Challenges and Opportunities: The Evolution of Made in China

At the "Wisdom & Win Future Export Series Forum" held by Global Sources' management media "CEConline", Global Sources President of Corporate Affairs, "CEConline" publisher analyzed the Made in China from a management perspective challenges and opportunities, and the future evolutionary development direction of Chinese manufacturing.

"Smart & Win Future Export Forum" is specially sponsored by UPS, the world's leading logistics and supply chain expert. As a leader and insight in the global logistics and supply chain industry, UPS proposed the concept of "Made in China 2.0 | Made in China", and carried out activities through cooperation with "CEConline", aiming to join hands with Chinese business leaders, Manufacturing enterprises, experts and scholars will have a dialogue on the current situation and future of China's manufacturing industry, share insights, and help China's manufacturing industry achieve a gorgeous transformation from "Made in China" to "Made in China".

Peke: We are now facing many new challenges. For example, when many new technologies come to us, they will bring some new opportunities and challenges, such as the slow recovery of the global economy, but it seems that we cannot return to the stage of rapid development we have seen, and we We can also see the phenomenon of global integration, including that many domestic export companies are now considering how to take the first step and go overseas to set up their own contact points or some branches, as well as some overall geographical aspects. Variety. Originally, the traditional European and American markets were the main ones, but now more and more companies are considering how to enter new emerging markets.

It also mentioned the development of so-called new technologies. For example, the film shows us the opportunity of fully automated production, but the problem is if today's main market for Chinese export companies is in the United States, and it wants to sell all the factories In the case of automation, why not consider setting up the factory in the United States? So this will affect China's role as the "world's factory".

But I think there are many other factors, such as discussing from the buyer's market situation. As Global Sources, we often have the opportunity to hear some feedback from buyers, and we also know that they are changing, such as the consumption of various countries. The market is increasingly emphasizing personalization, and we may imagine in the future that one day everyone can realize the products he owns because of 3D printing technology, because he can carry out some personalized processing, but This personalization trend is becoming more and more evident today. Of course, lifestyles are also changing, and the pace of life is also accelerating. For buyers, they must grasp many new challenges for retailers themselves. For example, new developments in the overall supply chain and logistics have brought many new challenges. opportunities and challenges.

I also mentioned the Global Sources buyer community earlier, how buyers view today's market. What we have heard so far is also very interesting. When China, as the "world factory", lost its original price advantage, buyers are more and more concerned about cost and price, so when we asked them "What is your price today? Where are the main procurement challenges?"

The first is price increases, the second is exchange rate changes, which can also be linked to prices, and the following aspects, such as product life cycles are getting shorter and shorter, end users' Consumption habits are becoming more and more cautious, and it is difficult to predict what kind of requirements consumers will have in the future or which products will become popular. Quality requirements are getting higher and higher and there is a trend of personalization. Orders are becoming more and more important, MOQ is also getting smaller and smaller in the future, and delivery times are getting shorter and shorter, as well as personalization and customization | service Require.

From another point of view, some surveys from UPS Logistics tell us that the kind of criteria buyers choose suppliers is also changing, for example the most important factor is that 84% of buyers say suppliers must Master the buyer's own way of operating, and come up with some solutions to help the buyer improve his competitive advantage. The second most important factor is that he needs to choose suppliers who can provide high-quality products, and then he needs to find those suppliers who can speed up the delivery of products to the market, hoping to find suppliers who can reduce the overall procurement cost, the overall procurement cost It is not equal to product pricing, so the emphasis is on a supplier that can provide an overall solution. And customer experience refers to the customer experience of the buyer and the customer experience of the consumers behind the buyer is more and more important, of course, the price of the product is also an important factor.

Going back to Global Sources, looking back at Chinese exporters, when we asked them "what are your main challenges?" we found that they were also very close to those factors that buyers rated. For example, the number one important challenge was In terms of cost control, the second most important challenge is how to build a brand to attract customers, how to actively develop the market, and how to grasp the market demand, just like the buyer said, how to predict the next one. Where will popular products come from, and how to improve design capabilities, and also from the perspective of UPS, UPS surveys what methods suppliers have to adapt to today's environmental changes, these methods should be divided into two types, one is external , one is internal.

Externally, more and more suppliers want to be able to cooperate with buyers to innovate products. Some want to ensure that products and services can fully meet the needs of buyers. The third is to cooperate with the first one. Linking, developing new products, and then logistics solutions, can deliver products to the market more quickly.

When it comes to internal factors, the more primitive and more basic is that product quality should go up, and then product pricing will go down, but more importantly, product innovation and the time from concept to product delivery to the market To shorten it, the most obvious thing is that these factors are different from previous years, and we have heard a lot of arguments and slogans everywhere, such as upgrading and transformation. What is transformation?

The first stage is mainly OEM, and then ODM, which emphasizes the unique design of the product. On the right is OBM, which is the product of its own brand. The end user is B2C, and it can also be a user who is facing B2B. Each stage is different. For example, for OEM orders, of course, the quantity is high, and the average price is low. If it is an ODM, its own design may have its value, so the price can be slightly increased. , so if you see the green line it means average price, so ODM will be higher than OEM. If the brand is facing B2B bulk import customers, the price can be increased because of the brand, but the order volume will definitely be reduced, so the gray line represents the average order volume; then B2C is facing the end user consumption The branded product of the buyer, which has the highest price, but the smallest order quantity, even sold one by one, but in addition, the blue line represents the complexity and the buyer's interest in the product. Expectations, so take these factors into consideration when choosing your positioning, price, order volume, and customer service capabilities. I think such a change will drive the original simple "Made in China" era, and the era of winning by quantity will slowly enter a new era of "Made in China" with wisdom. The key to this new era is people. , because when you had this low price advantage in the past, basically anyone could meet customer needs, but when you are not the cheapest product, you need more energy and methods to convince the other party to purchase your product, so that That's when what kind of raw material you have becomes especially important.

More detailed UPS "MIC2.0" content has been uploaded to the "CEConline" website.