Xinhua Finance Shanghai, June 25th (Reporter Gao Shaohua) 'Cross border e-commerce+industrial belts' has become one of the development trends in China's foreign trade field in 2024. More and more industrial belts are interested in using cross-border e-commerce channels to open up international markets, and cross-border e-commerce platforms are also increasing their empowerment and support for the transformation and overseas expansion of traditional industrial belts. As a new growth engine for the foreign trade market, 'cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt' will not only help the industrial belt to expand cross-border e-commerce and global business opportunities, but also promote more industrial belts to achieve digital upgrading and enhance industrial competitiveness.

Cross border e-commerce+industrial belt 'has become a new trend in foreign trade

As a new growth engine in the foreign trade market, cross-border e-commerce is becoming increasingly important. To further promote the healthy development of cross-border e-commerce, the State Council has issued relevant policies since the beginning of this year, actively encouraging localities to create comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce based on their own industrial characteristics and resource advantages, and vigorously developing the 'cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt' model. The Ministry of Commerce and nine other departments recently issued the 'Opinions on Expanding Cross border E-commerce Exports and Promoting Overseas Warehouse Construction', proposing to vigorously support the development of cross-border e-commerce empowerment industries and guide local governments to cultivate the 'Cross border E-commerce Empowerment Industry Belt' model as a benchmark for development.

For businesses and brands in traditional industrial belts, 2024 is an important time to accelerate breakthrough transformation and integrate with the international market. Many industrial belt enterprises hope to open up the international market and expand overseas business opportunities through cross-border e-commerce. The 'Four Little Dragons' of Chinese e-commerce (SHEIN, Temu, TikTok Shop, and AliExpress) are also continuously increasing their efforts to expand their industrial belt resources.

Recently, it was learned that SHEIN has covered over 300 industrial belts across the country, and in 2023, SHEIN has also launched a plan to expand its industrial belts to 500 cities nationwide. In June of this year, Xiyin conducted nearly 20 investment and cooperation activities in 13 cities and more than 20 key industrial belts in manufacturing strong provinces such as Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong, covering various categories such as home appliances, home decoration, clothing, department stores, toys, and infants. It is expected that in 2024, Xiyin will hold over 150 investment promotion and empowerment activities in industrial belts across the country.

In addition to laying out in strong provincial towns where industries gather, Xiyin will also strengthen cooperation with numerous characteristic industrial belts, cultivate new and excellent products in characteristic industrial belts into cross-border 'explosive products', and provide corresponding systematic training, buyer assistance and other support for sellers in different industrial belts. Through these measures, even industry belt sellers with zero experience in going global can systematically enhance their comprehensive capabilities for the global market.

The report released by the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce believes that 'cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt' is a typical scenario for the integration of digital economy and real economy. It accelerates the branding of traditional industrial and trade enterprises and the high-end export categories, helping more factory based small and medium-sized enterprises enter the international market.

Traditional industrial belts connect with the internet to expand cross-border new increments

The formation of domestic industrial belts once benefited from the advantages of production factors such as resources, labor, and technology in specific regions. By integrating upstream and downstream resources, a relatively complete industrial chain was constructed. With the continuous growth and interlocking of the industrial chain, industrial belts with advantages in specific fields were ultimately formed. According to incomplete industry statistics, there are over 1100 industrial belts in China, but only about 50 have transaction volumes exceeding 10 billion yuan. Many industrial belts have production and manufacturing capabilities, but lack experience and accumulation in business operations in the international market, leaving great room for development.

With the close cooperation of 'cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt', traditional manufacturing and e-commerce are further integrated and mutually beneficial. Through cross-border platforms like Xiyin, industrial belt enterprises have skipped many intermediate links and are able to directly face overseas consumers from over 150 countries.

Yiwu's home goods, Yongkang's sports goods, Rui'an's automotive and motorcycle parts, Ningbo's small home appliances... Zhejiang, as an important manufacturing base for daily necessities in China and even the world, gathers dozens of distinctive and deeply rooted industrial belts. Its products are not only widely popular in the domestic market, but also gradually occupy a place in overseas markets. With the acceleration of industrial belts going global, expanding overseas markets, developing innovative products, and building independent brands have become the consensus for the development of multiple industrial belts in Zhejiang.

