On January 21, 2026, the 2026 Hugo Conference, with the unique IP of “the annual gathering of cross-border boss friends”, was grandly held in Shenzhen. Cross-border e-commerce practitioners from all over the country gathered in Pengcheng to discuss the “boss business experience” across cycles.
The conference focuses on key tracks such as “platform operation”, “AI application”, “brand building”, “new market expansion” and “enterprise management”. The participation of many leading companies and internationally renowned e-commerce platforms makes it an important window to see the development trends of the cross-border e-commerce industry.
Weng Yaoxiong, founder and CEO of Hugo Cross-border, pointed out in his keynote speech that the overall development of the cross-border e-commerce industry will be under pressure in 2025, and “tariffs” and “compliance” have become the two core challenges facing the industry.
Survey data shows that only 34% of sellers achieved positive revenue growth last year, and 50% of sellers experienced a decline in revenue, of which 33% experienced a significant decline.
Weng Yaoxiong believes that “the era dividend of cross-border e-commerce has officially ended in 2025.” He suggested that operators focus on two core dimensions: first, look internally, build a new AI organization, and use AI to “reduce costs and increase efficiency”; second, look globally. In the context of the complex international development environment, cross-border enterprises must do “three tricks” to achieve market diversification and channel diversification to cope with market instability.
The conference on that day set up a number of “Business Economics” roundtable forums with different themes.
In the “Platform Business Experience” session, representatives of e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and TikTok, as well as representatives of independent website brands discussed the development trends of different sectors.
The “Amazon Business” roundtable session focused on two major topics: product value innovation and supply chain management upgrade.
Pan Qi, regional expansion director of Amazon Global Stores in South China, revealed that in 2026, Amazon’s South China region will work with Hugo cross-border to launch high-tech innovative products projects, and promote four major cooperation plans: tax compliance, industrial belt development, and advertising private board of directors; Rock Brothers founder Zhang Xingang emphasized that user needs
Pursuit is the core, and innovation points are explored through online and offline linkage and supply chain collaboration; Wang Fang, CEO of Xinmai Technology, proposed that product innovation should be based on the integration of industry and trade, anchoring material advantages to achieve cross-category layout; Gong Yuan, founder of Xiaoyi Intelligence, advocated deep cultivation of vertical categories and building competitiveness through differentiated innovation.
In terms of supply chain management, the participating entrepreneurs believed that it should be deeply tied to the supply chain and build a growth engine through flexible manufacturing, division of labor and collaboration.
“TikTok Business” roundtable session, TikTok for
Wu Jialin, Business’ overseas e-commerce account director, communicated with corporate guests on platform opportunities, brand building, localized operations and AI empowerment.
Newme CEO Gu Jun believes that the future opportunities for cross-border e-commerce lie in categories with high customer orders and high gross margins; Jingqi Yuedong CEO Peng Huilin emphasized that it is necessary to achieve “accurate selection of products with high customer orders +
“Accurate content expression” requires rapid iteration of content by dismantling the popular videos of experts, rather than relying on the team’s self-creation; Dongdong Jack, the founder of Jingzhuan Chuhai, said frankly that localization is not only adaptation to language scenes, but the deeper meaning is to make the brand become the lifestyle of local people, and it is necessary to realize the localization of the trinity of content, organization and operation.
In the “Business Experience of Brand Independent Websites” roundtable session, Luo Mingbo, general manager of Leifen International, Xu Guoqing, founder of KingCamp, and Zhang Ning, CMO of SmallRig Innovation, shared their practical experience in brand going global, from market selection, localization, product matrix to trust building.
Luo Mingbo emphasized that when choosing a market, one needs to analyze the broader market and competitive landscape to avoid blind expansion; Xu Guoqing pointed out that localization requires in-depth layout, such as entering foreign offline markets through acquiring local brands; Zhang Ning advocated using user co-creation to drive product innovation, build deep trust, and replace price competition with “scenario-based satisfaction”.
When technological revolution, market changes and organizational challenges are intertwined, cross-border e-commerce is entering a multi-dimensional deep water zone.
Technology application, channel development and organizational construction together constitute the “iron triangle” for enterprises to travel through the cycle in 2026.
The “Business Management” section held that day provided advice and suggestions to on-site enterprises from the perspectives of tool empowerment, frontline practice and core construction.
Liu Qiang, CEO of Juzhi Technology, Liu Zhihai, CEO of Zixun, and Liu Shiqi, founder of Tivantans, who participated in the “AI Empowering Business” roundtable, believe that AI has shifted from “whether to use it” to “how to use it well”. The core is no longer limited to cost reduction and efficiency improvement, but also lies in equalizing decision-making, restructuring job boundaries and creating new needs; in terms of implementation scenarios, AI +
Hardware is the unique advantage of Chinese sellers, and the marketing link is the preferred direction with the highest return on investment. In terms of team and strategy, small and medium-sized enterprises need to improve standardized processes first, let AI take over repetitive work, cultivate employees’ decision-making capabilities, and at the same time, they can leverage the technology of large manufacturers to reduce talent costs.
AI applications need to focus on business growth and build an AI ecosystem suitable for enterprises.
Five student partners Aysha, Deppson Marketing Director Lin Rongfeng, ALLDOCUBE GTM Director Mo Shulin, and Shenzhen Shilin Trading Terry who participated in the roundtable session of “New Market Business” shared their experience in exploring different overseas markets around new platform selection, operational practice, pitfall avoidance experience, inventory management and team building.
Intercontinental Technology CEO Zhou Hong, who participated in the “Enterprise Business Experience” roundtable, said that virtual equity incentives should be implemented to align team goals with the company’s long-term strategy; Lin Yang, deputy general manager of Weifa Co., Ltd., emphasized that brands need to invest in all channels when going global, and global layout needs to match different development stages; Rock Brothers founder Zhang Xingang took the company’s investment in self-built high-precision mold factories as an example to overcome product quality control problems, and suggested that companies adhere to the long-term development philosophy.
This Hugo Conference also held a series of 8 events simultaneously, including the Global E-commerce Strategy Executives Acceleration Forum, a special business session for cross-border female bosses, the official TikTok Shop meeting, and the Amazon Boss Business Growth Flywheel. The conference will last until January 23.
The “Meta Overseas Incubation Center” was officially launched at the conference on the 21st. This project is Meta’s first offline strategic carrier in mainland China.
The conference also launched more than 20 targeted cooperation and support plans, including the Hugo Cross-border Training Cooperation Plan, the Hugo Cross-border × TikTok Shop New Business Incubation and Accompanying Plan, the Google × Hugo Cross-border E-commerce Acceleration Plan Strategic Cooperation, and the Amazon Advertising Overseas Profitmaking Plan, covering cross-border training, platform incubation, market expansion, tax compliance, AI empowerment and other dimensions to help cross-border sellers seize global market opportunities in an all-round way.
The results of the “Hugo Awards” for China’s most influential overseas brands, overseas brands with the most growth potential, and overseas brands with cutting-edge products were announced on site. Many outstanding overseas brands such as Leifen, Weifa, and Dailer Technology won the awards. At the same time, innovative brands with outstanding performance in overseas markets such as “Japanese Market Star” and “Latin American Market Star” were selected.
