The resilience of foreign trade personnel has made a great breakthrough.
Wen/Zheng Yawen
Editor/Fan Tingting
I’m not sure, but it’s probably the most talked about topic among foreign trade professionals this year. The repeated outbreaks of the epidemic, geopolitical conflicts, inflation, logistics fluctuations, and a series of uncertain factors have made this year’s foreign trade experience “very difficult”.
But behind these ‘uncertainties’, the resilience of foreign traders is also highlighted:
Dong Chun, who once owed nearly ten million yuan, started his tenth business and achieved a 1.8-fold growth this year against the trend by utilizing more digital services for foreign trade;
Yu Jingxin, a second child mother who has been separated from society for 7 years, is unwilling to be a “lying flat” second-generation factory worker. This year, she has received orders worth millions of dollars for 9 consecutive months;
Zhang Fucai, who is over 70 years old and still working on the front line of foreign trade, has just moved into his new factory of over 40000 square meters this year;
Luo Chang, who had experienced the “darkest moment” due to incomplete organizational development, completed a single large order worth 200 million yuan this year;
Huanglian Jiang from the mountains, with over 1600 villagers, took orders on the cross-border e-commerce platform Alibaba International and sold “intangible cultural heritage” bamboo weaving products to the world.
These foreign trade professionals have grown into leaders in their respective industries with their unique thinking amidst uncertainty. On December 20th, Alibaba International paid special tribute to all foreign trade professionals at the “Digital Foreign Trade True Bull Award” event.
From the first year of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Ali International Station will hold an annual selection of outstanding foreign traders at the end of each year. After running around for a whole year, foreign trade professionals stand on their own exclusive stage, telling the story of this year.
TOP10 of Alibaba International Station’s “Digital Foreign Trade True Bull Award”
In today’s story, the protagonists are entrepreneurs who focus on “breakthrough” and “resilience”. Among them, the digital foreign trade service from Alibaba International Station provides more composure and confidence for this “big breakthrough”. At the end of the year, many people are concerned about whether next year will be good. After reading the stories of these foreign trade professionals this year, perhaps we will find the answer.
The sense of security in uncertainty
Nintendo of Japan once released a famous game called “Zelda Breath of the Wild”, and players who picked up the game controller knew very well that the ultimate mission of the protagonist Link was to break into the castle and save the princess.
But before entering the castle, Link will encounter numerous unknown crises. He must defeat monsters that can be killed at any time halfway, and he may accidentally fall off a cliff. These unknown risks are the uncertainty in the game.
Uncertainty can bring crisis, but it can also make Link stronger. Ultimately, it is the player who cultivates internal skills through Link. After any crisis, they will eventually return to the main mission, which is Link’s certainty.
People who do foreign trade business are very clear about their main task – to complete more export orders and ensure that each container of goods flows smoothly across the sea. On this road, there will also be countless sudden ‘unknown risks’.
The COVID-19 has been repeated for three years. The logistics fluctuations caused by the uncertain factors, such as border control measures, port congestion, and floating sea container prices, have brought many “insecurity” to foreign traders.
Dong Chun, who exports coffee roasters on Alibaba International Station, received a request from an American girl named Julie. She only has a few thousand dollars in savings, but she has a big dream – to open a coffee bean roasting factory. She used the only money she had to buy a coffee roaster from Dong Chun. Not long after placing the order, the outbreak of the epidemic in China caused factories to shut down and logistics to be disrupted.
Julie didn’t urge Dong Chun to ship the goods quickly, but instead sent him messages every day to comfort him and say she wasn’t in a hurry. After the order was finally shipped, foreign countries began to implement lockdown measures due to the pandemic. Julie fell into a state of extreme anxiety. This time, Dong Chun sent a message to comfort her.
This year, many foreign traders completed one order after another with mutual encouragement from customers. The business environment is unpredictable, and the foreign trade industry is engaged in international business, which is already full of various uncertainties. However, this year’s external environment has exacerbated these uneasy factors.
Before the start of the World Cup, Fan Aiping, who was exporting the national flag on Alibaba International Station, found that the export situation of the German flag this year was not good, and the sales situation of the entire German market was also not ideal. Her first reaction was that due to inflation in Europe and the postponement of the 2020 European Championship, the inventory was not fully depleted. When chatting with clients, German clients confirmed this.
