ICBE Shenzhen Cross-Border E-Commerce Fair: Niche Platforms Cluster, Traffic Funnels Extend Upstream, Domestic Brands Accelerate Overseas Expansion

【Ebrun Original】“This expo is right on our doorstep, and this is already our third time visiting.” A local Shenzhen cross-border seller told Ebrun. “There have been many variables this year, and frankly, business is still under pressure. Now that it's year-end, besides sourcing products, we also want to see if there are new opportunities, especially in some non-mainstream regional markets and platform channels.”

Not long ago, the ICBE Shenzhen International Cross-Border E-Commerce Trade Expo (referred to as "ICBE Shenzhen") concluded in Futian, Shenzhen. As one of the most influential cross-border e-commerce industry expos in South China in the second half of the year, this event brought together source factories across multiple categories including home goods, 3C electronics, beauty and personal care, and outdoor products, covering currently popular overseas tracks.

At the same time, several leading e-commerce platforms made a concentrated appearance in themed exhibition areas, offering interpretations of market access rules, category support directions, and merchant onboarding strategies for different regional markets. According to the organizer, the expo attracted over 100,000 cross-border e-commerce professionals to the venue for sourcing.

Shenzhen has long been China's "launchpad" for the cross-border e-commerce industry. In the first half of this year, Shenzhen's total import and export volume reached RMB 2.88 trillion, up 33% year-on-year, setting a record high and maintaining its position as the top foreign trade city in the Chinese mainland. Notably, Shenzhen's foreign trade structure is also changing, with branding becoming a significant trend in the first half: the share of exports by Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce proprietary brands rose to 33.7%, 8.8 percentage points higher than the national average.

As a long-established industry expo rooted in Shenzhen, ICBE Shenzhen was founded in 2017 and is one of the earliest professional expos in China themed around cross-border e-commerce. It has also become an important window for observing the development and market trends of the cross-border e-commerce industry. This year's expo likewise featured many noteworthy new phenomena and new trends.

01 "Non-mainstream channels" stand out, emerging regional markets accelerate absorption of new merchants

The biggest highlight of this expo is the high degree of diversification in platform channels. In addition to regulars at cross-border expos such as TikTok Shop, SHEIN, and DHgate, beyond the mainstream platform camp, more "small and beautiful" platforms from niche regional markets—or relatively unfamiliar to cross-border sellers—have begun to emerge in clusters.

According to Ebrun's observations on site, "regional giants" that have gradually built a certain seller base in China shared opportunities in emerging markets such as Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, and Africa at their booths. Even more unusually, many local mid-sized platforms from traditional developed markets have also begun seeking supply chain partners and expanding product supply in China. Some of these platforms' merchant recruitment heads even took the stage at sub-forums to present onboarding policies.

For example, Yandex Market from the CIS market, backed by the largest search engine in CIS countries, is Russia's third-largest e-commerce giant after Ozon and Wildberries; Empik, Poland's largest lifestyle retailer with over 70 years of history and annual growth of 50%-60%; Conforama, a long-established French home goods platform with 178 stores and 150 million annual visits, yet currently with only just over 550 active sellers; plus PHH Group, the largest e-commerce platform in the Baltic and Finland region; PcComponentes, Spain's leading 3C platform; bol, the largest local e-commerce platform in the Benelux region; and eMAG, the Eastern European e-commerce giant.

It is worth noting that most of these platforms' China recruitment efforts adopt a "lean and light" approach, typically exhibiting jointly with logistics service providers, agency operation service providers, and compliance service providers with regional market capabilities, in order to facilitate matchmaking with domestic suppliers.

ESG Cross-Border is one such typical "aircraft carrier"-type service provider, bridging multiple European platforms and Chinese cross-border sellers at this expo.

"With changes in European compliance requirements and tariff policies in recent years, more and more Chinese sellers have begun to catch up on compliance and deepen local fulfillment. This trend has given many European second-tier platforms a free ride." Zhang Linru from ESG Cross-Border's marketing department told Ebrun. "Mainstream platforms like Amazon and Temu have been encouraging sellers to deepen local operations in recent years. Objectively speaking, the 'professionalization' of the seller community has also created a ripe moment for these European local platforms to recruit in China."

In fact, these niche platforms had previously hoped to enter the Chinese market, but due to concerns about various uncertainties and the lack of convenient commercial pathways, they were never truly able to break through. ESG recognized this commercial gap and focused on cross-border platform store setup and operational enhancement services, and has now established partnerships with over 30 local e-commerce platforms worldwide.

"However, to leverage these blue-ocean platforms to find new growth, one must overcome relatively high barriers—it's not simply a matter of low-price product listing." Zhang Linru acknowledged. "These European 'local incumbents' pay extra attention to sellers' long-term operational capabilities. Only sellers who truly have compliance capabilities and localization willingness better fit their needs."

On the other hand, many sellers at the expo actively inquired about onboarding methods and qualification requirements for these niche channels.

"We previously focused mainly on AliExpress and Temu's European region business. Starting from late last year, at the platforms' request, we rushed to obtain a large batch of compliance qualifications and also secured overseas inventory, spending considerable cost and time." A seller in the audience at a sub-forum said.

"Our thinking is that these qualifications are not only a stepping stone to open the European market but essentially reusable assets. On Temu and AliExpress we sell goods, and on other non-mainstream platforms we also sell goods. The more channels we have, the more we can amortize the upfront localization investment—why not?" he said.

02 Extending toward the front end of the traffic funnel, off-site marketing channels seek to reshape sellers' "traffic playbook"

Another highlight of this ICBE expo is that traffic channels represented by Snapchat and Amazon Ads set up elaborate custom booths prominently right next to industrial belt factories.

