Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Before the start of the World Cup, Qatari fan Bassam hurriedly walked into a local offline store and went straight to the subject to buy two sports T-shirts bearing the emblems of Qatar and Brazil without the introduction of a shop assistant.

Driven by the World Cup effect, jerseys are very popular in Qatar, and some popular teams' jerseys were even sold out for a time. On the day of buying jerseys, Bassam had already run empty in two specialty stores.

In order to pursue the "immersion" of watching the game, Bassam not only bought jerseys, but also ordered a golden trophy online in advance. "Today, seeing the news that the pure gold trophy was delivered to Qatar by special plane, I thought that my trophy should also be on the plane. I hope I can receive it before the game." He said.

The jerseys and trophies Bassam bought were born a few months ago in two factories thousands of kilometers away in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China, and Jinjiang, Fujian. On the eve of the quadrennial sports boom, factories in China's manufacturing industry are at full capacity, and tens of millions of small Chinese-made goods are sold all over the world with the help of fast cross-border e-commerce platforms and logistics networks. to meet the global consumer demand for goods around the World Cup.

For the World Cup, "made in China" is not a new word, but in terms of product quality, supporting services, logistics efficiency and total export quota, compared with the past, made in China is "not the same".

The World Cup popular style made in China recently there have been some makeshift shops selling World Cup T-shirts on the streets of Qatar, which are bought by a lot of people. " An employee of a Chinese company living in Qatar told Xiaguang. In addition to jerseys, different team flags and trinkets with World Cup elements are also popular in makeshift stores.

In an official authorized store for the World Cup in Qatar, a basic football T-shirt starts at 99 Qatari rials (about 193 yuan) and a sports cap starts at 69 Qatari rials (about 134 yuan).

"Price is not a problem. Customers don't even ask if there is a discount. They simply pay for the goods." A clerk at the authorized store said in an interview with the media. As World Cup goods have greatly boosted in-store sales, some merchants put their daily sales aside for the time being to deal with the sales boom triggered by the World Cup.

Orders for World Cup products from Qatari companies have increased significantly since late October, according to the Gulf Times of the United Arab Emirates. Local customers are looking for supplies such as jerseys, hats, football and small flags. Flags of different sizes are also in great demand, and some customers who do not book in advance can also bring a large number of orders.

A shop assistant said that some consumers will buy more than one jersey, while jerseys with the names of participating countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Portugal and Qatar are often out of stock. Excited fans, especially those who bought tickets for the match, also extended their shopping enthusiasm to more World Cup peripheral products such as miniature World Cup trophies, fancy sunglasses and water bottles to express their support for the team. to commemorate the quadrennial football event.

Owen, head of operations in Qatar at iMile, a cross-border e-commerce logistics service, told Xiaguang that offline distribution has continued to grow in recent months, driven by the growth of online shopping, and there is a high demand for drivers at the logistics end.

In fact, the "World Cup effect" extends far beyond the host country, Qatar. FIFA president Invantino predicts that the number of viewers for this year's World Cup will reach 5 billion, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of the world's population.

Driven by the World Cup effect, sales of related goods have broken out all over the world, especially in countries and regions with strong football culture.

A recent data released by the AliExpress platform shows that sales of goods around the World Cup have risen in different regional markets: in the United Arab Emirates, sales of flag products and football shoes have increased by 300% and 200%, respectively. Sales of domestic "foosball machines" increased by 120%; in Brazil, sales of domestic projectors increased by 250% year on year; in Spain, sales of flag products increased by 160%.

More than half of the world's best-selling goods around the World Cup come from Yiwu, China. The Yiwu Sporting goods Association estimates that Zhejiang Yiwu accounts for almost 70% of the market share of goods around the World Cup.

In Yiwu, known as the "small commodity capital of the world", the "World Cup effect" has always been very obvious, and the export volume has soared one by one.

From January to May before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, sporting goods and equipment exported through Yiwu Customs were valued at US $65.54 million, while small goods exported to Brazil through Yiwu Customs reached US $160 million from January to May 2014. Four months before the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Yiwu's exports to Russia exceeded 1 billion yuan. In the first eight months of this year, customs data showed that Yiwu exported 3.82 billion yuan worth of sporting goods and 9.66 billion yuan worth of toys.

Several Yiwu merchants told Xiaguang that the World Cup boosted the off-season of small commodity exports in the third quarter of this year. After the announcement of the list of the top 32 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, new and existing overseas customers have contacted to place orders, many of them from Qatar, the host country of the World Cup.

From "testing" to "exploding" according to Ma Xiang, who is in charge of the World Cup special event, some merchants have begun to prepare for the World Cup since June this year, while preparations for cross-border platforms began in August, with the peak from early October to November.

