Pour lotus root starch, pour it into hot boiling water, stir quickly for 20 seconds, the white suspension becomes viscous and transparent, and the ingredients such as wolfberry, red dates, black sesame and other ingredients mixed in it appear.
With an English description: "That's it for delicious and nutritious lotus root starch." Wen Bin sent this short video to a Cambodian customer, and the customer sent the video through his TikTok (Overseas version of Douyin) account .
On the account, which has only 35 followers, the video has been viewed 4,265 times.
The customer messaged Wenbin in patched English: "I just signed up for a TikTok account and posted videos, and I keep getting orders."
Wen Bin told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that now, many foreigners buy goods from her online store and sell Chinese food.
Her online store mainly sells snacks, and now her customers cover more than a dozen countries, mainly Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.
It is thousands of "small online merchants" like Wenbin who have supported half the sky of China's cross-border digital economy during the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on July 14, the scale of China's import and export reached a new high in the first half of this year.
Among them, the digital economy is indispensable.
The "China Digital Economy Development Report (2022)" shows that in 2021, the scale of my country's digital economy will reach 45.5 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly 40% of GDP, which is 3.4 percentage points higher than the nominal GDP growth rate in the same period.
The role of the digital economy as a "stabilizer" and "accelerator" of the national economy is more prominent.
Big data allows entrepreneurs to better identify positioning
As a "trade seller" who has only been in Alibaba International Station for 3 years, Wen Bin, like many small and micro sellers who have entrepreneurial dreams but lack technical and financial support, has also experienced a confusing period of trial and error.
In the year she first opened the store, she put more than 1,000 products on the shelves, and she has been in a state of loss. "I don't know what products foreigners need, but I can only sell what I think is easy to sell."
Later, through the analysis of big data, she found that Chinese snacks are very popular in Southeast Asia, so she turned the target market to Southeast Asia, and simplified the products to four or five kinds according to the tastes of Southeast Asians.
Turning around, he stood on the tuyere.
Statistics show that from 2021, ASEAN has become my country's largest and fastest-growing trade partner for import and export, and Southeast Asia has become the third largest export destination for China's cross-border e-commerce, of which B2B business accounts for China's cross-border e-commerce business. more than 70% of the total.
More and more Chinese companies are turning to Southeast Asia, a market with huge potential.
Another "trade-oriented seller", Zeng Yongxia, founder of Aixiang Technology Co., Ltd., has also gone through a detour before.
In 2015, she returned to her hometown of Chengdu and started an e-commerce business with her university classmates.
Initially, they operated a garment foreign trade business, but since the supplier was in Guangzhou, it was difficult to control whether it was delivery or quality control.
Since 2019, they have adjusted their business direction and turned to the export of agricultural equipment, mainly greenhouses.
From clothing to agricultural equipment, why is the span so big?
"One is that because the supply of goods is located around Chengdu, we can better control the production progress and product quality; the other is that when selecting products, we will refer to online data to see if there are any good merchants doing this product, and There are not many businesses; thirdly, greenhouses are project-based products, and the threshold is much higher than that of fast-moving consumer goods, which can filter many competitors." Zeng Yongxia said.
Selling snacks depends on customer tastes, and selling greenhouse equipment also depends on customer needs.
Zeng Yongxia introduced that they will design product plans according to the geographical environment, climatic conditions, and temperature and humidity required by the crops.
After signing the contract, but also to provide installation guidance and after-sales service for customers.
They have gradually gained a firm foothold overseas with their services, and more than 80% of their customers are from the United States and Canada.
The international situation is unpredictable, and cross-border e-commerce is getting bigger and bigger
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump launched a trade war with China, imposing tariffs on a range of Chinese goods.
After Biden took office, these tariffs were not lifted, and Sino-US economic and trade frictions continued.
The U.S. government hopes to “decouple” from China through these means and shift supply chains to the U.S. mainland or other countries.
The result was unexpected.
In 2020, Sino-US trade volume will reach US$586.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.98%. In 2021, China-US trade volume will reach US$755.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28.79%. Among them, the US trade deficit with China will increase by 25% year-on-year.
Analysts pointed out that in order to offset the loss of tariffs, American companies had to raise the price of domestic goods, which ultimately harmed the interests of American consumers.
There are growing calls for Biden to completely abandon Trump's policies and repair trade relations with China.
The contrarian growth of "Aixiang Technology" is a microcosm of the "continuous shearing and chaos" of Sino-US economic and trade relations.
Zeng Yongxia said that the company's sales in 2019 were only more than 300,000 US dollars, more than 1 million US dollars in 2020, and more than 2 million US dollars in 2021.
Although the company's business has been somewhat affected by the Sino-US trade conflict, it has generally maintained growth, and the employee team has grown from two to 20.