The ability to digitize makes her ‘sense of smell’ more acute, enabling her to quickly identify potential dangers. So, Fan Aiping promptly filled in through other means. For example, quickly develop more sports related products and expand new customers through Alibaba International Station. This is the sense of security she found in uncertainty.
This year, all foreign trade professionals have used their own ‘digital magic’ to defeat the ‘uncertainty magic’ imposed by the outside world.
Digital resilience in the face of adversity
If placed in the past, being unable to travel abroad and meet clients would be a great source of insecurity for 70 year old Zhang Fucai. It’s completely unimaginable to give you a few million before we met in the foreign trade environment of the past
He started his business at the age of 50, and with over 300000 yuan borrowed, he sold his hometown house and bought a composite fabric production machine. Early orders relied entirely on one leg, traveling to exhibitions across the country and around the world, collecting business cards one by one.
Before 2017, Zhang Fucai only had one Alibaba International store with a very low presence, which he hardly took care of. In recent years of the epidemic, customers have been unable to enter, so he quickly increased his cross-border e-commerce efforts and opened six Alibaba International stores in a row. The popular e-commerce terms such as “through train” and “dominating the screen” in the world of young people have been well adapted by this elderly person.
Zhang Fucai’s friend and comrade have already retired. When everyone called him to play mahjong, he smiled and refused, saying, “You can be happy, I’ll be happy if I make a deal.” He couldn’t find a reason to stop and stood on the same stage as a young man several decades younger than himself, giving a speech.
This year, he built his own new factory with an area of over 40000 square meters, which is unprecedentedly large. For the sake of this new factory, Zhang Fucai has to go to the workshop every day to check the progress and monitor the entire process of machines moving into the new workshop. This is the certainty in his life.
Zhang Fuchai exudes the resilience and humility unique to the older generation, and he is just a footnote among many foreign trade professionals.
The epidemic has changed the business models of many foreign trade companies. Traders who used to be busy traveling to exhibitions around the world have completed countless large orders worth millions or tens of millions through video conversations and online communication.
In the past two years, almost all orders have come from Alibaba International Station, “said Xu Kaifa, a Minnan who has been engaged in foreign trade for more than 21 years. He referred to himself as a “post-70s teenager” and experienced the financial crisis of 1998 and 2008. Along the way, he was deceived by customers and deceived by suppliers. Having gone through many vicissitudes, but still possessing the learning and adaptability of a teenager, this is also the certainty that Xu Kaifeng seeks for himself in uncertainty.
This year, his company has achieved a performance growth of over 10 million through digital methods such as flexible customization, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement.
This year is also Dong Chun’s fifth year of entrepreneurship on Alibaba International Station. Before this, he had started and invested no less than 10 times. After graduation, he started an e-commerce business in New Zealand and earned a house, a car, and a stable life. But he gave up everything and returned to his home country to start over. In the following years, he failed to invest and owed nearly ten million yuan, becoming a “loser” in the eyes of others.
Dong Chun at the “Digital Foreign Trade True Bull Award” Live
Recalling his emotions at the time, Dong Chun self deprecatingly said, “It’s okay, there’s no depression.” At the bottom of the valley, Dong Chun remained confident, his certainty lying in his own abilities, and he believed he only needed one chance.
After starting a new business on Alibaba International Station, Dong Chun paid off his debts and clarified his development direction. He has been torn between two paths: one is to deeply cultivate the coffee roasting machine industry and develop products on multiple platforms; The second is to pin oneself on Alibaba International Station and develop products other than coffee roasters.
He chose the latter and wants to become a foreign trade company that focuses on operations. Through data analysis on Alibaba International’s backend, he has created higher end coffee machines for American customers and produced more cost-effective products for Asia Pacific ASEAN countries. Even before the end of the fiscal year, his company has grown 1.8 times compared to the previous fiscal year.
Tang Fei, who exports disposable sanitary equipment, sighed, “This year’s sales have broken the new high since the establishment of the company. It has never been so good
Under the same blue sky, these foreign traders have found their own opportunities under the same uncertainty.