He said that due to the inconsistent pace of World Cup sales in the domestic and international markets, compared with the domestic sales peak during the World Cup, due to factors such as logistics, cross-border World Cup sales peaks often occur in the month before and in the same month.

As early as March this year, Yiwu businessman Chen Xianchun received the World Cup order through Ali International Station. Chen Xianchun runs Yiwu Jinzun Stationery Company, which mainly produces trophies, medals and other souvenirs. Since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, products have been exported overseas.

The epidemic has added more uncertainty to this year's World Cup. Chen Xianchun said that in previous World Cups, factories were already preparing goods a year earlier, but this year everyone was waiting and watching. Although customers have been asking for orders one after another since the end of last year, they have not made much stock in advance.

With the example of the postponement of the Olympic Games, some of Chen Xianchun's clients are worried that the World Cup will also be cancelled or postponed, so the March order has some tentative elements.

"the customer ordered a little at first, and then before the goods reached him, his customers began to place orders one after another. only then did he feel that the relevant orders driven by the World Cup were going to be popular, and then gave us an additional cabinet."

"one container" refers to a standard container with a volume of 68 cubic meters. During this year's World Cup, the customer of Ali International Station ordered souvenirs at Chen Xianchun's factory, ranging from trophies, golden balls and golden boots to football and gloves.

The daily production capacity of Chen Xianchun's factory is fully calculated to produce about 3,000 to 4,000 trophies, or tens of thousands of medals. The factory's "two shifts" took two months to digest the order for three containers.

But this year, Chen Xianchun received less orders than he did in 2018. She compared the stimulation of three World Cups to her business: on the eve of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, orders were so large that customers almost "snatched what they had"; at the 2018 World Cup, due to full orders, workers did not take a break for several months in order to catch up with their work. During the period, they also hired "foreign aid" factories; this year, factory workers go to work normally every day and basically stop work until 10:00 or 11:00 in the evening.

Although "not particularly busy", the acceptance of orders at Chen Xianchun's factory has improved greatly compared with 2020 and 2021, driven by the World Cup effect. In the first half of this year, its GMV has exceeded that of last year and the year before last combined, and orders are now scheduled for December.

Karl Mei, another sports shoes and clothing company based in Fujian, is at full capacity, storing 3 million pieces in stock in preparation for this year's Singles Day holiday and sports consumption trend.

According to the 2022 announcement on municipal supervision and inspection of sportswear product quality, about 65% of the world's sportswear are "made in China", while Fujian and Guangdong are both mature industrial clusters of sportswear. Fujian is also the largest sports shoes export base in China and even in the world.

Before the "counterattack" acquisition of Karmei, this small foreign trade foundry, formerly known as "Yuanxiang Weaving", is located on the industrial belt of Jinjiang sports shoes and clothing in Fujian Province. It once worked for Kappa, Kalmei and other international brands.

Around 2014, Yuanxiang Weaving acquired the brand ownership of Kalme China, and the two sides signed a further M & An agreement in 2018. With the help of Kalme, a Spanish sports brand founded in 1960, Yuanxiang Weaving opened the way for the brand to go out to sea.

"among the products this year, jerseys sell best, followed by cotton feathers." Violet, head of Kalmei's international department, said that the World Cup coincided with the winter, coupled with the European energy crisis driving cotton clothing sales, and as major sports brands continue to withdraw from the Russian market, Kalme's biggest order this year came from Russia.

During the World Cup, Kalmei aims to achieve a fivefold growth, and most of its related orders have been shipped. Violet believes that consumers who love football are constant and sustained, and it is expected that there will still be a relatively stable demand for football training equipment. In fact, during the past overseas Singles' Day holiday, Karmei's sales increased by 6.6 times compared with the daily sales through activities such as the World Cup special on AliExpress. As far as the product is concerned, she believes that the product that is most likely to have a "burst order" is Mian Yu. "experts predict that it will be a cold winter this year, so we have enough cotton and feather products to be supplied to customers at any time."

The upgrading of foreign trade, looking to determine the popularity of the World Cup amid uncertainty has led to a real increase in product sales, but for some businesses, more uncertainties make actual profits worse than expected.

Yang Yi, a Yiwu businessman, told Xiaguang that the large number of orders during the World Cup did not bring him a corresponding increase in profits due to rising raw material and labor costs. Sometimes, in order to catch up with the delivery time delayed by the epidemic and other reasons, he has to pay more freight.

In this context, Yang Yi's current core goal is not to "generate how much profit", but to enable the business to maintain normal operation. However, he believes that the influence of the outside world is only temporary, and the business will be better and better in the future.

