Three years after the epidemic, China's foreign traders broke through and grew

In the past three years since the epidemic, Chinese foreign trade personnel have experienced unprecedented tests, such as customer loss, order reduction, rising costs and declining profit margins. In the face of numerous difficulties and challenges, Chinese foreign traders did not shrink back, but relied on their strong will and firm belief to carry out international business by combining online and offline marketing, improve profit space by reducing costs and increasing performance, constantly develop new products to open new overseas markets, and take the path of coordinated development of domestic and foreign markets to enhance brand value... While overcoming difficulties, Chinese foreign traders, Achieved the transformation of growth and harvest the joy of success. Now, with the improvement of the global epidemic situation, Chinese foreign traders will continue to forge ahead with experience and faith.
Online and offline simultaneous promotion and expansion of business
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Shenzhen Huasixu Science and Technology Co., Ltd. has had problems with the extension and cancellation of contracts or orders, and customer churn has occurred from time to time. "During the epidemic, international personnel exchanges were blocked, and face-to-face business negotiations encountered difficulties. We expanded our overseas business through the combination of 'online+offline', realizing the growth of orders," said Lei Yun, chairman of Shenzhen Huasixu Technology Co., Ltd.
The epidemic has changed the way foreign trade enterprises develop overseas markets and maintain customer relationships. "Our company focuses on the application field of lithium battery technology, and has successively developed and promoted automotive emergency starting power supply, energy storage power supply, automotive electric tools, wireless hair dryers and other products focusing on lithium battery applications. Before the epidemic, the company will explore overseas markets by participating in international exhibitions and visiting customers at home. After the epidemic, international personnel exchanges are blocked, and face-to-face communication has become an extravagant hope. In order to do a good job in overseas business To expand our work, we chose to know new customers through online live broadcast and online docking, and to keep in touch with old overseas customers through online communication. " Lei Yun said that in the past three years, the company has expanded Ukraine and other new markets through online exhibitions.
In the face of the epidemic, Lei Yun recognized the importance of expanding sales channels and enriching product categories. "In the past three years, we have been taking offline sales channels as the basic way to get customers, constantly strengthening the operation management of cross-border e-commerce platforms such as independent stations, Amazon, Alibaba, and at the same time, we have cooperated with multiple online platforms to try to open up new overseas customers through live broadcast, small programs, and other ways." Lei Yun said that in order to enrich the product categories, the company has expanded its product lines horizontally and increased investment in the construction of the brand Kaerku, And then improve the added value of products. These initiatives have enabled the company's business to expand continuously. At present, it has established partnerships with more than 50 countries on 6 continents.
During the epidemic, Huasixu expanded its sales channels through the combination of "online+offline", which will become one of the effective ways for the company to further strengthen business development and customer maintenance in the future. Now, the international epidemic situation has gradually improved, and Lei Yun also has a new vision for the future work. "In the future, we will actively develop new trade methods, increase investment in brand building, and expand the product sales market. In addition, we will further optimize the production system, adjust production plans more flexibly, improve production efficiency, reduce production costs, and improve the market competitive advantage of products." Lei Yun said.
Reduce costs, increase performance and improve profitability
"During the epidemic, the price of raw materials fluctuated significantly, which increased the production cost of the enterprise and impacted the purchasing power of foreign customers. Our profit margin for export products narrowed significantly." Lin Hailin, chairman of Zhejiang Dabin Valve Co., Ltd., said that in order to improve the profit margin of export products, the enterprise, on the one hand, made every effort to promote automatic production to reduce production costs, on the other hand, improved the functionality of products, Improve the added value of products.
Copper is the main raw material for valve manufacturers. Since the epidemic, the sharp rise in copper prices has pushed up the production costs of valve manufacturers. "Last year, the copper price rose rapidly, coupled with the rise of international logistics costs, the production cost of our products rose by about 20%, and the profit margin of export products was significantly reduced." Lin Hailin said.
