Wuhu, known as the “City of Cars,” is bisected by the Yangtze River. The west bank is lined with high-rise residential buildings, while the east bank is crowded with auto parts factories.
In 1997, Chery Automobile was established on a barren riverside beach along the Yangtze River. Today, more than 800 auto parts companies surround Chery’s headquarters, collectively supporting Wuhu in forming the most complete automotive industry chain system in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Driving southeast from the city center for about an hour, you enter Wanzhi District, where the streets are new, wide, and straight. Although it was already early November, the vegetation along the road was still lush and green. Here, there is not only a university town and new urban resettlement areas but also over 200 auto parts manufacturing factories.
Unlike the original manufacturers that primarily produced parts for Chery, the auto parts enterprises in Wanzhi District mainly produce parts for European, American, Japanese, and Korean car models and sell their products worldwide. According to customs statistics, the export value of Wanzhi District’s auto parts industry reached 4 billion yuan in 2023.
Since 2020, auto parts companies in Wanzhi District have begun to engage in cross-border e-commerce, with annual sales now reaching 1 billion yuan. How did these companies start their cross-border e-commerce businesses? How did they achieve such rapid growth in such a short time?
The formation of the auto parts industrial belt in Wanzhi District can be traced back to the establishment of the Wanzhi Development Zone. The investment promotion policies at the time attracted auto parts companies from Zhejiang. These companies, which were relatively small in scale, found it difficult to secure sufficient development space in highly competitive industrial clusters and hoped to seek better opportunities through “relocation.” Wanzhi District, with its well-developed supporting facilities for the auto parts industry and preferential policies in the development zone, attracted many auto parts factories and integrated trading companies to “settle” there collectively.
These auto parts companies primarily relied on offline exhibitions to acquire customers, but cross-border e-commerce has opened a new door for them.
In 2016, some Wuhu companies, represented by small household appliances such as robot vacuum cleaners and vacuum cleaners, took the lead in starting cross-border e-commerce businesses. Looking back, they laid a solid foundation for the cross-border e-commerce path of Wanzhi’s auto parts industry. During the pandemic in 2020, more companies shifted their focus to online transactions, leading to a brief boom in cross-border e-commerce in Wuhu. Auto parts companies in Wanzhi District entered the field one after another, attempting cross-border e-commerce businesses primarily targeting C-end customers on top of their existing B-end foreign trade operations.
“You don’t know until you try; only after doing it did we realize that cross-border e-commerce is a viable path,” said an e-commerce manager of an auto parts company. Due to high labor costs in Europe and America, DIY culture is prevalent. For Europeans and Americans, repairing cars themselves is not only part of daily life but also a source of satisfaction and fun. The e-commerce manager mentioned that collision parts, wear-and-tear parts, and modification parts are all popular on Amazon US.
In 2023, Wuhu’s cross-border e-commerce sales reached 6.5 billion yuan, of which consumer goods like small household appliances accounted for about 2 billion yuan, followed closely by auto parts at 1 billion yuan. This fully demonstrates the great potential of the “auto parts + cross-border e-commerce” combination. Many people joke that Wuhu’s auto parts cross-border e-commerce has a “late-mover advantage,” starting late but achieving rapid results.
Accurately identifying market demand is only the first step for Wanzhi’s auto parts companies to start cross-border e-commerce. To truly complete the entire chain from production and manufacturing to online transactions and delivery of goods to overseas end-users, support in policies, talent, logistics, and other aspects is essential.
According to publicly available information on the Wanzhi District People’s Government website, based on the “Several Policies to Support the Development of Rural E-commerce, Live Streaming E-commerce, and Cross-border E-commerce” issued by Wanzhi District, the government encourages e-commerce enterprises, including individual businesses, to set up operational teams in Wanzhi. Companies are provided with a one-time job subsidy of 5,000 yuan per person for associate degree holders or higher. During the policy implementation period, the cumulative subsidy for a single enterprise can reach up to 300,000 yuan.
Since 2020, the Wanzhi District Commerce Bureau has repeatedly organized cross-border e-commerce training courses, inviting representatives from platforms like eBay and Alibaba International Station, as well as cross-border e-commerce experts, to provide on-site training for local enterprises. They explain the development trends and operational models of cross-border e-commerce using practical cases, offering “methodologies” for companies interested in or just starting cross-border e-commerce.
At the Lin’an (Wuhu) Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park on Wulin Road in Wanzhi District, we saw warehouses of several courier companies, including JD com, SF Express, J&T Express, and the “three express companies and one delivery service,” arranged neatly. Conveyor belts inside the warehouses operated in an orderly manner. After scanning, sorting, leaving the warehouse, and loading, the packages on the conveyor belts will be transported to transfer stations, ports, and airports, eventually shipped to destinations around the world.
