Continue to improve! According to Yiwu Customs statistics, in the first eight months of this year, Yiwu’s total import and export value was 200.15 billion yuan, an increase of 4.4%; of which exports were 192.51 billion yuan, an increase of 3.8%; imports were 7.64 billion yuan, an increase of 24.0%. Toys, furniture and lamps, textile products, etc. all maintained double-digit growth. After turning from negative to positive in June, Yiwu’s foreign trade maintained rapid growth in July and August.
A bird’s-eye view of Yiwu International Trade City, photo by friend Wu Guiming
Yiwu is the world’s largest small commodity distribution center, with more than 2 million small and medium-sized enterprises connected behind it. In 2019, the Yiwu market, known as the “world supermarket”, accounted for 9.6% of the province’s total value of imports and exports. To a certain extent, Yiwu has become an important window for Zhejiang and even China’s foreign trade economy, as well as a weather vane for foreign trade economic conditions.
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“Yiwu City’s frequent new policies in the first half of the year stimulated the market to pick up. Because of the large foreign trade volume, it is precious. The start of the second half of the first two months has been good.” The head of Yiwu City Bureau of Commerce is full of confidence. From the outbreak of the domestic epidemic to the spread of the global epidemic, how does Yiwu’s foreign trade economy achieve growth against the trend? The reporter visited Yiwu recently.
Merchant “Eighteen Martial Arts” precision targeted marketing
“Poorness leads to change, change leads to success, generality leads to long.” In the face of difficulties, merchants in Yiwu market used their “18 martial arts”: online negotiation, online transaction, cloud signing, purchase on behalf of…
During the long holiday of “October”, the procurement peak of wedding supplies in District 5 of Yiwu International Trade City ushered in. “Golden 9th and Silver 10th, many of our colleagues have sold out in the last two days, and the supply of products exceeds supply.” Said Feng Chaoyun, chairman of the Yiwu Festival Supplies Industry Chamber of Commerce. Affected by the epidemic, many young people postpone their wedding dates to the second half of the year.
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On September 17, African delegations to China visited Yiwu and visited the International Trade City and the Import Commodity Incubation Zone. Photo by friend Lu Bin
In a toy store located in the first district of the International Trade City, the stall owner Yang Bin is communicating with a customer in Iran through social software. Before long, the Iranian customer ordered 20 containers of toys worth nearly 1 million yuan. Affected by the epidemic, many foreigners cannot come to China to purchase. And Yang Bin is not idle because of this. In addition to connecting via social software video, he also invested 2 million yuan in the development of corporate websites in early March.
In the past, most of the stall owners in the International Trade City were waiting for buyers to come. After the outbreak, many merchants began to invest in setting up their own websites and releasing new products to facilitate the purchase of new and old buyers. “Buyers log in to the website with the account and password provided by our customer service, and they can see our latest toy styles (including pictures) on it, and place orders directly online. We first contact our old customers, tell their website, and then let them introduce To new customers. Unexpectedly, in this way, the sales situation is better than looking at the physical purchase on the spot.” Yang Bin said that since this year, their sales have increased by 60% year-on-year. He said that in the future, he will continue to develop new products to prepare for new markets.
“Understood, this car model, I will add another 30 boxes.” Alimi, an international student from Saudi Arabia, while holding a mobile phone to communicate with friends in the Middle East, while placing an order in the International Trade City. “I have been in China for 5 years. I heard about Yiwu Commodity City when I was studying at Hunan University. After graduation, I came here to open a trading company and settled here with my wife for a long time.” Alimi said that he did not return this year because of the epidemic. After visiting Saudi Arabia, I didn’t expect the company’s business to be better than usual. “Except for Saudi customers, other countries in the Middle East have found me through old customers, hoping to help find all kinds of new goods.”
“Customers have moved from offline to online, and regions and countries along the’Belt and Road’, including African countries, accounted for a significant increase in procurement.” According to Ding Xingjuan, chairman of the Yiwu Jewelry Accessories Industry Chamber of Commerce, the global demand for Yiwu small commodities It is still vigorous. Compared with before and after the epidemic, the unit price of high-end jewelry has increased. The price of silver bracelets has increased by 20%. In the next step, they will continue to make efforts in branding and design, and adopt more targeted marketing.
