Self Rescue And Rescue Of Foreign Trade Factories

2020 is undoubtedly the winter of foreign trade. In February, businesses were worried that they could not resume work and regenerate their products. Every day they were busy comforting their customers' mood and worried that they would not be able to enter the country because they were afraid of going abroad. In March, the upstream supply chain had not yet fully recovered, so we had to worry about no downstream demand.

"We can feel that the money is hard to earn this year. Everyone is waiting for the 6:30 free subway." Erwin, who worked for a foreign trade company in Ningbo, said half jokingly.

No order, only the basic salary, but Erwin's circle of friends, he is lucky, "a foreign trade company to do the American market, only three days a week, half of the staff wages."

According to the latest import and export data released recently by the General Administration of customs, China's exports decreased by 11.4% compared with the same period in the first quarter of 2020, and imports dropped by 0.7%.

In March, imports and exports showed a marked recovery. The decline in exports narrowed to 3.5%, while imports increased from negative to 2.4%.

A spokesman for the General Administration of Customs said that the reason for March's exports was warmer because of the backlog of export orders which had been delayed due to the delay in resumption.

Obviously, this recovery is not a sign of a rebound in foreign trade. After all, many foreign trade enterprises started production orders only at the end of February. According to the trade agreement, foreign trade companies can only receive a small amount of payment after delivery.

A bigger crisis lurks. When the order is shipped, the factory will face a production break. "Now the factory orders are all orders before March, and the existing orders can be produced until the end of May, and in early June, workers will not be able to work in June." Erwin said, "this is the most worrying thing for everyone."

In the predicament, the foreign trade enterprises have launched the fancy self-help, some enterprises have begun to use the production line to produce epidemic prevention materials, and some enterprises are busy transferring the export power to the domestic market through the power of the platform.

Fight the production line of anti epidemic materials

In February 6th, Li Yeming (a pseudonym) had learned that there had been some peers, and several production lines had been changed, and began to work overtime to produce anti epidemic materials. In the same period, household electrical appliance enterprises and even oil companies took aim at the production of epidemic prevention materials.

Li Yeming was director of a factory in Yiwu. He also felt that the "market" of the epidemic prevention material was not good enough to judge that the company would not manufacture the mask.

Unexpectedly, two months later, he had to invest in the mask production army.

In March, the decline in foreign trade orders not only reduced the number of enquiries, but also even withdrew orders from customers who had already ordered. Li Yeming had just expanded the factory a few years ago, and if the factory could not work, it would lead to huge losses. On the other hand, he also saw the demand gap of masks from customer accounts.

At the end of March, he first modified 2 Mask production lines in the company's dust-free workshop to test the water.

In April 5th, he sent a circle of friends, indicating that the company's dust-free workshop has successfully launched 2 full-automatic mask production lines, 120 thousand Nissan, and 5 production lines. The company began to take orders, but only accepted the order after April 12th, and asked the customer to pay 50% of the advance payment at the same time. Two hours later, he left a message in this dynamic. The order in April was already full. If there is a need, we need to wait until the new product line is online.

This kind of special demand commodity has brought him a different experience. "After the foreign trade business has to wait for the delivery, the customer will pay a small portion of the payment. After receiving the goods, there is a relatively long payment cycle. Cash flow is the most important part of our business. But the mask is now a seller's market, the production side has the right to speak, the order will pay 50% deposit, the company's financial pressure is much smaller. "

These newly opened production lines have also perfectly solved the problem of employment, and the surplus productivity can also be fully applied. "The most important thing is to keep factories and keep workers' jobs so that the operation of the company can be brought back to normal as soon as the epidemic is over."

At this point, Li Yeming regretted, "getting on the train" was late. "Production masks are also contributing to the control of the epidemic."

However, it is only the privilege of large and medium sized foreign trade enterprises to temporarily pull out the production lines that are not worried about the sale of the epidemic prevention materials, but this is not a reference for smaller companies.

"That's a very professional product, such as mountain crossing. We can't get the goods from regular factories. There are risks in small factories. Erwin said, "generally speaking, foreign countries do not wear masks, even now. The demand is mainly from hospitals. When applied to a hospital, it will involve many foreign quality requirements. Our country has strict control over the export of masks, after all, it is about human lives.

Two legs' walking 'preparations at home and abroad

Some enterprises turn their attention to China. In fact, before the outbreak of the epidemic, after nearly two years of heavy tariffs imposed by the United States, many foreign trade factories had already prepared for domestic sales. Foreign trade to domestic sales is therefore not a simple stress reaction.

For example, Li industry will set the goal of establishing an internal sales team next year. In the past, because of the low acceptance of washable diapers in the domestic market, Li Yeming was somewhat worried. On the contrary, the epidemic made him firm in his determination to walk on two legs. "This is a step that must be taken."

Just this month, Ali and many other electronic business platforms have launched corresponding platform policies to help foreign trade enterprises turn to domestic sales.

For example, the 1688 spring thunder project, launched a full set of "turn around" solutions, from businesses to commodity operations to marketing channels, service businesses.

1688, a person in charge said, "there are also problems, such as the" rules of the game "in the domestic market and the foreign trade market. In traditional foreign trade, enterprises can advance smoothly as long as they perform the contract according to the contract. But domestic trade is much more complicated, including product line planning, channel development, brand building, sales team building and so on.

