New strategies for B2B platforms under the new normal of global trade

The global economy has maintained slow growth since the financial crisis, international competition has been fierce in all aspects, and new changes have occurred in the international industrial division of labor. Developed countries pay more attention to the real economy, and developing countries are striving to upgrade to the middle and high links of the industrial chain. The competition in China's foreign trade in terms of market, talent, technology, brand, and service has become increasingly extensive, complex and fierce, and it has become normal to maintain a growth rate slightly higher than or equal to that of GDP.

How to pan for gold from massive inquiries?

In global trade, the most common complaint of sellers is "cannot receive inquiries from buyers"; the most common complaint of buyers is "sellers ignore me, only a small number of sellers will Give feedback." What is the truth? The world-renowned B2B trading platform, Global Sources (GlobalSources: GSOL) shared its back-office statistics: For one-to-one inquiries, buyers have twice the response rate than sellers.

In today's global trade, buyers can search millions of supplier lists online. The headache for buyers today is how to filter: how to choose the right supplier, how to distinguish which information is unreliable and inaccurate, and which is reliable information.

From this data, although each supplier has its own set of mechanisms for screening buyers' inquiries, if the ability and efficiency of processing buyers' feedback can be improved, the chances of closing the deal are still very high. The supplier's service attitude, capability and frequency of service.

Zhuang Xiaofeng, Chairman and CEO of Shenzhen Ou Teda Holding Group Co., Ltd. believes that over the years, the Global Sources platform has accumulated a huge resource pool of high-quality buyers, which is its value where. When he started his business, he got the second-hand Global Sources one-star network access rights from a friend. He started with two people and two computers in a 20-square-meter office. It was only by seriously answering every buyer's inquiry that he became what he is today. An industry and trade integrated enterprise with its own mobile phone brand LEAGOO with annual sales of hundreds of millions.

Pei Kewei, the publisher of "CEConline" who has served Global Sources for more than 28 years, pointed out, "The starting point of marketing is the buyer's market, the buyer's state and the buyer's mentality. The promotion of suppliers requires Focusing on these three points, first of all, it must conform to buyers' purchasing habits, and secondly, it must be repeated exposure. In addition, suppliers who do O2O have a higher renewal rate, which is also the focus of Global Sources' platform strategy this year."

O2O closed loop of overseas marketing

Focusing on B2B for more than 40 years and professional exhibitions for 12 years, Global Sources has won the high trust of buyers and sellers; based on offline physical exhibitions, it adopts advanced Internet technology and information The vertical O2O, which has integrated the exhibition platform and the online platform, has become the preferred model for the strategic transformation of Global Sources.

It is necessary to make O2O seamless promotion based on buyers' habits

At the Global Sources exhibition, we learned the reasons why buyers use Global Sources website through research . The common answer among buyers is that the quality of the suppliers on this site is relatively high. Buyers also know that Global Sources' advertising promotion is the highest charging standard among foreign trade B2B counterparts. The high threshold of screening and elimination of suppliers can help buyers reduce risks and reduce unnecessary workload.

Buyers need to consolidate or prove which information is correct after filtering out a lot of information from the Internet. They need an opportunity to negotiate face-to-face, and the Global Sources exhibition just meets their O2O needs.

Judging from the renewal rate data, the renewal rate of customers who not only participate in the exhibition, but also online promotion cooperation is the highest, because the sales leads generated by O2O are more abundant than the promotion of a separate website, and the inquiries are converted into contracts The opportunity is relatively high, and it is in line with the current buyer's mentality. Zhou Xin, general manager of Dongguan Kangyong Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., said, "We have grown from one star to six stars in Global Sources, and our booth has grown from 9 square meters to 36 square meters. We have increased our promotion step by step because we have made money. The exhibition allows us to collect feedback from many customers face-to-face and help us grow.”

Today, new technologies such as 3D printing technology and fully automated robot factories have also brought new technologies to export-oriented manufacturing companies. With many new challenges, Global Sources has increased investment in vertical industry, intensively cultivated market segments, grasped the development trend of the industry, and helped buyers make choices more conveniently. Taking the electronics industry as an example, with the advent of the era of mobile Internet, personal electronic consumer products such as tablet computers, smart phones, wearable devices, and drone products are very popular. In response to market demand, Global Sources launched the first Global Sources in October last year. Mobile Electronics Exhibition, with 1,516 booths, successfully attracted 21,131 international high-quality buyers from 122 countries and regions. Taking advantage of the success, the scale of the exhibition will be further expanded by 20% this spring. In order to attract more international buyers to visit the venue, Global Sources continues to invest a lot of money in market promotion. In addition to the exhibition, Global Sources also integrates a number of professional services such as websites, magazines, buyers' special purchasing meetings, information express, mobile APP, etc., to build a unique ecosystem in the industry, and effectively connect buyers and sellers in the mobile electronics industry.

The influence of Global Sources' Hong Kong Electronics Fair is increasing day by day, and it has now become the world's largest electronics fair, with more than 5,500 booths full in the two phases. Mr. Pei Kewei also revealed: "This exhibition has two new highlights, one is the experience area of drones, and the other is about the application of robot products."

New platform for intellectual growth

The low price advantage of Chinese manufacturing is gradually lost. How should enterprises position themselves? With the advent of the era of Industry 4.0, how can Made in China seize the opportunity? The market competition is fierce, how to retain foreign trade talents? How to improve the management system of SMEs? How to develop and maintain customers? How to improve management and improve profitability? These have become the problems that every business leader needs to solve urgently.

General Manager Zhou Xin pointedly pointed out: "In fact, the first thing that needs to be reformed in an enterprise is not the equipment or professional managers, but the entrepreneurs themselves. To change one's own thinking first, start with reading. Everyone. You can buy books to read and develop your thinking, or you can go to study classes, such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, etc., you have to change.”

As a B2B trading platform, Global Sources not only promotes trade To help customers grow, not only to help customers win orders, but also to become a trusted advisor to customers. In 2015, Global Sources and its "CEConline" all-media platform launched the "Intellectual Growth" platform, which integrates the "CEConline" outsmarting future forum, high-end customized training courses and foreign trade workshops to meet the needs of manufacturing business owners. Different learning needs from middle and senior managers.

Among them, there were 43 high-end customized training courses with more than 2,200 seats in the first half of 2015, and jointly launched courses with mature operations in the market with well-known management training institutions, focusing on hot management topics, including the six thinking hats , executive engineering, corporate strategic transformation and organization, etc., for corporate decision makers, and comprehensively improve leadership.

The "Foreign Trade Workshop" in the first half of 2015 covered 53 foreign trade cities, aiming to provide practical knowledge and practical skills in export marketing and team management. It is aimed at foreign trade managers and salesmen. The format is divided into online And face-to-face training, flexible and convenient.

Under the new normal of international trade, in order to help Chinese enterprises find countermeasures and new development directions, the "CEConline" series of forums, which are deeply loved by export-oriented manufacturing enterprises, outsmart future exports since 2013 Since its launch in 2008, it has held more than 70 consecutive events. In the first half of this year, the forum will focus on the topic of "How to seize opportunities and outsmart the future in the era of Industry 4.0", and invite company presidents, experts and scholars to gather together to express their opinions and help foreign trade industry managers to clarify their ideas and move forward cautiously .