At the first national level exhibition with an import theme, merchants from all over the world gathered here. Surprisingly, domestic Internet enterprises have also appeared in the Expo. The reporter saw that Xiaohongshu participated in the CIIE for the first time, setting up booths in the consumer goods exhibition area, and the figures of Dingdong Maicai and Pinduoduo were also active in the venue.
Are domestic e-commerce and overseas brands competing on the same platform? After the interview, it was found that in the process of transforming exhibits into commodities, overseas brands are in one of the most active e-commerce markets in the world, and are achieving closer "two-way cooperation" with e-commerce and service platforms. Nowadays, e-commerce companies have directly moved the channels and windows of exhibits into the CIIE platform, accelerating the pace of high-quality global products entering the Chinese market.
Large channels bring 'acceleration'
Garces Fruit is the largest cherry plantation exporter in Chile. At the second CIIE, it formed a partnership with the fresh food platform Dingdong Maicai and successfully completed nearly 20 tons of cherry orders through a third-party company, establishing a long-term cooperative relationship between the two parties.
At this year's CIIE, representatives of Garces Fruit not only brought their company's signature cherries, but also recommended other fruit categories from their own orchard to the "buyer group". To their delight, Dingdong Maicai has planned to purchase fruits such as Chilean cherries, plums, peaches, and plums in the 2024-2025 season.
At the CIIE, our product development team not only expanded our global perspective, but also discovered numerous excellent overseas products. From Malaysia's Cat Mountain King durian, to Thailand's coconut green, Peru's avocado, Philippine bananas, and now Chilean fruits, the global direct procurement supply chain has gradually been established and improved over the past 7 years, "said Xu Zhijian, Chief Product Officer of Dingdong Maicai.
Large channels bring 'acceleration'. For overseas brands, leveraging the advantages of e-commerce platforms such as supply chain and consumer base can more quickly and efficiently reach consumers. As for the platform, in the current turbulent industry, it is also necessary to continuously improve its own supply system, enhance brand stickiness with the product advantages of global goods.
Just recently, Dingdong Maicai announced its third quarter financial report for this year, with both revenue and net profit increasing. According to analysis, this is mainly due to the platform's focus on improving the richness and price ratio of products in the Jiangsu Zhejiang Shanghai region in the past year, especially in the supplement of leisure department stores, dairy drinks, fruits and other categories, which has increased penetration rate.
In August of this year, Dingdong Maicai established an Australian project team and launched the "Australia Direct" channel on the APP. Recently, taking advantage of the opportunity of the 7th CIIE, it signed multiple large orders on site. For example, Hetian Cuiting plans to purchase Australian beef products from Cargill and Teys companies in 2025, with a procurement amount of approximately 140 million yuan. For the first time, the platform also placed orders for dairy and alcoholic beverages from abroad at the CIIE, further enhancing its product strength.
Kazakhstan is the first place to jointly build the "the Belt and Road" initiative. Camel milk powder has become a regular visitor to the Expo. Through the exposure of the Expo, this milk powder has also quickly opened the domestic market. With a discount of nearly 70 yuan, it has been popular with consumers since it was put on the shelves.
During this year's CIIE, Pinduoduo provided billions of subsidies and collaborated with partners to hold an "online CIIE". Through special live broadcasts, about 70 products from 20 countries and regions were sold, attracting a total of 30 million netizens to watch and place orders, an increase of 10 million views compared to the same period last year.
A spokesperson from Pinduoduo stated, "Jinbo takes the stage, while e-commerce plays the role. By continuously investing a large amount of resources, we provide 'billions of subsidies' for high-quality imported goods, allowing consumers to consume high-quality goods at affordable prices and building a fast lane for serving Chinese consumers with high-quality overseas goods.
In the "Super Double Subsidy" campaign of Pinduoduo, the cumulative order volume of the first round reached 16.4 million, and many foreign brands achieved a growth of more than 10 times compared to the previous period. The number of brands registered for the second round of "Super Double Subsidy" increased by 2.5 times.
The secret to the explosive display of exhibits lies in the bonded direct delivery model of enterprises settled in various bonded zones, combined with the platform scale and group advantages of Pinduoduo. Global brands and high-quality overseas products face a large user pool with 900 million active users. This is a huge market that makes overseas companies excited.
Small demand drives' big business'
Walking in the consumer goods exhibition area, you will find that among the brands, content platform booths such as Xiaohongshu and Tiktok are on the list. It seems strange, but after careful consideration, we can understand that this "zero distance" originates from the rapid development of China's Internet technology applications and platform ecology. The connection between overseas brands and local platforms has developed from a single distribution of goods and channels to a more in-depth stage of precise potential tapping and joint creation.
"China's social development is being driven by two forces, one is the mobile Internet, the other is the development of the post industrial society. The mobile Internet accelerates the penetration of the algorithm driven platform economy into life from the supply side, while the post industrial society generates more and more personalized demand from the demand side." Lu Ming, professor of Antai School of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiaotong University and executive director of China Development Research Institute, said.
From a broader perspective, China has a population of over 1.4 billion, a middle-income group of over 400 million, a per capita GDP of over 12000 US dollars, and a total retail sales of consumer goods of over 47 trillion yuan. The segmented market presents unparalleled richness and breadth, which constitutes an important reason for many brands to come to China: in China, even small demands can make big business.
In 2023, the number of overseas brands' planting grass' on Xiaohongshu will be twice that of 2022. As of October this year, this number has exceeded three times that of 2022. This reflects the attractiveness of the Chinese consumer market to international emerging brands, as well as the confidence of overseas brands to gain new opportunities and growth in the Chinese market, "said Hu Shuang, the head of Xiaohongshu's industry research.
The key lies in how to accurately tap into the potential. Vaseline, which participated in this CIIE, explored the development of new products targeting sports enthusiasts in the body lotion segment. According to the data, 120 days after its launch, Vaseline Water Moisturizing and Brightening Body essence ranked top 1 in the hot selling list of electronic commodities, and the penetration rate of sports people in Xiaohongshu reached 13%.
In the past, product promotion mostly relied on offline channel distribution, advertising and other methods. Now some experts call "planting grass" "the third billboard", which actually means that in the Internet era, more interactive communication has become the way for brands and consumers to get along.
A retro running shoe under the trendy sports brand New Balance, originally positioned for daily scenarios such as commuting and shopping. After observing the trend of citytalk on Xiaohongshu, New Balance and fashion influencers on Xiaohongshu jointly initiated the citytalk topic and activity, triggering enthusiastic participation from citytalk and fashion enthusiasts, resulting in a rapid increase in individual product sales.
In the next decade or so, the demand for goods and services among China's middle-income population, which is expected to reach 800 million, will shift from 'whether they are available' to 'whether they are good or not.' The upgrading momentum of consumption in the Chinese market is strong, "said the person in charge of Xiaohongshu's business. In the future, they will continue to use the" gold mining "economy to help more international brands understand and meet the needs of Chinese consumers, and deeply root in the Chinese market.