How suppliers deal with changes in foreign trade

The international trade environment is not what it used to be. "Made in China" urgently needs to be transformed. How can foreign trade companies create their own development strategies? Global Sources and its "CEConline" continue to create a series of "Wisdom & Win the Future" export forums, providing an excellent exchange and learning platform for foreign trade enterprises. The following are Mr. Mark Hayden, Chief Executive Advisor of Linmark Group (Hong Kong), Mr. Lin Siming, General Manager of Xiamen Yierxin Import and Export Co., Ltd., Mr. Xu Kaiming, General Manager of Xiamen Rongda Hezhong Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., A wonderful dialogue between Mr. Liu Yong, Marketing Manager of Xinglian Group Co., Ltd., and Pei Kewei, President of Global Sources Corporate Affairs and Publisher of "CEConline":

Xiamen Yierxin Import and Export has been engaged in foreign trade for 10 years. The product is a vacuum preservation machine. The current market distribution is mainly in Europe, the United States and Australia.

Xiamen Rongda Hezhong Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. has been developing for 4 years since 2010. The company's product is a pos printer, which is a commercial device, not a terminal device. The purpose is mainly used in some large supermarkets, chain supermarkets, chain restaurants, and mainly used for printing cashier receipts. Xiamen Rongda Hezhong Electronics is now the top three in the field of pos printers in China.

Xiamen Xinglian Group celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Its main products are traditional digital telephones and data communications. Strictly speaking, it has completely entered the export market since 2000. The promotion of magazines, exhibitions, etc. is done relatively early.

Pekewei: What changes have you observed in buyer behavior? Has the buyer made any new requirements? What do you think of these exchanges with buyers in recent years?

Lin Siming: From the past two years, I found that there should be a very big trend since 2008. In 2008, buyers often placed orders from the peak in 2007, from large orders to small orders. They placed orders very cautiously. Finally, they realized that the US crisis was in and buyers did not place orders. In 2009 and 2010, it was a very painful process for everyone. When it was over, they thought that this matter was over, but I didn't expect the European debt crisis to come again. We have gone through a more painful process. During this process, we found that the trend of buyers purchasing in recent years is indeed a trend of small ordering as Mr. Pei Kewei said. Orders are placed more frequently, and suppliers are required to cooperate. more and more actions.

Then I personally always think that we should find our own unique selling point, so how did we find the selling point in the first place? It is not enough to sell only one market, but also to understand this market, to understand this market, and then to cooperate with this market.

I think prices are far from relative terms, and I think China's advantage is still very obvious. In fact, there are many places in Southeast Asia that are not as good as us. One is from their productivity, and the second is people's attitude of doing things like this. For example, the people of Thailand are religious all over the country. They enjoy their life very much. on faith. India also believes in Muslim religion, and the way of life of the people in different places is different.

But there are very few hard-working people like China, there is only one in the world. After so many years of labor-intensive industries, China has had 20 or even 30 years of experience like this. This is something that Southeast Asian countries do not have, so this is our production advantage. In addition, during this wave, we have accumulated a large number of very valuable production experience, and very excellent enterprises, which are not found in other countries.

When it comes to price, it depends on which country it is compared with. Do you want to compare with your peers? You have to compare with factories in Xiamen, or with factories in Zhejiang, or with factories in Guangdong, or with factories in Taiwan and Korea, or with factories in Eastern Europe, or with the United States. factory ratio. In fact, you will find that your price has a lot of room. My current price is compared with Italy and South Korea. My price is 30% cheaper.

Mr. Xu: The obvious change in the past two years is that there are more obvious changes than in 2011 and 2012, that is, buyers have more and more requirements, such as some OEM requirements, and even buyers will make some changes to you. match the requirements. The orders placed by these customers will not be very large, generally from 10,000 US dollars to more than 20,000 US dollars, depending on the status of each order. These buyers will also put forward some more and more requirements. In the past two years, the OEM requires or requires the software to add his name.

