Frual Qiaotuntun: Sellers No Longer Ask If Black Friday Will Go Viral, They Care More About Operating Efficiency Gains | Black Friday Micro-Interview

【Ebrun Original】Although Black Friday is a seasonal promotion, what truly tests sellers is their fundamental skills. Winning Black Friday isn't just about sales volume; the real valuable growth lies in sustained conversion after the event ends. Frual Qiaotuntun is a seasoned direct WOOT supplier. According to Wilson, its China General Manager and Senior Partner, leveraging comprehensive operational capabilities to help sellers improve overall operating efficiency beyond sales growth is the most important focus this year.

Promotional spending isn't about spending more; it's more important to invest accurately where genuine conversion can be generated. Wilson observed that sellers have become more rational and more professional. Refined operations are becoming an increasingly important business topic, and the deepening application of AI in actual business is bringing new variables to competition. In this all-around test for enterprises, Wilson believes that to achieve incremental growth, coordinated efforts across promotional resources, advertising operations, and AI capabilities are needed, rather than working in isolation.

Qiaotuntun has strengthened its national market layout this year to understand the actual needs of customers in various regions. In terms of service capability, it has increased advertising support for Amazon sellers, strengthened the synergy between WOOT and advertising, and boosted customer confidence in investment amid fierce peak-season traffic competition. In terms of AI capability, Qiaotuntun is advancing six major AI products into real business scenarios, thereby focusing more energy on customer capability building.

As the year-end peak promotion season arrives, Ebrun has specially curated the "Striving for Results · 2026 Cross-Border E-Commerce Black Friday Peak Season" feature, inviting overseas brands and service providers for a series of interviews to discuss how enterprises can respond to market competition changes, plan for the Black Friday peak season, and convert peak-season traffic into long-term brand value. Below is the conversation between Ebrun and Wilson, China General Manager and Senior Partner of Frual Qiaotuntun, edited and organized.

Ebrun: Compared to last year, has your investment in preparation this year increased, remained flat, or decreased? Why?

Wilson: Our overall investment has further increased this year. But the investment is not just about adding manpower; it's more about national market layout, AI tools, advertising operations, and customer service capabilities.

We have been deeply engaged in WOOT business since 2018 and have served a large number of Amazon sellers. The longer we do it, the more we feel that Black Friday cannot be won with a last-minute sprint. Previously, everyone might have focused more on event prices and registration resources; now it increasingly tests a company's comprehensive operational capabilities, including products, inventory, advertising, and sustained operations after the event.

During peak season, sales volume is the battleground, but behind it is actually the fundamental skills of ordinary days.

Ebrun: What goals have you set for the Black Friday peak season? What breakthroughs are you most looking forward to achieving?

Wilson: This year, our greatest focus is not just helping customers achieve sales growth during Black Friday, but more importantly helping customers improve overall operating efficiency. Especially in terms of continuous WOOT promotions, advertising follow-through, and AI-assisted operations, we hope to see more customers truly combine these capabilities.

We often tell our team that a well-run event is important, but if after the event the product can continue to run and advertising can continue to bring effective conversion, that is more valuable growth.

So the breakthrough we most look forward to this year is helping more sellers move from "participating in an event" to "establishing a sustainable growth method."

Ebrun: What important layouts or adjustments have you made to welcome this year's Black Friday peak season?

Wilson: This year we have mainly laid out plans around three directions.

First, a nationwide service layout. We continue to expand into key cross-border e-commerce markets nationwide, strengthen regional team building, bring services closer to sellers, and enable us to understand the actual needs of customers in different regions more promptly.

Second, strengthen the synergy between WOOT and advertising, and launch peak-season advertising incentive policies. This year we have further increased advertising support for Amazon sellers and introduced a phased advertising expense subsidy policy. For eligible customers, advertising expenses can receive up to 50% subsidy.

Our starting point is simple: peak-season traffic competition is fierce, and sellers need to seize promotional opportunities while controlling customer acquisition costs. Through advertising incentives, we hope to give customers more confidence to invest while improving the efficiency of advertising budget use.

Third, continue to advance AI capability building. We are promoting the application of six major AI core products in real business scenarios, covering market analysis, business judgment, operational efficiency, and other directions. In the past, many things required experience and repeated manual processing; now we hope to let data and AI undertake more analysis and assisted execution, so the team can focus on truly important customer decisions.

Ebrun: What obvious market changes and competitive trends have you felt this year?

Wilson: We have felt three changes deeply.

First, sellers are increasingly rational and increasingly professional. Previously, many customers would ask right away: "Will participating in the event make sales go viral?" Now it's different. Many sellers proactively study WOOT tactics, successful cases, advertising investment, inventory turnover, and sustained performance after the event.

This shows that sellers no longer focus only on the results of a single promotion, but pay more attention to the entire business process.

Second, traffic competition increasingly tests refined operations. Promotion is still important, but price advantage alone is no longer enough. How to effectively convert traffic brought by events into sales, and how to balance advertising investment and profit, are becoming increasingly important business topics.

Third, AI is moving from an auxiliary tool to actual business. In the past, everyone mostly used AI to write copy and produce reports; now they have begun exploring letting AI participate in market judgment, advertising optimization, and business execution.

I think this is a very noteworthy change. Future competition is not just about how many resources a company has, but who can more efficiently convert resources into results.

Ebrun: Some people say that this year's Black Friday peak season, the "entry ticket" for merchants is more expensive, requiring more investment and heavier operations. What have you observed?

Wilson: I think there is some truth to this statement, but it needs to be understood from a different angle. What has truly become more expensive may not be a particular promotional fee, but the comprehensive capability needed to achieve effective growth.

From our observations, the pressure sellers face during peak season is not just promotional fees, but also advertising investment, inventory turnover, and profit margins. But increased investment does not necessarily mean better results. We often encounter situations like this: some sellers are willing to increase advertising budgets, but advertising may not effectively drive volume; some products perform well during the event, but subsequent traffic follow-through is not well handled, making growth difficult to sustain.

So this year we launched an advertising incentive policy to help sellers reduce some investment pressure. But what we emphasize more is that advertising is not about spending more; it's about putting the budget where it can truly bring conversion. The value of service providers in the future should not just be helping sellers obtain promotional resources, but helping them improve overall operating efficiency.

Ebrun: What do you think is the biggest highlight of this year's Black Friday peak season, and where will new incremental growth come from?

Wilson: I think what is worth watching this year is the synergy among promotional resources, advertising operations, and AI capabilities.

In the past, many sellers were used to treating product selection, promotion, advertising, and inventory as relatively independent tasks. But in actual business, we increasingly feel that real growth often comes from the coordination among these links. For example, first use data and AI to help judge product opportunities, use WOOT to create promotional windows, then combine advertising for traffic follow-through, and continuously adjust strategies based on actual sales.

There is a very important change here: AI is gradually moving from a "tool that helps us do things" to an "assistant that helps us judge what to do next." Of course, AI cannot replace all business judgments, but it can help teams discover problems faster, analyze opportunities, and improve decision-making and execution efficiency.

Black Friday is still a sales battle, but the new incremental growth truly worth looking forward to is not just more traffic, but whether companies can use new methods to better operate existing traffic and resources. This is also the direction Qiaotuntun will continue to invest in going forward.

This article was first published on the official website of Ebrun.