellers are required to prepare inventory, which creates some pressure for many sellers who previously operated cross-border e-commerce businesses without a source of goods.

However, in the face of the performance growth brought by semi-trusteeship, some sellers expressed that they could accept it.

As usual, Chen Mingshun was the first semi-trusted seller to respond to the changes in warehousing . At the beginning of 2024, he began to look for a new stocking warehouse for semi-trusted. "Last year, when we started semi-trusted, our sales grew rapidly . Our 1,800- square-meter warehouse was definitely not enough. In order to meet the semi-trusted needs, our stocking warehouse needs to be expanded to 4,000 to 5,000 square meters. "

At the semi-hosting investment promotion site in Shenzhen, an auto parts merchant, Mr. Zhang, said that before joining the semi-hosting, the average daily sales of a repair tool product in his store was about US$350. One month after joining the semi-hosting, the average daily sales rose to US$1,100, three times the original amount .

"Sales have increased, but our advertising costs have decreased, and we don't have to worry about complicated logistics issues. So the problem of stocking up is actually not that big of a problem, after all , it's much less of a hassle . " Mr. Zhang said : "Next , I plan to transfer all the products that can be added to the store to half-carry."

AliExpress

Semi-hosting