New Insight into the US consumer market: Segmentation opportunities derived from the macro economy!

Entering the fourth quarter of 2023, the global economy still faces many uncertainties, and cross-border e-commerce competition is particularly fierce.
In keeping with the pace of The Times, the American consumer market is still pregnant with vibrant segments.
Today, IAN will take you on a quest to find the blue ocean of those treasures.

First, focusing on the US macro economy, the fourth quarter presents both challenges and opportunities
The US economy, facing high inflation in the wake of the pandemic, soon entered a rate hike cycle.
But the economy turned out to be more resilient than expected, thanks largely to "excess savings" accumulated during the pandemic, which fueled consumption, particularly in services.
Although inflation has eased recently, it remains elevated, pressured by supply-chain disruptions, higher prices for goods and services and higher wages due to labor shortages.
The labor shortage is showing up in the service sector, which is likely to be long-lasting.
From an opportunity perspective, this will drive the transformation of services to automation and intelligence.
On the whole, the macroeconomic outlook is still uncertain and the structural industry opportunities are not clear. We suggest that cross-border sellers should give priority to market segment opportunities next.

Ii. How to subdivide the blue ocean in the United States when the Red Ocean is stirring across borders?
According to Comscore, the US e-commerce market will reach $1.09 trillion in 2022, up 20.54% year on year. The market is indeed large.
However, with stricter platform regulation, rising traffic and other operating costs, and intensified low-price competition, the cross-border e-commerce market in the United States is also undergoing brutal reshuffle and integration.
Cross-border e-commerce in the United States has entered the highly competitive Red Sea market, and cross-border sellers need to have deeper and more accurate insight into both the domestic supply side and the preferences of the overseas demand side, so as to stand out in the Red Sea market.
We believe that the next keywords worth exploring in the US cross-border segment are "smart", "health" and "pet".
These three words seem to be cliche, but all kinds of random combinations of the three words can inspire infinite possibilities and form new segments.

1. The end of the epidemic has spawned the continued transformation of smart fitness in the United States
According to the macroeconomic situation in the United States, we can see the shortage of labor, which provides impetus for the need for intelligent and automation innovation in the service industry, as well as opportunities.
The smart fitness hardware market in the US has to be mentioned here.
The track's rapid growth during the pandemic is largely due to the shift from public to home workouts.
Scene switching, while bringing new products, such as smart fitness tools that use sensor technology to help users correct their movements and postures; Smart fitness mirrors that provide users with integrated fitness solutions, and more.
After the pandemic, people have returned to public places, but there are still opportunities for iterative upgrading.
In the future, we are more optimistic about the intelligent fitness direction that can cover the two scenarios of home and traditional gym. Products and services that only target a single fitness scene have great limitations and are no longer suitable for the current situation.
The transformation and upgrading of this track not only stops at the fitness equipment itself, but also mainly uses artificial intelligence and other scientific and technological means to upgrade the whole fitness mode.
There is no need to worry that this track will become unpopular, because fitness is an eternal subject for Americans and has a broad prospect.

2. Smart pet products are waiting to set sail in the US market
It is a common understanding that the number of pet owners in Europe and the United States is very high. There are already large pet shopping places such as Petco offline. However, at present, the US pet products market is still dominated by the sale of traditional products, local innovation is relatively small. Pet smart products have little penetration in the United States and are mostly sold through online channels.
So, we can see the opportunity for iteration here. Smart pet products have great growth potential, and the popular categories include smart wearable devices, smart pet sockets, smart water fountains, etc.
China has a natural supply chain advantage in pet smart products. Next, regional or global brands are likely to emerge in the pet smart products track, which is a segment with huge growth potential.

3. Under inflationary pressure, food consumption in the United States is downgraded in parallel with innovation
According to macroeconomics, under the pressure of inflation, food in the United States as a whole has shown a trend of consumption downgrade. The high price of high-end organic food supermarkets such as Whole Foods dissuages a considerable number of people, and more people tend to seek more affordable, popular and healthy products for themselves and their pets at Trader Joe's and Walmart. Demand for such products is rising, and there are opportunities to innovate and go offshore.