In recent years, demand for cross-border EC has been increasing worldwide, but we understand that there are many concerns when starting a cross-border EC business.

However, there are many positive aspects to a company’s successful overseas expansion, such as greater profits than before and increased confidence in its own marketing.

In this issue, we will introduce seminars where you can gain knowledge about cross-border EC and the advantages and disadvantages of using cross-border EC seminars.

What’s in a Cross-Border Ecommerce seminar, five of them!

Here are five seminars on cross-border EC.

By attending the seminar, you can learn about cross-border EC in a short time and efficiently.

For companies that “want to sell their products overseas and are aiming to enter the cross-border EC market,” the seminar can be used as a forum for exchanging ideas and expanding business.

In particular, by attending offline seminars, you are very likely to meet others who are in the same situation.

However, it is important to note that there are some low-quality seminars that do not offer much benefit to attendees, such as those that do not provide sufficient insights.

The seminars that will be presented are as follows

• JETRO Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)
• LaunchCart
• J-Grab Corporation
• Beecruise Corporation
• EC no Mikata

Let’s take a closer look starting below.

JETRO Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)

JETRO The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is an independent administrative agency established in 2003 to support the overseas expansion of Japanese SMEs.

We have over 70 international offices.

zWe support import/export between Japan and other countries through our domestic and international networks.

Another attractive feature is that most of the participants in the cross-border EC seminars are structured to attend online, and although the number of participants is limited, there is no fee to attend.

The system is designed to make it easy for those with little or no knowledge of cross-border EC to participate, as it includes the delivery of content called “Cross-border EC First Steps Seminar,” which is easy for even beginners to understand.

LaunchCart

LaunchCart is a cross-border cart system operated by Starfield Corporation.

We support product inventory management and customer service, and we coordinate with warehouses and measure their effectiveness.

It can also support CMS in a wide variety of languages.

Like JETRO Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), LaunchCart offers seminars free of charge for participation and provides information on market trends in various countries.

Many of the cross-border EC seminars are centered on Asia, and are recommended for those who are thinking about using Asian countries as export partners.

J-Grab Corporation

J-Grab Corporation is a company with over 20 years of experience in cross-border e-commerce.

We also have experience in operating platforms that are considered major, such as Yahoo! and eBay.

Seminars are held offline as well as online, and you may find others in the same situation as you.

Most seminars are free of charge, and we regularly hold cross-border EC seminars, and even focusing only on December 2021, a whopping seven seminars were held.

The seminar is suitable for a wide range of participants, from beginners who are new to cross-border EC to practitioners who want to learn more about market trends.

Beecruise Corporation

Beecruise Inc. is a company that has a proven track record of providing extensive support to Japanese companies expanding their business overseas and has helped over 2,700 sites sell their products overseas.

The company has developed a variety of services, including “Buyee Connect,” which allows customers to possess a dedicated overseas cart simply by placing a tag on their own website, and a service for opening a store on the “shopee” website, a platform that is attracting attention overseas.

We are also committed to providing promotional support when companies want to make their original products known abroad, and have conducted numerous seminars related to cross-border e-commerce overseas.

Beecruise, Inc. basically holds seminars on an irregular basis, and on September 29, 2019, it held a seminar called the Shopee co-sponsored webinar.

There is no charge to attend, and it will provide more in-depth knowledge related to sales promotion.

EC no Mikata

EC no Mikata is a portal site for online store management that anyone who operates an online store has surely seen at least once.

EC-no-Mikata makes it easy to search for seminars that meet your company’s objectives by selecting “Search by Category! or “Currently Featured Seminars” to easily find the seminar you are looking for.

The large number of seminars offered allows the participants to choose from a variety of options to select the seminars that interest them.

However, since many of the seminars are centered on domestic sales channels, they may not be suitable for participation as a cross-border EC seminar.

The advantages and disadvantages of taking a seminar on cross-border EC

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of taking a cross-border EC seminar.

Advantages

The benefits of attending a seminar on cross-border EC will focus on the following three areas.

• Knowledge Gained
• Leading to the resolution of questions
• expand your network of contacts

Let’s take a closer look starting below.

Knowledge Gained

By attending a cross-border EC seminar, you can gain knowledge about various aspects of cross-border EC.

The ability to collect the latest market trends in real time enables the company to forecast business strategies ahead of its rivals.

Having access to new and scarce information, rather than old information, will keep your business moving in the right direction.

Leading to the resolution of questions

Attending a seminar takes the form of a face-to-face lecture with a specialized instructor.

Most seminars include time for questions, so you can talk directly to experts about your cross-border EC concerns.

By obtaining advice that cannot be supplemented by the Internet, this will lead to the resolution of questions related to cross-border EC.

expand your network of contacts

Attending seminars is a great way to expand your network of contacts.

The seminar will be a place where people who are interested in cross-border EC and who have the same concerns as you gather, so simply by attending, you are likely to gain information that you could not have obtained on your own.

demerit

This section will focus on two of the disadvantages of taking a seminar on cross-border EC.

• Potentially costly.
• The quality of the seminars attended can be poor.

Let’s take a closer look starting below.

Potentially costly.

If there is a fee to attend the seminar, there will inevitably be a cost burden.

If a high participation fee is requested, this could have a negative impact on expenses.

However, there are many free seminars, such as the cross-border EC seminars introduced above, so there is no need to point out the financial burden in general.

However, in some cases, the sponsor is a conduit to develop this contract, and may be forced to apply for a large fee.

Attendance should also be attentive to the intentions of the organizers of the seminar.

The quality of the seminars attended can be poor.

There are also low-quality seminars that provide only known information.

Please note that if you do not find meaning in attending a seminar, your time and participation fee will be wasted.

Why is cross-border EC supported?

This section will focus on the following three points to explain why cross-border EC is gaining support.

• Large market size
• Relatively easy to operate a store
• High need for Japanese products

Let’s take a look at each of these.

Large market size

The market size of cross-border EC has further expanded in recent years.

According to a study conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s “International Economic Research Project for Building an Integrated Domestic and Foreign Economic Growth Strategy in Fiscal Year 2022 (Market Research on Electronic Commerce),” while the size of the global cross-border EC market in 2020 was $912.3 billion, by 2027 the size of the cross-border EC market is expected to reach over 4 trillion dollars! The forecast is that by 2027, the size of the cross-border e-commerce market will exceed 4 trillion dollars.

As mentioned above, the market size of cross-border EC has a very high growth rate.

Relatively easy to operate a store

Because cross-border e-commerce involves selling products over the Internet, it is relatively easier to operate than actually developing a store.

Running a physical store requires a great deal of effort.

A great deal of work is involved, for example, in contracting tenants, securing and training human resources, and the need for a large amount of capital to build the store.

However, if you sell your products online, you can eliminate most of the hassles required for a physical store.

Therefore, cross-border EC is a relatively easy sales method to start, even for those who lack confidence in their management skills.

High need for Japanese products

Products manufactured by Japanese companies are in high demand in overseas markets and are likely to yield reliable profits.

The “high quality of Japanese products” is very often cited as the reason why Japanese products are purchased from overseas.

Since there are still only a few Japanese companies trying to enter the cross-border e-commerce market, we can expect further expansion of our business if we can successfully market products that are in high demand overseas.

summary

In this issue, we have introduced seminars where you can gain knowledge about cross-border EC and the advantages and disadvantages of using cross-border EC seminars.

First-time attendees of cross-border EC seminars may find it difficult to judge the quality of the content, so it is a good idea to attend more than one seminar.