"on the one hand, after years of upgrading and transformation, the factory has further consolidated its own advantages in the supply chain, on the other hand, the overseas logistics system supporting the platform is becoming more and more efficient, which has actually achieved 'cost reduction and efficiency' for us." Yang Yi said that compared with international brand products of the same quality, made in China is more cost-effective and still has an advantage in overseas markets.

In recent years, with the continuous transformation and upgrading of China's foreign trade export business, made in China has developed from the early OEM for foreign brands to the direction of building its own brand.

Over the years, the new generation of Chinese manufacturers who go to sea no longer only pursue to be qualified products, but also produce cost-effective products with international competitiveness, which puts forward higher requirements for product performance, design concept, brand building and so on.

Chen Xianchun inherited the metal badge and souvenir business from his parents, and the original production process was time-consuming and laborious, requiring hands to repeatedly swing hammers. With the development of the times and technological progress, in the process of "inheriting the father's work", it has realized the transformation from manual production to machine assembly line production, from family workshop to corporate operation, and from "domestic trade" to "foreign trade". During this period, the product quality and production capacity have been continuously improved.

Now, in Chen Xianchun's "modern" factory, the machine will mold the product according to the predetermined design drawings, and the operation process is "very convenient".

With the improvement of production process and production efficiency, Chen Xianchun can pay more attention to the preferences and needs of customers in different countries, constantly update and iterate the material, color and packaging of products, and launch more "customized" products.

"for example, Europeans prefer lighter gold, and Chinese like red on medals and trophies, but foreigners may like green and blue, and some countries like black ribbons." Chen Xianchun said: after coming into contact with foreign trade, the factory's product lines have become richer, which would not have been worked out in the past.

In order to match the consumer demand under different regions and cultural differences, Karmei is also constantly pushing through the old and bringing forth the new on the road of "customization".

"despite the fact that the production of jerseys seems to be very simple, there are a lot of details and stories in it. Only by doing a good job in the selection of materials and the details of the design process can we highlight the local culture and essence of each team and enhance the collection value of jerseys." Violet said that in recent years, the customization requirements of overseas customers have become higher and higher, especially the clubs that work with Kalme will not be satisfied with existing products, but often have their own ideas.

Therefore, in the process of customization, the factory not only needs to satisfy the old club's insistence on team history and culture in the jersey design, but also needs to consider the change of the team emblem color when choosing the color. Sometimes it is necessary to use recyclable and degradable fabrics to make jerseys according to the demand, which in disguise promotes the continuous upgrading of factory processing technology.

"We have a sound supply chain system, our own printing and dyeing, weaving, printing and embroidery factories, as well as our own workers, and we have designer teams in Spain, Korea and Japan." Violet told Xiaguang that today's customized jerseys can reach a return order of 7 to 10 days through quick order customization, quickly meeting the customization requirements of guests.

A clothing merchant told Xiaguang that now the supply chain continues to upgrade in the direction of digitization and intelligence, and the holiday stock of his factory is no longer determined by people's subjective judgment. instead, it relies on the digital system for comprehensive calculation and distribution of orders, and the production process has become more scientific and efficient than in the past.

The export of foreign trade competes with cost and efficiency, which is reflected not only in the production link, but also in the cost and effectiveness of logistics. With the rapid development of China's cross-border e-commerce, the continuous optimization of cross-border logistics has greatly contributed to the entry of Chinese goods into overseas markets.

During this World Cup, AliExpress, Dunhuang and other major cross-border e-commerce platforms have launched "World Cup special lines" one after another, relying on the global warehouse network that has been laid out to help businesses greatly shorten the arrival cycle and improve the efficiency of logistics and transportation by means of order arrangement and matching lines.

In mid-September this year, Yiwu opened a special "World Cup special line." through this special shipping line, Yiwu World Cup-related products can start from Ningbo Port and Shanghai Port in only 20 to 25 days. You can go directly to the port of Hamad in Qatar.

Since 2020, affected by the epidemic and other factors, factory capacity and international logistics stability once faced challenges, but after the situation gradually recovered, a number of Chinese brands relied on the reputation accumulated by their products going out to sea for many years. Still be able to go further and further in overseas markets.

Chen Xianchun said: in the past two years, the factory has added a lot of new customers, but they are only affected by the epidemic. The sources of these new customers are basically online, and the old customers are accumulated on various offline occasions such as the International Trade City.

Chen Xianchun said that the timing of the 2022 World Cup is there, and customers are all ready to conduct market research to see if the demand is up so that they can stock in advance. "overseas customers also hope that business can get better as soon as possible. according to the current market slowly recovering, the whole foreign trade is moving in a good direction."

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: Xiaguang Society (ID:Globalinsights), author: Ma Ji, Editor: song Han Ding Yingyi (Senior Editor of thepaper.cn)

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.