In order to enable foreign trade merchants to adapt to the electricity supplier's play as quickly as possible, 1688 has also given the light operation (foreign trade merchants need not open shop, only need to order according to platform instructions) and open broadcast rights (settled businesses can get live permission). Relevant personnel said, "the threshold of this method is relatively low."

Coincidentally, in recent years, many companies have also offered solutions to help foreign trade enterprises to export to domestic ones. The platform provides professional training for online trade enterprises, such as shop decoration, online marketing, logistics and distribution, and open data and traffic support. The first batch of export to domestic products will be launched in April 28th.

It is not hard to see that the two platforms are actively promoting the on-line project of foreign trade businesses through the form of government cooperation. However, after all, the platform can only provide soil, and whether it can germinate or grow depends on the enterprise.

"In the past, we bought a booth and waited for our customers to find us. Turn to do business, at least jump two steps, first foreign trade to domestic sales, followed by offline transfer line. We should take the initiative to find customers, do small single trade, adjust the production line, and solve logistics problems. Although many of them are problems of mental transformation, there are many practical problems to be implemented. But it is hard to do it. It may be death, but not to die. " A foreign trade businessman in Guangzhou said.

Wang Sheng (a pseudonym) company has already launched its domestic sales on 1688, and the proportion of the internal and external markets is 4:6. But this 40% domestic order has greatly relieved the company's pressure. "Several major customers in China are placing regular orders. Foreign major customers have basically stopped, some customers have confirmed the contract, encountered the epidemic, did not pay deposit.

To B, To C ice and fire double days

What is interesting is that despite the fact that the B2B export business has been blocked, it has been clearly reflected in the market data, and the B2C business of the cross-border e-commerce platform has unexpectedly increased.

This is a rather contradictory state. The demand for the production end of individual classes is reduced, while the demand for direct sales terminals is still increasing.

Yuexi (a pseudonym) is the boss of a foreign trade company in Shanghai, which manages home furnishing. It sells at Ali national station and Amazon, USA, Canada and Japan. The main exporting countries are the United States, Russia and South Korea.

During the epidemic, she clearly felt that orders on Amazon increased. "Only in the United States was affected by the epidemic, the delivery time was one to two times, but people's shopping enthusiasm did not decrease."

According to recent Bloomberg reports, Amazon is recruiting 100 thousand employees in the United States, mainly responsible for warehousing and distribution. Contrary to the fact that most of the entities in the United States are trying to save themselves, Amazon has taken a series of measures to limit customer purchases.

It includes adjusting website functions, canceling shopping recommendation, canceling advertisements on Google, and even canceling a series of promotional activities originally planned. Behind these measures is the sharp increase in platform sales, resulting in insufficient manpower for the platform.

Coincidentally, Ali's global cross-border retail business platform is quick to sell, and it is also found that the platform's retail data has achieved a trend of growth during the epidemic.

"Amazon has restricted the sale of some categories and sales on the platform for some time, and some Amazon businesses have also moved to fast sellers. Sales data on the platform have increased in terms of household, toy, fitness equipment and other related categories. A staff member at speed express said.

Yuexi thought that this kind of growth contrary to the market data is a special case of its own, "because the whole foreign trade industry wail everywhere. Later we saw Amazon's measures to limit the category of orders that had taken place because of the sharp rise in orders.

Yuexi said that at present, Amazon takes into account the shortage of manpower, which limits the storage capacity of goods, for example, no more than 20 warehouses for each product, or more than one kilogram per box. Amazon has a performance score for each store. Unmarketable goods need to charge the corresponding warehouse management fees. In mid March, when the epidemic was most severe in the United States, Amazon did not allow goods to enter warehouses for a short time, but then it opened immediately afterwards.

"Our B2C Amazon products are basically imported into the overseas warehouse, and the cash is sent from the local market. Under normal circumstances, Americans can receive goods within 2-4 days, and now it will take a week at the fastest time."

In Yuexi, the most important aspect is the rise in logistics. "We need more than 20 days to go by sea instead of shipping companies. We have more than ten yuan per kilogram in recent days, and some companies have gone up, but generally no more than 20 yuan."

Block trading is subject to many restrictions, while small transactions are relatively flexible. "At this time, the most important thing is to do well in internal strength. In addition to the product itself is the core competitiveness of the electricity supplier, the second important thing is to rely on the product's text description and picture, video and other visual effects.

Crisis is also a turning point.

The epidemic accelerated the self rescue of foreign trade enterprises, but some of them gained a large number of high-quality foreign trade businesses. Under the dual force of the government and the platform, foreign trade enterprises can say that they have welcomed the best time to adjust the proportion of domestic and foreign markets. In this adjustment process, the first opportunity to seize the opportunity of the electronic business platform, has become the best container.

Despite the WTO report, Global trade is likely to decline by 13%-32% this year. Another study points out that 27% of the US's demand decline and 18% of the EU's demand decline are rippling along the trade routes in emerging countries, especially in China, Southeast Asia and Mexico. However, one thing that can not be overlooked is that with the gradual recovery of China's domestic demand, enterprises that adjust their proportion to domestic market can get some development opportunities, while in cross-border e-commerce platforms, Many small businesses still have enough room for growth.

Reporters found in the interview that many foreign trade enterprises practitioners are not optimistic about their current attitude, but they all say that now is the best time to cultivate their inner strength.

Last but not least, this epidemic will not only make people feel the deepening of economic integration, but also let people see the most simple human touch under commercial relations. Erwin said, "our company has recently sent 100 masks free of charge to every customer, hoping that they can protect themselves."