Sales of a single product surpass one million units! A Shenzhen top seller is stealing business from Apple and Sony—what does it rely on to win?

In the cross-border circle, many brands first stabilize their business domestically, then plan to go global, trying to expand into overseas markets and earn revenue from overseas consumers.

This is certainly a major industry trend, but it is not the only path to going global.

In China, there is actually another type of brand,that chose to target overseas markets first from the very beginning, and only later brought a small amount of business back to China.

A consumer electronics brand from Shenzhen that was born to go globalSoundPEATS (Nitan), is a typical representative of reverse overseas expansion.

Image source: Google

This brand has almost no audience base in China,Starting from zero overseas and directly facing international giants like Apple and Sony, how did it manage to break through and achieve annual revenue of over 100 million?

Its development playbook is worth discussing.

Make the impossible possible

Seizing market share from the encirclement of Apple and Sony was something no one believed could be achieved back then.

But SoundPEATS not only envisioned this, it actually did it.

In fact, overseas consumers do not worship big brands that much; instead, a large number of users are unwilling to pay for the premium of high-end brands.

Compared with industry giant brands, they pursue Bluetooth audio devices with good sound quality but a price controlled within the 50 to 100 USD range.

And SoundPEATS, precisely with the positioning of “affordable good sound,” tore open a breakthrough in the overseas audio market.

Image source: Google

According to public information, SoundPEATS was founded in Shenzhen in 2010 by a group of music and urban sports enthusiasts, focusing on cost-effective wireless earphones that suit urban sports crowds and balance sound quality and wearing experience.

In terms of product performance, the brand continues to push technology downmarket, bringing features such as active noise cancellation and high-definition lossless encoding down to price points under 100 USD; later it further brought high-end technologies such as solid-state MEMS units and spatial audio into mid-range products.

This allows overseas consumers to enjoy a good sound quality experience without paying a high cost, and this has also become the core lever for SoundPEATS to enter the track.

At the same time, its earphone products use an ergonomic design, making them comfortable enough to wear during long exercise sessions, with both sound quality and wearing comfort performing well.

With the above multiple product advantages, SoundPEATS has gained recognition from a large number of overseas users, allowing it to compete for market share on the same stage with a host of international brands.

Image source: Google

Multi-channel layout,breakplatform dependence

Creating high-quality products is merely a ticket to market entry.

To get products onto online shelves and offline stores, and drive users from browsing to ordering, improving the channel layout is crucial.

For example, when SoundPEATS officially began going global in 2013, it first landed in five countries—the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, and Italy—starting with Amazon, a third-party e-commerce platform, to build a global sales network.

Image source: Amazon

In 2015, the brand entered the Japanese market, and its products repeatedly made Amazon Japan's electronics category bestseller list and also won Japan's VGP Audio Award.

According to the company's early public promotional claims, by 2017, the parent company's overall sales had exceeded RMB 250 million and had maintained a growth rate of 1.5-2x. The SoundPEATS brand occupied the core business segment and was the absolute main revenue driver.

Image source: Google

Interestingly, the reputation accumulated in the Japanese market in turn boosted trust in the European and American markets. In 2018, SoundPEATS's neckband in-ear headphones Q30 sold more than several million units, winning Amazon's electronics bestseller award in one stroke.

In 2019, the brand launched crowdfunding again. Its TrueEngine2 launched on the Kickstarter platform, attracted more than 12,000 backers, and ultimately raised over USD 1 million.

Image source: Google

While its products were selling well, SoundPEATS further pursued two growth routes:

First, build an independent website system, creating a global main site and regional sub-sites for Japan, Latin America, and other regions. Relying on new product launches, crowdfunding follow-ups, after-sales private domain, and user community accumulation, it formed traffic complementarity with Amazon;

Image source: SoundPEATS

Second, expand offline retail channels, entering large electronics stores in markets such as the Philippines, Singapore, and Dubai, gradually developing offline distributors in Europe and Japan, and getting rid of dependence on a single online platform.

