On the territory of cross-border e-commerce, Chinese sellers are quietly “changing channels.”
In the past year, as competition in the European and American markets intensified and tariffs and rules continued to tighten, a group of cross-border sellers who were originally deeply involved in mature markets began to set their sights on the Russian-speaking market, which is still in the growth stage.
Recently, at the 2026 Ozon Global Investment Launch Conference held in Xiamen, this change was amplified – the venue was packed with sellers, not only to learn about a platform, but also to find the next certain growth direction.
“In the past year, many sellers who originally worked in the European and American markets have switched to the Russian-speaking market.” Huang Xiao, President of Ozon Greater China, said bluntly in an interview with the media.
In his view, there is a more realistic logic behind this migration – wherever there is profit and growth, sellers will go there.
Cross-border sellers turn: from “price reduction” to “finding incremental growth”
In the past few years, China’s cross-border e-commerce has experienced a round of rapid expansion. However, as the European and American markets mature and competition continues to intensify, “involution” has become a common feeling among sellers.
On the one hand, changes in tariff policies and platform rules continue to raise the threshold; on the other hand, price competition continues to compress profit margins, and “where to find new growth” has become a real problem facing sellers.
In Huang Xiao’s view, this round of seller migration essentially follows the simplest business logic – “Sellers will definitely go to markets with profits and growth.”
Compared with mature markets, e-commerce in Russian-speaking areas is still in a stage of rapid growth.
In 2025, the number of active buyers on the Ozon platform will reach 65.1 million, and the per capita annual order volume will reach 38. The number of users and the frequency of consumption continue to increase.
More importantly, this market has not yet fully entered “stock competition.”
“In the CIS market, it is more about incremental growth rather than volume.” Huang Xiao said that under the background that Chinese sellers have accumulated mature operating experience on global platforms, entering emerging markets has formed a “dimension reduction strike” to some extent – the addition of incremental market dividends from mature tactics makes this turn realistically attractive.
From distribution to refinement: two types of sellers are running out
The market is changing, and sellers’ strategies are also being reshaped simultaneously.
From the observation of the Ozon platform, there are currently two types of “faster” groups of Chinese sellers: one is multi-SKU sellers with refined operations, relying on the advantages of the industrial supply chain to cover demand through enriching SKUs and price competitiveness; the other is branded sellers, targeting local middle-class and high-income people, establishing advantages through quality, service and brand premium.
“Cost-effectiveness is still an important feature of the Russian-speaking market.” Huang Xiao mentioned that among a large number of users in small and medium-sized cities and sinking markets, there is still a strong demand for cost-effective products; at the same time, among high-income people, the weight of brand and quality is rising.
The parallelism of the two types of sellers actually corresponds to a deeper shift in China’s cross-border e-commerce – from the early “distributing goods overseas” to gradually moving toward “refined operations” and “brand building” in parallel.
What supports this shift is the upgrade of the capability system.
Huang Xiao mentioned in the interview that AI, brand and compliance are becoming the three watersheds for sellers’ competition in 2026: AI is helping sellers automate product selection, localized content generation and customer service, significantly reducing operating costs; brand has become the key to building awareness among massive SKUs and increasing repurchase; and compliance has changed from an “optional” in the past to a “basic line” that affects the survival of enterprises.
“Many companies may lose their market overnight due to compliance issues.” He said bluntly.
Not just “low prices”: Chinese goods are reshaping overseas perceptions
Changes on the demand side are also reshaping the logic of competition.
A survey of Russian consumers by Ozon showed that 73% of the respondents believed that the quality of Chinese products has improved in the past five years, and more than 60% of consumers expected to increase the proportion of purchases in the future.
At the same time, young people’s perception of Chinese products is shifting from “affordable” to “highly cost-effective, modern in design and even technological.”
This means that Chinese products in overseas markets are getting rid of the single “low price tag” and turning to the comprehensive competition of “price + quality + brand”.
In the process, the role of platforms is also changing.
At this investment conference, reporters saw that Ozon demonstrated not only the traffic entrance, but also a set of infrastructure capabilities around sellers, including logistics fulfillment, payment settlement, ERP tools, and localized marketing resources.
By cooperating with local social platforms to introduce live broadcast and KOL resources, the platform is trying to complete the key link of “localized marketing”.
In Huang Xiao’s view, the core of the platform lies in “ecological integration around sellers’ business needs.”
When cross-border e-commerce enters a new stage, the competition is no longer just about traffic acquisition capabilities, but also complete service systems and ecological synergy capabilities.
It is not difficult to see from this investment conference in Xiamen that with the changes in the competitive environment of cross-border e-commerce, Chinese sellers’ overseas paths are being adjusted.
As the European and American markets mature and emerging markets accelerate their growth, the rebalancing of incremental space, operational capabilities and compliance requirements may become an important variable in the cross-border e-commerce industry in the future.
