An ordinary nasal inhaler product quoted at only 3 yuan by a domestic factory is sold for as high as $19.95-24.95 in the US Tuke Shop after localization and marketing, with a markup of 60 times, and total sales have exceeded 110 million RMB.

This leap in value is no coincidence, but the result of cleverly leveraging the information gap between China and the US. Real cross-border business is never just simple “copy and paste”, but making good use of the information gap between the two places—what you know about US consumer demand that others haven’t noticed, that’s where the money is easy to make.

 

Image source:Tuke Shop

Why Your “Hot Seller” Doesn’t Sell in the US

Open Tuke, and it seems like there’s a new hot seller every day. But when you follow the trend and stock up, you often find yourself stuck with unsold inventory.,Behind this is a classic traffic trap.

For example, the beauty blender that was popular some time ago—domestic factories rushed to produce them, driving the price down from over ten yuan to just two or three, but US consumers have long been tired of it.

When sellers follow the trend and ship the goods over, they either get squeezed on price and make no money, or simply can’t sell at all—pure wasted effort.

This model is essentially “chasing tail lights”, always one step behind the market.

 

Image source:Tuke

The Essence of Information Gap Is Demand Insight

What is a real information gap? It’s not just knowing what products Americans use, but understanding why they need them, in what scenarios they use them, and what emotional or functional needs the product fulfills.

A product that is commonplace in China may go viral in the US because it meets an unmet need of American consumers.

Take the hot-selling “color flame fireplace humidifier” as an example—its success is by no means accidental.

In the Midwest and Northern US, winters are long and dry, and indoor heating sharply reduces air humidity, causing health problems. This makes humidification a seasonal necessity for many households.

Moreover, this product precisely taps into American consumers’ pursuit of “Hygge” (cozy and warm) lifestyle. A real fireplace is a classic symbol of American homes, but installation and maintenance are expensive. This product provides similar emotional value at a very low cost.

 

Image source:Tuke

Besides functional needs, emotional value has also become a key to product differentiation.In May 2025, a mug called the “F**k Cup” went viral on Tuke, with nearly 5,000 orders in a single day.

The cleverness of this mug is that only when the cup is tilted 90 degrees can you see the words “fu** this sh**” on the body. This design precisely captures the emotional needs of American office workers, becoming a humorous way for them to express daily stress.

So you see, the core of information gap product selection is scenario translation and value reconstruction.

You have to “translate” mature products from the Chinese supply chain into things that can seamlessly fit into specific American life scenarios and emotional needs.

 

Image source:Tuke

Reverse Thinking: The Second Spring of Outdated Products

Sometimes, the information gap is also reflected in different stages of market development. TV set-top boxes, which have basically been phased out in China, have generated sales of 23 million yuan in the Indonesian market.

This is because Indonesia is implementing the “analog signal shutdown plan”, and TV is still an important entertainment tool, creating massive demand for digital set-top boxes.

Sellers precisely met local needs by pre-installing local video platforms and Indonesian language voice assistants.

The same logic applies to the China-US market.

A product that is already widespread or even outdated in China may have new opportunities in the US market due to different development stages,the key is to study the specific development stage and infrastructure conditions of the target market.

 

Image source:Echotik

So you see, when doing China-US business on Tuke, the smartest approach is never to chase those already visible “tail lights”, but to light up your own “headlight”.

The real gold mine is not in the trends, but in the differences. Go understand how people live, laugh, and worry in that land. Take the good things you’re familiar with but they’ve never seen, and tell them the story in a way they understand.

Next time, when you see another viral hot seller, stop and ask yourself: Besides this, what do I know that they don’t? The answer might just be your starting point.