“With people, goods, and logistics, an ecosystem is formed,” said Wang Cheng, general manager of Lin’an Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park. Lin’an Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park is one of Wuhu’s first municipal-level cross-border e-commerce industrial parks, providing integrated services such as commercial office space, product display, warehousing and logistics, talent training, technical exchange, entrepreneurial financing, and supporting living facilities for cross-border e-commerce enterprises.
Currently, Lin’an cooperates with multiple cross-border e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Alibaba International Station, eBay, and Shopee, providing logistics services for about 85% of the auto parts enterprises in Wanzhi District. Every year, 4-5 million tons of auto parts products are shipped from the Lin’an Logistics Park.
Lin’an also collaborates with professional associations in other provinces and cities. For example, it partners with the Shenzhen Cross-border E-commerce Association to attract Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce enterprises to build factories and warehouses in Wuhu, reducing land costs. It also organizes personnel to learn operational and design skills from Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce enterprises and then shares these experiences with more local Wuhu cross-border e-commerce companies to address talent shortages.
The auto parts manufacturing company “Hetian” started cross-border e-commerce in 2020, successively opening stores on Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba International Station, selling repair parts for the chassis control arms of “BBA” (BMW, Benz, Audi) and other European and American car models to the North American market. In 2023, Hetian’s cross-border e-commerce sales were $2 million. Although this volume is not large compared to its traditional foreign trade sales of 300 million yuan, it represents new growth outside Hetian’s traditional business.
Hetian’s cross-border e-commerce manager stated that, considering advertising effectiveness, sales volume, and profit comprehensively, the company’s Amazon store performs the best. In the future, the company will gradually close its eBay and Alibaba International Station stores and focus on Amazon.
Another anonymous auto parts manufacturing company started cross-border e-commerce in October 2021. Their main products are chassis parts and power steering pumps for European and American car models. Currently, the company has stores on Amazon and eBay, with an average order value of $70-100, a net profit of about 10%, and an annual turnover of 4-6 million yuan. Its e-commerce manager said that, compared to other platforms, the company’s sales performance on Amazon is currently better.
Previously, most auto parts companies relied on participating in exhibitions to expand their B-end customer base. After starting cross-border e-commerce businesses, they joined platforms facing a large number of C-end users, making operations, live streaming, short videos, and advertising new things they had to engage with.
“Unlike traditional B2B business, cross-border e-commerce requires continuous spending on marketing, which is a bottomless pit,” said Hetian’s cross-border e-commerce manager.
The manager mentioned that the company currently uses a pay-per-sale model for promoted payments on eBay. For example, the company sets an 8% advertising rate; after an order is completed, eBay charges an 8% advertising fee based on the transaction amount. The higher the advertising rate percentage, the better the effect. On Amazon, it’s a pay-per-click model; Amazon charges only when consumers click on ads. The company sets a daily limit for Amazon’s click charges; the higher the limit, the greater the click-through rate, and the better the effect.
Unlike the two companies mentioned above, “Youfan” started with cross-border e-commerce and later transformed into an integrated industrial and trading enterprise. It has over ten brands, operating in categories such as filters and other internal engine components, with more than ten OEM factories in Wanzhi.
Filters are consumable and wear-prone parts that need replacement every 3-6 months, with high repurchase rates and profit margins of 10%-20%. Currently, Youfan primarily targets European and American markets, mainly operating stores on Amazon, with smaller presence on eBay, Alibaba International Station, AliExpress, and local e-commerce platforms. In 2023, Youfan’s cross-border e-commerce transaction volume reached 100 million yuan.
Youfan, with its cross-border e-commerce DNA, is not satisfied with merely platform-based advertising but engages in marketing across multimedia channels. Each year, Youfan’s marketing costs account for 20%-30% of its total sales costs. “Sometimes we promote a specific product and hope to attract a large number of customers in a short time. Relying solely on Amazon for advertising is quite limited, so we also run ads on Google or collaborate with influencers on Facebook and TikTok to post and drive traffic,” said Prentiss, project manager of Youfan’s filter series.
Additionally, since 2017, Youfan has used short videos to run, allowing users to more intuitively understand the differences between Youfan’s products and others on the market. Prentiss shared with Yibang Power the most successful short video marketing case of Youfan:
Youfan independently developed a filter priced at $30 per unit. The video promoted it as a cost-effective alternative to the original equipment manufacturer part from the “Fleetguard” brand, which costs $80. This campaign once drove its market share to 80%. This even led Fleetguard to “counter,” claiming that they would not compensate for any engine issues caused by using Youfan’s products. Youfan also emphasized that they had promised customers from the beginning that the company would compensate for any damage caused to users’ vehicles by using Youfan’s filters. This back-and-forth “feud” further expanded the product awareness of Youfan.
Prentiss mentioned that currently, companies opening stores on Amazon have registered brands, but these brands are only tools to meet platform access standards and are not promoted as brand images. “Building a brand is a long-term process. Only when the customer base is large enough can we understand their most immediate needs, extend to different categories and car models, and form a brand effect.”