Recovery takes time, but it will definitely be restored
As a cross-border B2B platform, most of the foreign traders on Alibaba International carry more socially significant responsibilities – many of their customers are independent entrepreneurs from overseas.
Tang Fei’s disposable personal care equipment is mainly exported to Southeast Asia, East Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and other countries. His clients are mostly local small and medium-sized enterprises. He found that the majority of clients’ entrepreneurial intentions are due to the large potential of the local market. But most people don’t understand how to manage a company or adjust equipment.
Tang Fei at the “Digital Foreign Trade True Bull Award” on-site
In order to help customers start their own businesses, almost all salespeople at Tangfei Company are versatile. They will teach customers how to manage warehouses and personnel, and be meticulous about when to purchase goods and which goods should be consumed first. Nowadays, the usage rate of sanitary napkins among Indian women has increased from less than 20% in 2018 to 50% now, which may be partly attributed to me.
Wang Naidun also believes in the idea of “helping others and benefiting oneself”. After five years of entrepreneurship, he has taught more than 1000 foreigners and learned to set up a stall to do business. His clients are mostly individual entrepreneurs from North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and other regions.
He poured out his experience in foreign trade and dining car equipment, choosing different dining cars and business strategies for clients with different entrepreneurial purposes. Even some clients turned their stall business into a “night market street” and asked them to repurchase dozens of food trucks.
Wang Naidun at the “Digital Foreign Trade True Bull Award” on-site
Chen Xiaoqi, who specializes in exporting jewelry products, even assured customers, “I will help you defeat your competitors
In the field of foreign trade, these young people have their own understanding. They firmly believe that only when their clients succeed in entrepreneurship can they succeed themselves.
This kind of fun also attracts more post-90s and second-generation factory workers to engage in foreign trade. On the final stage of the “Digital Foreign Trade True Bull Award”, more than 20% of the contestants are born in the 1990s and second-generation manufacturers. They are not all people who have gone through storms and experienced the feeling of falling into the valley, but they have used the same resilience to complete the transition from offline to online business.
During the three years of the epidemic, foreign trade professionals have actively or passively cultivated the internal strength of digital foreign trade through digital platforms such as Alibaba International Station. It has become an unstoppable trend to solve procurement, management and other problems in foreign trade business through digital means.
The entrepreneurial journey began with Zhang Jie from Alibaba International Station, who is currently building a brand flagship store through the Super Star brand project. He hopes to convey key information such as “full chain professional services”, “product innovation”, and “industry reputation”.
Through live streaming and short videos, the device is truly presented to customers. “Live broadcast is like an exhibition. During the Super Star brand period, two orders were closed within three days after a live broadcast. The old iron in the live broadcast room is real iron”.
This year, all foreign trade personnel have been a bit amazing! “Exclaimed Zhang Kuo, President of Alibaba International.” Recently, towards the end of the year, people often ask: Will things get better next year? After listening to the stories told by foreign trade personnel on Alibaba International today, I think this is the answer. The resilience shown by Chinese foreign trade personnel in the past year is the greatest confidence we have in the future
Alibaba International CEO Zhang Kuo at the “Digital Foreign Trade True Bull Award” event
He also made his own judgment on the foreign trade environment next year: “Next year, the overall foreign trade situation will follow a U-shaped rebound curve, and recovery will take time, but it will definitely recover. From the data, inflation rates in Europe and America are falling from high levels, overseas customer inventories are gradually being depleted, and demand will also recover. However, this recovery does not mean returning to the era of ‘wild growth’. The growth of industries such as new energy will continue, and consumer goods such as clothing and bags will also grow with the opening up of the epidemic and the resumption of travel
In fact, the opening up of the epidemic and the Zhejiang government’s organization of foreign trade personnel to participate in exhibitions abroad all reveal a trend – the opportunity for foreign trade personnel has arrived.
These opportunities are certainty. In the past 20 years, the growth of cross-border e-commerce has come from the digitization of traditional foreign trade in the transaction process. In the next 20 years, the growth of small and medium-sized foreign trade merchants will come from the digitization of the entire process from transaction to delivery and foreign trade