“In addition to foreign trade merchants seeking breakthroughs themselves, the thousands of foreign businessmen who stayed in Yiwu before the epidemic have also become agents of procurement.” The person in charge of the International Trade City said that although the foreign businesses that can be seen on the market are far less than last year, the foreign trade business has not No reduction. “Due to the spread of the epidemic abroad, local factories cannot start operations normally, and the demand for medical equipment, daily necessities and other materials has increased.”
Foreign businessmen are purchasing goods in the Trade City. Photo by Gong Xianming
Without continuous supply from manufacturers, the recovery of foreign trade can only be empty talk. Since the resumption of the Yiwu International Trade City on February 18th, Yiwu has sent 44 working groups to various parts of the country, and brought back 130,000 people through chartered planes, high-speed rails, and buses. At the same time, Yiwu has successively introduced chartered cars, A series of “hard-core” resumption policies including high-speed rail, chartered flights, and large return subsidies have indirectly driven more than 300,000 people back to work. Employment is not difficult, and there are many policy assistance. Despite the dual impact of the epidemic and international trade frictions, the enthusiasm of the business owners behind the stall owners in the mall has been ignited. As of the end of September this year, the total number of market entities in Yiwu reached 658,000, a year-on-year increase of 22.08%.
Cloud up and down to attract customers
On October 8, the “Yixin Europe” China-Europe Express departed from Yiwu West Railway Station to the five countries of Central Asia. From October 1st to October 8th, a total of 27 trains were shipped. As of October 8, the “Yixin Europe” train had opened 658 trains and shipped 54,418 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 140.7%. Since July of this year, the monthly average number of trips has been maintained above 110, a record high.
“‘Yixin Europe’ train is a golden channel for enterprises, so we don’t have to worry about not going out.” The person in charge of Zhejiang Equator Supply Chain Co., Ltd., which is engaged in the cross-border logistics industry in Yiwu, told reporters, “Yixin The “Europe” China-Europe train has 12 operating dispatch lines, and 4 branches and 5 logistics distribution centers have been established along the route, connecting 37 countries and regions in Asia and Europe.
At 14:00 on September 2, the X8074 “Yixin Europe” China-Europe train set off from Yiwu West Railway Station with a whistle. This is the 529th train shipped by the “Yixin Europe” China-Europe train in 2020. So far, the “Yixin Europe” China-Europe Express has exceeded the total shipment volume of 2019.
At the same time, maintaining the smooth flow of air logistics channels also highlights the advantages of Yiwu in the field of international air transportation during the epidemic. “Yiwu has set up a special international logistics service platform of “Global Yida” to build a cross-border e-commerce offline cargo center. In order to improve the international air cargo capacity, the freight charter carrier of Yiwu Shifei will be given a maximum of 500,000 yuan per flight. The reward is 1 yuan per kilogram for the carrier.” The person in charge of the Yiwu Market Development Committee said that doing everything possible to reduce the cost of foreign trade operators is one of their priorities.
The smooth flow of logistics has played a key role in the stability of Yiwu’s foreign trade. The role of overseas warehouses is also perfectly realized on this basis.
“After foreign buyers were unable to come to Yiwu, our business plummeted. Fortunately, the Mall Group made a timely move to start the overseas warehouse China showroom plan. We have successfully obtained a 500-square-meter overseas warehouse in Djibouti, Africa, and we have completed the preparation of goods.” Chen Yanzhen, an operator of Discovery Tools in the Second District of Trade City, said that overseas warehouses can not only solve the problem that buyers cannot purchase goods in Yiwu during the epidemic, but also reduce logistics costs in the long run and achieve rapid local delivery.
According to the statistics of Yiwu Mall Group, at present, Yiwu has established overseas warehouses in 18 countries and 24 regions in the world including the Czech Republic and Spain, covering an area of 224,000 square meters. Yiwu uses overseas warehouse resources to establish a docking mechanism between merchants and overseas warehouses to accelerate the landing of a group of “Take You to China” showrooms to focus on displaying products and achieve direct purchase by buyers overseas. Yiwu City will provide subsidies for all market economic and trade promotion activities held overseas.
Alibaba is the world’s largest online market, and Yiwu, the world’s “small commodity capital”, is the world’s largest offline market. In June of this year, Yiwu and Alibaba joined hands to create a digital comprehensive protection zone to promote the implementation and upgrade of the eWTP (World Electronic Trade Platform) project, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises to transform from passive participants in global trade to leaders in new game rules.