Storage product seller Zhang Guohui has been on the Xiyin platform since 2023, and has now expanded from one production line to more than 20 production lines, with annual sales reaching 5.6 million US dollars. Zhang Guohui stated that in order to excel in cross-border e-commerce, high-quality products, efficient production, and innovative capabilities are indispensable, which is exactly what industry belt sellers like him excel at. He specifically established a product development department in the company to develop new products based on the consumer demand and popular styles of overseas markets.

At present, in the field of beauty and personal care, the Xiyin platform has seen the emergence of many large sellers with sales of millions or tens of millions of dollars. These manufacturing enterprises and local brands are fully leveraging their supply chain advantages through the platform to cultivate their ability to operate overseas. After partnering with Xiyin, personal care product seller Yu Xiaoou achieved sales of $1 million in less than a year. Yu Xiaoou said, 'Sellers only need to focus on making the product good, with platform support for operation, logistics, and warehousing. Through cross-border e-commerce platforms, the company's future sales market space will far exceed that of the past

Household appliances and consumer electronics are also popular overseas categories in the domestic industrial belt. Home appliance seller Yu Dong joined the US website under the independent operation mode of Xiyin platform last year. Five months later, the daily transaction volume of the store has increased dozens of times, and the monthly sales amount has now stabilized at over one million yuan. Yu Dong believes that in order to succeed on cross-border e-commerce platforms, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the needs of young overseas consumers and continuously increase investment in developing more new products that meet user expectations, thereby continuously improving overseas sales.

Flexible supply chain empowers industrial belt transformation and upgrading

In the field of cross-border e-commerce, Xiyin mainly adopts a dual engine development model of 'independent brand+platform', which has become the preferred platform for industrial belt sellers to go global. This is also related to Xiyin's accumulated experience in industrial belt overseas operation through years of deep cultivation in the textile and clothing industry. Xiyin has been deeply involved in the clothing industry for more than ten years. Its on-demand flexible supply chain model has enabled the independent fashion brand Xiyin to rapidly rise in the global market and become one of the popular fashion brands among overseas consumers. Under platformization, the flexible supply chain model will also contribute to the intelligent upgrading of more industries, especially non-standard industries.

Under the independent brand model, Xiyin relies on an agile supply chain model of on-demand production to achieve 'quick response to small orders' and on-demand production, reducing inventory waste from the source. Xiyin also utilizes its own technological advantages and experience to drive the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries such as clothing production and manufacturing. Before cooperating with Xiyin, many factories did not have the ability to systematize and intelligentize; After the cooperation between the two parties, these enterprises have become fully digitized intelligent factories, and flexible on-demand supply chains can help enterprises achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

Xiyin will deepen its platform based strategic model from 2023, enabling flexible manufacturing to be implemented in more industries. Hu Qimu, Deputy Secretary General of the China Digital Reality Integration 50 Person Forum, believes that cross-border e-commerce platform enterprises represented by Xiyin have given the Chinese clothing industry a new resilience, which firmly grasps the standards, technologies, and systems of flexible on-demand supply chains. Xiyin will connect the industrial belt with digital trade and digital flexible supply chain, helping the industrial belt to expand cross-border e-commerce overseas, and also assisting in the digital upgrading of more industrial chains.

In 2024, Xiyin platform business launched a 'semi custodial' model on the basis of independent operation and agency operation, helping merchants achieve overseas stocking, independent fulfillment, independent product selection and listing, and price reporting. Xiyin assists enterprises in operation, thereby improving merchant autonomy and reducing cooperation barriers.

Yang Xuehai, founder of Quantitative Consulting specializing in cross-border e-commerce services, told reporters that the launch of Xiyin's semi custodial model provides a more concise and efficient cross-border e-commerce solution for domestic industrial belt factories and brand merchants. It can greatly separate factories from the complex multi country market development, backend operation, and customer service, and also shorten the transaction path between manufacturing enterprises and global consumers, which is of great significance for industrial belt going global. At the same time, Xiyin utilizes its already proficient supply chain management capabilities and flexible manufacturing empowerment system to accelerate the digitalization and refinement capabilities of industrial belt manufacturing, laying a solid foundation for its ultimate internationalization.

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