It is precisely this channel strategy of online-offline linkage and public and private domain complementarity that enabled SoundPEATS to break out of the limitations of Amazon as a single platform and continue to gain a firm foothold in overseas markets.

Multidimensional content outreach, covering diverse user groups

With the rise of social media such as TikTok, a large number of overseas consumers have begun to get used to discovering new brands through short videos. How to use platforms such as TikTok to amplify product visibility has also become an important topic for SoundPEATS.

To reach target audiences more broadly and precisely, the brand built a localized account matrix.

In addition to the main TikTok account @SOUNDPEATS, it also set up separate local accounts for markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, the United States, Morocco, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, and Malaysia.

Among them, the account @SoundPEATS Indonesia in the Indonesian market performed the best, with 41,900 followers.

Image source: TikTok

Local Indonesian users place great importance on products being good quality and inexpensive when shopping, but the specific standards for good and cheap differ somewhat from those in China; the core is extremely high price sensitivity, while also caring a great deal about practicality and reputation.

First, price and discounts come first.

Most consumers are very price-sensitive. Before buying, they compare prices across several options, and they especially like products with promotions, discounts, coupons, and free shipping.

To this end, SoundPEATS will regularly carry out livestream selling. For example, during the recent 9.9 promotion, the account @SoundPEATS Indonesia livestreamed continuously from 9.7 to 9.9, repeatedly explaining multiple hit products.

In the livestream room, users can not only buy specially priced products, but the official side also promises warranty and replacement for damaged items, effectively dispelling users' concerns and driving order conversion.

Image source: TikTok

In addition, Indonesian users also value practicality and cost-effectiveness. They attach great importance to whether the product is useful and can meet their actual needs, rather than pursuing so-called brands or high-end products. As long as the product quality is reliable, durable, and matches expected functions, they are willing to try buying it.

Based on this characteristic, @SoundPEATS Indonesia roots its content operations in real-life scenarios, letting potential users intuitively perceive how the product solves daily usage pain points.

Image source: TikTok

Another point that cannot be ignored: overseas consumers care greatly about user reviews and reputation.

Nearly half of overseas consumers make decisions based on other users' reviews and likes on social media, as well as recommendations from trusted influencers. If a product has good reviews and someone recommends it, this will greatly increase their trust.

Naturally, the SoundPEATS brand also actively engages in deep cooperation with a large number of digital vertical influencers.

One very typical example is @Domingo Gomes, who has 1.3 million followers on TikTok. He is a very popular tech blogger, and many new digital products invite him to review and explain them.

Image source: TikTok

In the 2 short videos cooperated with the SoundPEATS brand, the influencer intuitively demonstrated core performance such as battery life and sound quality, clearly explained the product's target audience, and helped users judge whether it was worth buying.

Since release, the 2 videos have respectively achieved 1.1 million and 602,600 views, with likes of 108,900 and 40,400 respectively, showing excellent promotion results.

This kind of content relying on influencer endorsement can help the brand attract a large number of potential users to try purchasing, gradually accumulate them into loyal users, and continuously increase repeat purchases.

Conclusion

Looking at the SoundPEATS brand's overseas development path, there are several points that can definitely be learned from and referenced.

First: prioritize overseas first, then flow back to the domestic market.

Going overseas first and then domestic can instead avoid the fiercest head-on competition, using overseas results to endorse the domestic market.

Second: deepen cultivation across all online and offline channels.

For brands going overseas, channel diversification is not just a matter of selling more goods; it is also a key step to diversify risk and get closer to users.

Third: establish corresponding social media accounts for different markets, and then operate them according to local users' consumer psychology.

When a brand communicates in different markets using different content styles and influencer strategies, it is essentially respecting local users' consumption habits rather than rigidly transplanting the domestic playbook overseas. For any domestic company that wants to succeed in overseas markets, this is a lesson worth studying carefully.