In fact, before the outbreak of the epidemic, Lin Hailin had introduced fully automatic finishing and assembly equipment from Germany, Italy and other countries. In order to reduce the production cost, the company has further increased the investment in automatic production in the past three years, "We have introduced automatic assembly machines for gate valves, automatic assembly of water collectors, automatic assembly machines for large-sized ball valves, automatic assembly machines for large-sized ball valve handles, customized equipment and equipment for a best-selling product in the market. At present, we have basically realized the full automation of finishing and assembly processes, reduced production costs, and improved the profitability of products." Lin Hailin said.
Improving the added value of products is also a way to improve the export profit space of products. "On the basis of traditional products, we have upgraded and developed some new functional products. For example, the new system of Dublin Intelligent Heating Temperature Control Center integrates the water mixing center, intelligent water collector and differential pressure bypass components, and has the function of temperature regulation. After the installation of the system, the water mixing center can realize the automatic constant temperature regulation of the water temperature in the floor heating system by setting it once, effectively reducing the heat energy consumption, and saving energy More than 30%. This system product is mainly exported to Europe and other regions, and is favored by local customers. " Lin Hailin told the reporter that according to the market demand of different customers, the company has also developed and issued targeted, systematic and high technology complete sets of HVAC products, so the product order volume has increased significantly.
At the same time, in order to meet the needs of overseas customers for products to the maximum extent, the company continuously improves the production process. "We have established an internationally advanced standard laboratory, which has passed the national CNAS certification, and has spectrometer, valve destructive testing machine, flow testing machine, bending testing machine, tensile testing machine, torsional testing machine, ozone resistance testing machine and other testing equipment, which can complete the analysis of material element composition, product physical strength, flow curve, chemical corrosion resistance and other performance tests." Lin Hailin said.
Lin Hailin said that in the future, the enterprise will also launch a fully automated forging production line to realize automatic operation of the full assembly line. At the same time, improve the production of the manufacturing enterprise's production process execution system (MES), successively launch special machines, CNC and other equipment systems, improve the order completion rate, and improve the economic efficiency of the enterprise.
Perseverance in exploring new overseas markets
"Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the demand of the traditional European and American markets has declined sharply, and the number of orders has declined a lot. In addition, problems such as arrears of payments and unsalable inventory have frequently occurred. To ensure the number of orders, we have focused our work on developing emerging markets such as the 'the Belt and Road', the Middle East, and Southeast Asia." Wang Ji, executive vice general manager of Nanjing Deli Holding Co., Ltd., said that through unremitting efforts, The company's order volume in these emerging markets has grown steadily.
"Before the outbreak of the epidemic, we had begun to pay attention to the 'the Belt and Road' market. In 2019, the company opened its first overseas factory plan in Pakistan, which experienced the impact of the epidemic for three years. Despite several accidents, the production plan has been pushed back, but the company's original intention to explore the 'the Belt and Road' market remains unchanged. Now the factory has entered the final stage of construction, and the local market sales team has also been established, which can be said that New business is ready. " Wang Ji said that the Pakistan project next year will not only help the company understand the local market information and promote products, but also radiate to surrounding countries and regions.
During the epidemic, "face-to-face" communication with customers became difficult, so Wang Ji set up an online team to explore new markets online. "Over the past three years, we have tried to display our products on Alibaba and other online platforms, promote our products through self built stations, participate in online exhibitions to meet customers, and learn to use online live broadcast to develop sales channels." Wang Ji said that these good methods have enabled the company to find a number of new partners. At present, the number of exporting countries of the company's products has reached more than 90, and the amount of foreign trade shipments has also increased rapidly from 160 million yuan before the epidemic to 250 million yuan today.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) implemented at the beginning of this year provided Nanjing Deli with new opportunities. "With the implementation of various tariff reductions or preferential policies, our company has established partnerships with customers in Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and other countries, expanding the sales market of our products. Since this year, the company's sales to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries have also achieved a significant increase." Wang Ji said.
