Author: Miao Qi
The countdown to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is three days away. Wang Jiandong, a merchant in Yiwu who has been making peripheral products for the event for more than ten years, is still working overtime.
"I am waiting for the client's design, and I will send it at 2 in the afternoon. After finishing the delivery tomorrow, the flight the day after tomorrow will arrive in Qatar on the 19th." The orders for the peripheral products of the World Cup have been replenished until now.
The start of the game is just around the corner, and they are also rushing to ship, "the customer will ship out as soon as they place an order" to ensure timely delivery.
In order to keep up with the timeliness, they can complete the production in one day. No matter how much the goods are worth, they will be shipped by air in the near future, and they will be delivered as soon as possible.
As the person in charge of Shaoxing Bolisi Clothing Co., Ltd., Wang Jiandong set up the front-end sales store in Yiwu and the back-end factory in Shaoxing.
With the opening of overseas markets, offline competitions and large-scale activities have resumed one after another. Small, medium and micro foreign trade manufacturers that were hit during the epidemic have also ushered in a considerable increase with the help of the World Cup.
Staying up late to catch up with orders
As early as the 100-day countdown to the World Cup, Chen Xianchun, the head of Yiwu Jinzun Stationery and Sports Goods Company, felt the "return" of the order.
"Orders for gifts, prizes and souvenirs have really come back this year." Chen Xianchun told China Business News that they have received orders for this year's World Cup commemorative prizes, fan medals, key chains and other peripheral products. It grew by at least 50% last year and returned to the level before the epidemic.
In the first half of this year alone, the company's performance has exceeded the sum of last year and the year before.
Before that, "there was no meeting, and such products would not be available." The epidemic directly reduced their business by 90%.
At the end of August this year, the World Cup orders in Chen Xianchun's hands have basically been delivered.
However, there are still customers who keep returning orders, and the orders have been received by the end of December.
Especially "it's almost the end of the year, and every customer is in a hurry", which made her stay up for several days in a row recently, just to rush to work and deliver as soon as possible.
It is expected that the busy state will continue until before the Spring Festival.
Chen Xianchun said that during the busiest time, they would send out several cabinets of goods every week, and one cabinet could hold nearly 4,000 trophies.
From mini flags the size of a business card to large national flags measuring 2 meters by 3 meters, He Jinqi, a Yiwu merchant specializing in the production and sale of flags from various countries, told Yicai that since the list of the top 32 World Cup finals was confirmed in May this year, there have been more flags in succession. Merchants come to inquire and place orders.
Since Yiwu was affected by the epidemic in August, logistics did not resume until around August 22.
Therefore, it was not until the end of August that the last order for the World Cup was processed.
Under the business opportunity of the World Cup, their orders this year are expected to increase by 10% to 20% compared with last year.
During the epidemic, Banner's business was mainly digested offline, so it was also greatly affected.
Their biggest selling item this year is a string of 32 team flags, which are mainly used for various decorative occasions.
For Wang Jiandong's company, the increase brought by the World Cup is between 10 million and 20 million yuan, accounting for about 20% of the overall sales.
In his view, the World Cup has brought about an increase, and their business this year is expected to increase by 30% compared to last year.
Before the start of the World Cup, Yiwu businessman Wu Xiaoming's factory exported 1 million footballs, worth about 20 million yuan.
According to his experience, the order income brought by Yiwu merchants in the year of the World Cup "basically can be worth two years in one year."
According to the estimation of Yiwu Sporting Goods Association, from the flags of the top 32 in the World Cup in Qatar to the decorations and pillows of the Hercules Cup, "Made in Yiwu" has accounted for nearly 70% of the market share of the entire World Cup peripheral products.
According to a CCTV report, in Qatar's official World Cup store, 60% of the goods are produced in China.
As sales volume far exceeded expectations, the specialty store also placed additional orders with officially authorized Chinese suppliers.
It's not yet time to bet on stock
The saying that Yiwu businessmen predicted the World Cup champion in advance, and even the result of the US general election, has always been talked about.
But Yiwu businessmen did not take it seriously.
"It's hard to predict." He Jinqi also said that sometimes it is not even sure whether the flags of the 32 countries will be used in the World Cup.
Wang Jiandong believes that which country's flag or peripheral products are ordered more before the competition mainly depends on the size of the country. "After all, it is a carnival, so buy more if you have money", which is not directly related to the final victory or loss.
Wang Jiandong said that the results of the current competition are definitely unpredictable, but in the second half of the race, they will also make some predictions based on the situation and increase their stocking.
For example, "When there are only 4 or 8 countries left, we will prepare more flags of these countries" to ensure that the demand for supplementary orders can be met as soon as possible during the semi-finals or quarter-finals.
According to this logic, Yiwu businessmen may indeed be the first to predict the final ownership of the World Cup—according to the number of orders for supporting props for each national team, they can at least predict the favorite country to win the World Cup.
A Yiwu businessman recalled that during the 2018 U.S. election, the Yiwu market had a large number of orders for props to support Trump, and the Yiwu businessman "successfully" predicted that Trump would win the presidential election.
But the case of successfully predicting the World Cup champion team has not happened yet.
Foreign trade opportunities are always there
Due to the wide variety of products, from flags to blankets, to pillows, T-shirts, there are thousands of varieties, and at the same time, the customer and sales layout is also wide, not only to receive business from outdoor advertising customers, but also to accumulate in the field of cross-border e-commerce With a certain amount of experience, Wang Jiandong's global business is not too affected by the epidemic.
Wang Jiandong said that after the business opportunities of the World Cup, the European Cup and the Asian Games will come soon, and there are always opportunities for growth.
Adhering to export and domestic sales, they walk on two legs online and offline, and they are both cautious and optimistic in an uncertain environment.
In addition to sales, more and more small, medium and micro foreign traders are also transforming towards both ends of the smiling curve to increase the added value of products.
For example, designing original IP or brand, not just being an unknown OEM behind the scenes.
The performance of the World Cup effect in Yiwu has always been obvious.
Different from the past, this year's World Cup orders not only toys, clothing and other traditional strong categories, but also projectors, football cards and other products also ushered in a large increase.
According to Yiwu customs statistics, in the first eight months of this year, Yiwu exported 3.82 billion yuan of sporting goods and 9.66 billion yuan of toys.
Related products include flags of various countries, footballs, whistles, horns, clappers, etc.
In addition to the Middle East, Yiwu exported 7.58 billion yuan to Brazil, an increase of 56.7%; 1.39 billion yuan to Argentina, an increase of 67.2%; 4.29 billion yuan to Spain, an increase of 95.8%.
Faced with a positive growth trend, Wang Jiandong said that he is starting to expand the factory building and invest in more automated equipment to improve efficiency and added value.
Due to long-standing challenges such as difficulty in recruiting, he, who has international customer resources, wants to focus more on trading in the future, entrust the factory, and further develop offline and cross-border e-commerce resources by himself, looking for opportunities under uncertainty. greater certainty.
Affected by factors such as the economic downturn, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and global inflation, the overall consumption power of the world has declined.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in the first 10 months, China's total import and export value was 34.62 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%.
Among them, exports increased by 13% year-on-year, and imports increased by 5.2%.
Compared with the previous nine months, the growth rate continued to drop slightly, but it was still around 10%.
Wei Jianguo, former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce and vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, previously told China Business News that this year's "Golden September and Silver October" in China's traditional foreign trade will be postponed, and there may be a more obvious tailing phenomenon at the end of this year.
In addition to the surge in demand for Yiwu small commodities, cold-proof clothing and daily necessities, products such as automobile snow chains and deicers will also usher in greater demand.