As the summer of 2025 approaches, the US market has sent a rather "cool" consumption signal - about 65% of US consumers plan to cut summer spending, especially in travel, shopping and entertainment. For cross-border e-commerce sellers who rely on the US market to achieve growth, this is undoubtedly a realistic challenge that needs to be seriously addressed.
Behind the spending cuts: Why have buyers become "rational"?
According to multiple survey data, 52% of Americans plan to reduce travel, 43% choose to give up vacations, and more than half of consumers prefer more economical summer entertainment methods, such as camping and home vacations. In addition, 34% of respondents intend to cut non-essential expenses, and 46% are already anxious about summer expenses.
The main reasons for this phenomenon are not difficult to understand: first, the rising cost of living caused by inflation, second, the increased uncertainty in the US economic outlook, and third, concerns about changes in tariff policies. Especially among millennials, this "savings thinking" is more obvious, accounting for as much as 63%.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers? ——The sales volume of high-priced goods may be under pressure, and cost-effectiveness will become the main battlefield. The efficiency of logistics and supply chain will directly affect the profit margin.
"Affordable + Practical" has become the main theme, and the logic of product selection needs to be adjusted simultaneously
Facing the trend of "cutting expenditure" on the consumer side, cross-border sellers should re-examine their product selection and marketing strategies. First of all, products that meet the keywords such as "high cost-effectiveness", "multi-function" and "low maintenance cost" should be prioritized.
Taking outdoor furniture, a hot-selling category in summer, as an example, driven by the demand for family vacations, the demand for lightweight and detachable lawn tables and chairs, camping equipment, etc. has not decreased, but may further increase due to the popularity of home vacations. However, brands need to pay more attention to the setting of price bands, promotion frequency and function descriptions, so as to help consumers make "rational" but not "stingy" decisions.
Reduce costs and increase efficiency, and the supply chain must run faster than buyers expect
When consumers become more cautious about every expenditure, shopping experience, logistics speed and after-sales service become important factors for them to measure whether to place an order. Especially for platforms like Temu and SHEIN that focus on "high cost performance", the requirements for logistics costs and warehousing efficiency are extremely high.
This is why more and more cross-border sellers are beginning to choose service providers with local warehousing capabilities to build a more resilient supply chain system. Taking U-Speed's US overseas warehouse service as an example, it currently has two overseas warehouses in the East Coast (New Jersey) and West Coast (Los Angeles) of the United States, both of which are semi-managed official certified warehouses of Temu and SHEIN, with complete warehousing and processing capabilities for general goods, sensitive goods and pure electric products, and support automatic order push on platforms such as TikTok and AE.
The two warehouses have a total area of more than 20,000 square meters, and the daily package processing capacity is as high as 100,000 pieces. U-Speed realizes full-link order synchronization and data tracking through the self-developed WMS system, and the 24-hour delivery timeliness rate reaches 100%. Refined SKU zoning management and standardized operating procedures have further improved inventory turnover efficiency, and helped sellers recover sales losses in a timely manner through a 48-hour return and replenishment mechanism.
In addition, U-Speed also supports one-stop service from China's first-leg collection to the local delivery in the United States. It is simple to operate and has stable efficiency. It is suitable for fast-moving consumer goods that focus on "fast turnover".
Not just "selling cheaply", but "retaining repeat customers with services"
When consumers are increasingly concerned about "value" rather than "expensive", sellers cannot rely solely on price wars to win the market, but must work hard on the entire shopping experience. This includes faster logistics, clearer after-sales, and a more stable inventory replenishment mechanism.
Another highlight of U-Speed US overseas warehouse is the return and replenishment service. For high-frequency return scenarios on platforms such as TikTok Shop and Temu, U-Speed can complete the return warehousing, relabeling and data synchronization within 48 hours, strive for a time window for sellers to resell and reduce the pressure of unsalable inventory. The professional Chinese team cooperates with the Chinese and American customer service to seamlessly connect to ensure timely response to emergencies and ensure the rhythm of operations.
For cross-border sellers, 2025 is no longer just a year of pursuing scale and GMV, but a key node for the transformation to "fine operation". In the context of an uncertain external environment, whoever can control a more stable fulfillment chain, whoever can deliver faster, and whoever can more accurately understand the real needs behind consumer savings will be able to live longer in the era of rational consumption.
Deploying local warehousing in the United States and opening up the front, middle and back-end supply chain closed loop is becoming an important path for more and more sellers to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Service providers like U-Speed, which have warehousing, logistics and return service capabilities, will be a strong backing for sellers to cope with the "rational consumption trend".