In order to meet the needs of markets in different regions, Nanjing Deli has increased its efforts in product research and development. "Over the past three years, we have put more than 50 new products into the market every year, including tree grain cups, diamond cups, collapsible sugar jars and other products, which have become the most popular in the Middle East and Southeast Asia markets. The company has also developed new products for different customer groups, such as a series of high-end crystal wine glasses for chain supermarkets; and launched several cups and dishes, bowls and dishes gifts for express transportation and online sales for online channels Box set; New high boron storage tank products have been launched for wholesalers, and the sales of these products in the target market are very good. " Wang Ji said.
Looking forward to 2023, Wang Ji said that the company will focus on the market demand of the Middle East and Southeast Asian countries. At the same time, it plans to set up overseas offices to radiate the whole target region from point to area, and accelerate the expansion of new markets by establishing an overseas agency system.
Coordinated development of domestic and foreign markets to improve brand awareness
"Taking the road of coordinated development of domestic and foreign markets can not only effectively expand the sales channels of the company's products, improve the order volume, but also improve the market reputation of the product brand." Fan Zhenzhen, general manager of Yiwu Pengcheng Import and Export Co., Ltd., told reporters that three years after the outbreak of the epidemic, the company has actively deployed the domestic market while expanding the international market. At present, the company has many products that are popular in the domestic market, Self owned brand SALI is also rapidly gaining popularity in the domestic market.
After the outbreak of the epidemic, the exchange of international personnel was blocked, and many new customers with a certain intention to cooperate repeatedly postponed their cooperation plans because they were unable to make field visits. The company faced difficulties in developing overseas markets. "In order to solve this problem, we will arrange international customers to visit the company's agents in its surrounding countries, see the sales and market feedback of the company's products, and try to make customers feel confident about the products. At the same time, we also suggest that customers arrange their friends from other suppliers or freight forwarders in China to visit the company on the spot, and exchange the investigation results through video conference," said Fan Zhenzhen, These practices have achieved good results. In the past three years, the company has signed many new orders with customers from Turkmenistan, Congo, Angola, Guyana and other countries in this way.
While steadily developing the international market, the company also vigorously layout the domestic market. "We have set up a professional sales team to visit the hardware and electrical markets and terminal factories all over the country." We have re researched, developed and upgraded the quality of slice products with diameters of 107, 250, 350 and 400, as well as abrasive products with diameters of 100, 125, 150 and 180, so that they can better adapt to the cutting and polishing of the domestic market and are widely recognized by domestic customers. "Fan Zhenzhen said.
Yiwu Pengcheng Import and Export Co., Ltd. is a foreign trade company mainly engaged in hand tools, electric tools, small electromechanical products, etc. In 2019, the company's independent brand SALI has obtained trademark registration rights in more than 150 countries around the world. "During the epidemic, the company vigorously promoted the SALI brand, launched a number of independent stations in small languages, optimized keywords in small languages on the search engine, and deeply explored the target markets of various small languages. At the same time, it opened Amazon stores in many countries, and introduced SALI brand products into new markets through the form of 2C. At present, the SALI brand has been sold to more than 160 countries and regions around the world, signed more than 20 national agents, and the sales growth rate It is much more than before the outbreak. " Fan Zhenzhen said.
In order to improve the popularity of SALI brand in the domestic market, Yiwu Pengcheng Company has also done a lot of work. According to Fan Zhenzhen, the company uses short video platforms such as Tiktok and Microvision to display SALI's high-end brand image and high-quality product quality. At the same time, it has opened domestic online sales channels for B2B, so that more domestic customers know the SALI brand. At present, SALI's sales network has covered all provinces and regions in China, and users are distributed in civil, shipbuilding, aerospace, oil fields, large-scale steel structure processing and other fields.