Speaking of competitive advantages, Zeng Yongxia and her partners said that the domestic manufacturing industry in the United States is declining, and the purchase price of the same equipment in the United States is often two to three times higher than that from China, and it is still "Made in China".
In addition, e-commerce transactions can save a lot of costs. Even if costs are high and shipping costs skyrocket during the epidemic, Chinese products are still the "best cost-effective" choice.
Compared with greenhouses made in the Netherlands, Chinese products have a price advantage; compared with Turkey and other domestic products, Chinese products have a quality advantage.
When the United States engages in "isolationism", China's circle of friends is constantly expanding.
On January 1 this year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into effect. The first countries to take effect include Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and other ASEAN countries.
According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RCEP has strongly promoted higher-quality and deeper regional economic integration in terms of preferential tariffs, rules of origin, and customs procedures.
"After RCEP takes effect, it will be smoother to sell goods from China to Southeast Asia, and customs clearance will be faster." Wen Bin said, "We used to sell a cake with a shelf life of two months. When the epidemic is severe, it may have expired. Now it only takes a dozen or so. The day is coming, and customers still have a month to sell.” The number of returned orders has also increased. In the past, the customer repurchase rate was more than 20%, and after RCEP came into effect, it increased by more than a dozen points, “because the efficiency of customs clearance is higher. , the faster customers get the goods, the faster they sell, and the faster they buy back.”
Building a bridge of people-to-people bonds in a virtual space
The increasingly close economic and trade exchanges between China and Southeast Asia have also promoted cultural exchanges between peoples.
"More and more customers are starting to learn Chinese because they know that after learning Chinese, the price of goods will be more advantageous. Not only can they talk to us, but they can also talk directly on Taobao." Wen Bin said that there are many customers who like China Ornaments, she would send them some Chinese statues and paintings from time to time.
Among Wenbin's clients, the one who impressed her the most was a Cambodian girl. She placed orders frequently, but the amount of each transaction was not high. Every time she had to find a different person to pay for her, it was "very troublesome".
One year, the store was on holiday during the Spring Festival, "she urged from the first day of the first day to the eighth day (delivery)".
Wen Bin finally couldn't help asking the other party: "Why don't you pay by yourself? If you open an account yourself, you can see the logistics tracking records in the background, so you don't have to worry about it." The other party replied: "Sister, I'm only 14 years old. I can't get a bank card, so I can only pay for it." Wen Bin later learned that by doing e-commerce business with Chinese people, this girl supports a family of five.
Later, Wen Bin found that people often "disappeared after chatting with her, and reappeared a few days later, saying that they were taking exams in those days, and they came back to pick up the goods after the exam."
She said that many children in Southeast Asia came out to do business from a young age, posting videos on social networks, opening online stores, and earning tuition and living expenses.
There are multiple reasons behind the "younger" phenomenon of e-commerce in Southeast Asia.
According to a report released by Google in 2021, the size of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market will increase from US$120 billion in 2021 to US$234 billion in 2025, and the growth rate will lead the global e-commerce market.
According to the World Bank survey, from 2015 to 2019, the proportion of the working-age population in 7 of the 11 Southeast Asian countries continued to rise.
The huge population size, younger population structure and consumption habits in the Internet age have made Southeast Asia the next outlet for the e-commerce industry, releasing huge market potential.
"Through international trade, we not only help customers in Southeast Asian countries to support their families, but also let the whole world enjoy Chinese food." Wen Bin said.
In the United States, people-to-people exchanges are still very active, even though bilateral political relations have cooled.
In Zeng Yongxia's memory, there was a client who had a "weird temper" and "would 'run away' if something didn't suit his mind", and this client was from Panama, his English was not very native, and communication was very difficult. communicate with him in a way to understand each other's meaning."
After a long preliminary communication, the order was finally completed, and the customer gave them a high evaluation.
"Your rigor and responsibility make us deeply admire." In an email to Zeng Yongxia, the client named Eric Harari said that he was the head of a camping agency and hoped to be one of them Agents in the US and Canada.
"This (collaboration) will be an interesting start and an excellent opportunity to forge a closer relationship."
When it comes to the future, Zeng Yongxia is full of confidence.
Her target business volume this year is $5.5 million and will continue to focus on North America.
"We have been growing in the face of adversity, and I believe that the United States will also recognize and accept the fact that China's national strength is growing in the future, and find a foothold for common development." Wen Bin hopes to create his own brand in order to better control prices and quality. .
"In the context of the global epidemic, small and medium-sized enterprises will have certain difficulties and obstacles in traditional foreign trade, but by establishing digital foreign trade, they can more efficiently access global customer information and market business opportunities." Alibaba International Station Sichuan Regional General Manager A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily said that in the digital economy market, made in China will make a big difference.
This newspaper, Beijing, July 20th
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Hu Wenli Source: China Youth Daily