In a cosmetics production and export company in Yiwu, employees are packing cosmetics. Photo by Gong Xianming
With the help of eWTP platform construction, Yiwu Yilei Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. has exceeded the total amount of cross-border e-commerce orders in the first five months of this year. The company’s cross-border new retail business has not only opened a 2,000-square-meter direct purchase experience store for imported goods offline, but also opened a flagship store for all categories of imported goods on Tmall. Alibaba International Station and Yiwu Municipal Bureau of Commerce also co-organized the Yiwu Online Expo. For newly transformed merchants, Alibaba International Station provides free exhibition tickets and digital exhibition service packages, such as live template shooting, automatic editing and other digital tools. Alibaba International Station also selects top “foreign internet celebrities” for Yiwu merchants to conduct live broadcasts, using the private domain traffic of internet celebrities to attract overseas buyers and facilitate transactions.
“The epidemic has had a great impact on offline trade, but our turnover on Alibaba International Station has not fallen but increased, and it has increased by 40% compared to before the epidemic.” said Frank, general manager of Yiwu Zhenpai Network Technology Co., Ltd. “The Internet celebrity live broadcast is already well established in China, but it is still a new attempt in the global B2B field. We are lucky to catch up with this trend.” Zhang Kuo, general manager of Alibaba International Station, expects that through the online expo, Yiwu will be in the “cloud “Attract visitors from all directions.
Fight the policy combination to activate foreign trade
“The company promptly transformed the production of disinfection products. The sales of the factory increased by 30% year-on-year. The products were mainly exported to Southeast Asia and even exported to South America.” Du Hongliang, chairman of Zhejiang Yanzhuang Cosmetics Co., Ltd., told reporters that “cross-border” is popular among Yiwu enterprises , Competing for overseas orders. More than 5 months ago, he was still worrying about the company’s production orders. More than half of the company’s production line for cosmetics has been suspended, and nearly 200 employees are on standby. At the most difficult time, the help of government departments came, and the company obtained a sanitary license for the production of disinfection products, which gave the company a new lease of life. At present, the company’s product
ion lines have increased from the original 4 to 18, and the company has achieved sales of more than 20 million yuan in two months.
A seamless underwear manufacturer in Yiwu is rushing to produce export anti-epidemic materials. Photo by Gong Xianming
Yanzhuang Company’s transformation in adversity and its revitalization are the “18 weapons” used by the Yiwu Municipal Government. After the resumption of the International Trade City, Yiwu immediately launched “Opinions on Strengthening Employment Security for Enterprises in Response to the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic”, and “Domestic Buyers Attracting Reward Policy during Epidemic Prevention Period” and other powerful measures to actively activate the prevention and control of the epidemic. market.
The Yiwu Municipal Government has successively launched policy “combination punches” to stabilize foreign trade by various means. In March, Yiwu City launched the “First Batch of 20 Actions to Promote Market Prosperity”, which covers aspects such as expanding the upstream industrial chain and strengthening the recruitment and services of overseas buyers. In April, the “Six Opinions on Helping Enterprises Overcome Difficulties” was issued. At the end of May, the country’s first market procurement export credit insurance government unified insurance project-Yiwu “Merchant Credit Insurance” officially set sail. Within one year of the probation period, the government will “pay for” the basic insurance for all market purchases and exports in Yiwu, and pay 30% of the loss. In mid-June, “Yiwu City’s Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of Live Streaming E-commerce” and “Plan for Creating an Internet Celebrity Live Streaming Base” were released. While helping the emerging format of “e-commerce + live broadcast”, it also promotes foreign trade companies to get a share of the tide of live broadcast e-commerce.
A series of innovative market models led by the Yiwu Municipal Government have brought new life to Yiwu’s foreign trade. “Next, Yiwu will continue to use’reform + projects’ as the starting point, coordinate online and offline, domestic and overseas advances, stabilize the basic foreign trade, and promote trade innovation and transformation. Through deepening trade liberalization and facilitation reforms, relying on the comprehensive protection zone platform , To explore new trade methods such as barter trade.” The person in charge of the Yiwu Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that by stabilizing the fundamentals of exports, opening up “fast channels” for foreigners to come to Yiwu and helping overseas businessmen return to Yiwu to purchase. Promote the integrated development of “market procurement + cross-border e-commerce” and stabilize the “ballast stone” of market procurement. At the same time, promote the development of online trade and expand cross-border e-commerce exports. Yiwu will also continue to exert efforts in broadening logistics channels, expanding emerging markets, strengthening financial support, and activating the vitality of market entities. (Source: Zhejiang Daily)