A lot of times customers won't tell you what I need, what are these buyers looking for? It's actually trust. Trust your ability as a supplier, trust your character as a supplier. Because trust means trusting you for two points, one is ability, and the other is character. If you trust your ability, the letter ability includes many kinds, research and development ability, manufacturing ability. If he trusts your ability, he will trust you that the research and development ability of this product is OK, and the quality of your product is reliable. If you trust your ability, you will trust your manufacturing ability, and your manufacturing control is OK. Some defective products will not be sent out, or directly into the warehouse. He trusts you in these abilities and in your management abilities. Trust your ability with a low error rate. The ability is comprehensive. This is the first aspect of trust.

The second aspect of trust is trust in the character of your company. What customers are looking for is the character of your company, that is, whether your company is reliable and will come to me to grab business. You have to pass on your competence and corporate character to buyers.

Liu Yong: The biggest change is that customers do not place orders. It is true that traditional industries, especially telephones, have had a very, very big impact. In fact, one of the biggest problems we are facing now is the transformation of products, even a brand transformation.

So since last year, we've been working hard to transform. The first is how to transform our brand, we cooperate with customers to make the brand. Including the introduction of a company A brand from Canada, A is completely separated from digital phones, including smart home, everyone knows smart appliances. Including the current security products, smart home products, including the Korean market this year is particularly good, become a brand with Samsung, and follow their channels. As we all know, Samsung in South Korea basically monopolizes 70% and 80% of its share, mainly we go to our side. Probably several million dollars will not run away this year, and this one makes up for a large part of ours.

The other is to include the value and price we just talked about. I agree with the value very much. We now have a case that is very, very exciting for the whole company. There is a smart doorbell. When a foreigner turns on the phone at home, he knows who is coming outside. Then many suppliers read a lot, including Shenzhen's cost advantages, and read a lot. When we take out our products, we can see that the price is not negotiated. We do not negotiate the price with you. The profit of this product is very, very high. Do you want it regardless of the price? This year, the order is about one million US dollars, which is two or three months. This product, including several major channels in the United States, has been opened. You can't do better than me. I can get good results from my videos and calls. are the best. So I very much agree with this point of value, and I hope that made in China will become better and better in the future.

Pekewei: What should we do next to meet these buyer demands?

Lin Siming: It is very, very important that you can adjust the strategy of small orders. You can cater to many buyers;

The second is customized service. Now the market is getting smaller and smaller, but every buyer attaches great importance to its own brand, and every buyer wants to print its own logo, can it provide customized services? The concept that has not been customized before is the large order, and now it is called the small order customized service; It used to allow thirty or forty days of delivery, but now it is not possible. Whether it can be delivered in 15 or 20 days, the buyer's requirements are getting higher and higher.

The fewer intermediate links, the better. So if you want to do business again, you must let buyers know what I can provide, so if you can quickly help them grow, I believe that in the future we will do B2B business, and there is still a lot of room for B2B companies. Companies with certain factory background and certain trade experience integrating these resources still have great prospects. Although cross-border B2C is very popular now, don't do it in one step, that will die quickly. But we must not wait, it is too late to wait now. Be sure to change, change to accept small orders, and change your strategy and attitude. Then meet the needs of the market and buyers, this is what we have to do.

Xu Kaiming: We can talk about the continuous optimization of our marketing methods over the years, because most of the promotion methods exist in the same way for each company. B2B websites and exhibitions are the most important ones. This is our company's two promotion and marketing methods.

The place where we optimize is that in the past, all the exhibitions were standard booths. Now, most of the large exhibitions with almost tens of square meters are scheduled for fine decoration, which will enhance the image of the company and give customers confidence. It's also part of trust, because those clients already know your company does this before they may not be working with you. Maybe one or two years, two or three years, I have not tried to cooperate with you.

In fact, the most important thing is the first time, your order is done, your performance is good, your quality, your communication method, your price support, delivery support, after-sales support, etc. make him satisfied . The most important thing is that for the first time, our change is to optimize the booth at the exhibition, in order to pass on more confidence to the guests.

For the company, all departments from the initial R&D, manufacturing, sales to after-sales must be efficient and fast. Demand, this is where we are different.

Liu Yong: For us, the biggest marketing of technology-based companies is the uniqueness of your products. Another very agree with their so-called image and brand, the booth must be finely decorated. When it comes to image, the first exhibition is very important, and the second is to come to the factory. As long as you come to the factory, 99% of them can't escape, you have a very good grasp of your image, details and quality.