At previous expos, traffic service providers played more of a supporting role, and sellers' main visiting agenda was typically finding factories and checking out platforms. But this year, Snapchat not only set up an AR filter interactive experience zone at its booth but also detailed its Map, Chat, Camera, Stories, Spotlight and other signature features and communication scenarios.

Amazon Ads brought "omnichannel marketing" as its theme to the main forum, heavily promoting its DSP advertising business and showcasing a multimedia matrix spanning its own channels such as Prime Video, Twitch, and Amazon Music, to third-party streaming platforms like Netflix and Spotify.

Traffic gatekeepers are no longer just selling ad space; they are trying to change how sellers understand traffic and understand marketing.

"In the past, our China team's client services did focus more on performance advertising, but in the past two years we are shifting toward 'omnichannel marketing, integrating brand and performance'—no longer only running performance ads, but combining brand exposure with camera marketing, chat exposure and other brand tools to cover the full chain from the upper funnel to final conversion." When asked whether Snap as a marketing channel leans more toward "upper-funnel brand exposure" or "direct conversion," Zheng Zengwu, Business Director of New Business at Snap, said.

In fact, Snapchat has always had product capabilities covering the full marketing funnel; it's just that advertiser needs differ across markets: in its home market of Europe and the US, the revenue share contributed by upper-funnel brand advertising is clearly larger than among domestic clients.

He pointed out that Snapchat is essentially a social network based on close-tie relationships, giving it a unique influence over upper-funnel traffic arenas: users see good products on the Discover page or in native content scenarios, share them with friends and family via chat to seed interest; in the camera, they use AR Shopping Lenses to try on clothes, makeup, accessories, and products. Data shows that 80% of US users say they get shopping inspiration and convert via Snapchat.

Moreover, Snapchat is now 15 years old, and its earliest heavy users have grown up with the platform and now entered age brackets with considerable spending potential—worth cross-border advertisers rediscovering. It is no longer merely the "teen subculture platform" of past stereotypes, but truly one of the bellwethers that can sway the shopping interests of millennials and Gen Z trendsetters.

Beyond that, another important advantage of Snapchat's audience profile is its "uniqueness."

Zheng Zengwu revealed that among US users aged 16 and above, Snapchat's audience has a high degree of non-overlap with other mainstream social media platforms. In other words, blue-ocean audiences that are hard to reach on other social platforms can be further tapped through this platform. Data shows that Snapchat can help brands gain 5 times more active attention than the average of other social platforms, and 2.3 times more organic brand awareness than other feed-based social platforms.

On the other hand, Snapchat's traffic footprint has long extended beyond Europe and the US. In India, Snapchat currently has 250 million monthly active users. In the Middle East, it is roughly on par with Europe and the US in scale, all being its most "dominant" markets.

Especially in Saudi Arabia, Snapchat's user penetration rate stands head and shoulders above other mainstream social media. "You can think of us as 'the WeChat and Xiaohongshu of the Middle East'—it has both everyday close-tie social interactions and content discovery and product seeding attributes." Zheng Zengwu remarked.

Taking Saudi Arabia's population of about 36 million as an example, Snapchat's monthly active users reach about 26 million—basically one per person. In the greater Middle East region, on average one in three people has installed and uses it; in Gulf countries, users open it as many as 50 times a day.

Regarding Black Friday promotions, Zheng Zengwu also shared differentiated marketing recommendations with sellers based on Snapchat's traffic insights: in the US, sell "lifestyle + scenarios"; in the Middle East, sell "status symbols + festive culture."

US hit products are closely tied to lifestyle: apparel and footwear, gardening and home goods, in-car small appliances, etc.—the key is having clear consumption scenarios. In fragmented information feeds, Americans are more easily moved by "what state/style it gives after use, and where it sits at home." Middle East hot categories focus on status symbols, festive needs, and local culture: for example, high-end appliances, decorative items, gold jewelry, festive supplies, traditional clothing, etc.

03 Domestic brands explore overseas expansion: pursuing both self-operated stores and distribution

In 2026, many cross-border platforms began turning their gaze toward domestic e-commerce brands to find growth and expand supply.

For example, Shopee and Lazada both launched "one-click lightweight overseas expansion" solutions, attempting to recruit domestic brands that have already honed mature operational capabilities within the Taobao and Douyin ecosystems but have not yet entered overseas markets, pushing the Southeast Asian market toward them.

At the expo, Ebrun also spotted many such cases.

"We have now opened self-operated brand stores on mainstream platforms in Southeast Asia." A staff member at the booth of personal care appliance brand Riwa told Ebrun. "Stock competition in the domestic market is intensifying, and Southeast Asia, as one of the closest overseas destinations to China, has seen platforms launch support policies in recent years that lower the threshold for testing the waters. We are very willing to step in ourselves to accelerate the process of exploring overseas markets."

However, for Riwa, expanding an overseas distributor network remains the primary path for going global. Its core objective in coming to this ICBE expo was also to find more potential partners in markets such as Europe, the US, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

From on-site observations, the distribution logic of traditional trade remains the main strategy for many Chinese brands going global: before localization operations have accumulated sufficient resources, pursuing both "self-operated stores" and "finding distributors"—the former handles experimentation and trial-and-error, while the latter carries the main volume.

In the short term, for these brands with manufacturing foundations and proven hit products, finding a reliable "local proxy" may be the more prudent and faster-acting approach. As for whether the brand self-operation route that cross-border platforms are vigorously promoting can truly win over this cohort of established Chinese brands—battle-hardened from involution and highly cautious about operational decisions—and persuade them to step in themselves and proactively build overseas capabilities, that remains to be tested by the market.

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This article was first published on the official Ebrun website.