At the beginning of 2024, the cross-border e-commerce industry swiftly underwent a profound transformation. Mainstream e-commerce platforms such as AliExpress and Temu successively introduced the semi-managed model, sparking a wave of enthusiasm in the cross-border e-commerce realm. In May, following AliExpress and Temu, SHEIN’s “semi-managed” model also made its debut.
Last year, the keyword in cross-border e-commerce was “fully-managed”. However, with the advent of 2024, the “semi-managed model” has become a hot topic within the industry. To meet the diverse needs of more sellers, the semi-managed model emerged, endowing small and medium-sized merchants with greater autonomy. The appearance of this new model has provided opportunities for small and medium-sized merchants to participate, enabling them to seize the opportunity and ride the wave of market dividends, thus emerging as a new competitive focus.
AliExpress is the first platform in the industry to roll out the semi-managed model. As the earliest B2C cross-border e-commerce platform incubated by Alibaba, AliExpress boasts a substantial number of third-party sellers and commodity resources. The sellers themselves possess rich e-commerce operation capabilities. Therefore, the platform mainly undertakes the warehousing, logistics, and after-sales service aspects, while the product pricing power and store operation remain in the hands of the sellers. This has attracted a group of POP sellers originally on AliExpress. By assisting merchants in optimizing the logistics and warehousing links and delivering parcels to overseas consumers more efficiently, it drives the growth of order volume.
On March 15, Temu announced the trial implementation of the semi-managed business on its US site, further expanding the influence of the semi-managed model. Temu’s semi-managed model differs from that of AliExpress. The introduction of Temu’s semi-managed model is primarily aimed at attracting sellers with inventory in overseas warehouses. These sellers can independently handle the logistics fulfillment process, resolving overseas shipping and logistics after-sales issues. However, similar to the fully-managed model, product selection and pricing are controlled by the platform. This is particularly appealing to some sellers with overstocked overseas inventory and a need for inventory clearance.
SHEIN’s semi-managed model officially launched in early May, with the US as the debut site. SHEIN’s semi-managed model is generally more similar to Temu’s. Both target sellers with stock in overseas local markets. Nevertheless, SHEIN has made certain concessions in pricing power, adopting “negotiated pricing”. This will not only attract some seller groups with surplus overseas inventory but also draw in a small number of refined-store sellers, multi-channel operation sellers, and brand-oriented sellers.
In 2023, the fully-managed model was all the rage, with various platforms vying to introduce fully-managed services. However, in 2024, the situation took a dramatic turn, and the semi-managed model has become the new focus, attracting widespread attention. The semi-managed model bestows more autonomy upon sellers who own their own warehouses or possess the experience and ability to deliver goods independently. They can take charge of operation and after-sales logistics on their own. At the same time, this has led to an increased demand for warehouse space. Under the semi-managed model, sellers require high-quality warehouses with ample space, not only for storing goods but also for handling packaging and distribution of parcels.
