Tianjin cross-border e-commerce industry development survey: manufacturing enterprises "go to sea" to break new roads

In recent years, the scale of cross-border e-commerce in the mainland has grown rapidly, which has promoted the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade. Especially in the context of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, cross-border e-commerce has become a new way for manufacturing exports, and the market prospects are broad. As the first cross-border e-commerce pilot city in the north of the mainland, Tianjin has a mature logistics network, rich route resources, and has policy advantages such as the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone and the cross-border e-commerce B2B export supervision pilot. How does Tianjin support manufacturing enterprises to go overseas? How to create a "tropical rainforest" for the cross-border e-commerce industry?

Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, global production, transportation, exchange and service links have been impacted, the supply chain crisis has intensified, and "supply cuts" and "price increases" have appeared frequently, which has a profound impact on the manufacturing industry. At the same time, the market demand in Europe and the United States and other countries continues to release, especially at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, Western traditional festivals and shopping festivals are more intensive, and more and more overseas consumers turn to online "hoarding". In this context, how can "Made in China" leverage cross-border e-commerce to go overseas?

As one of the industrial bases in the north of the mainland and the first cross-border e-commerce pilot city in the north of the mainland, Tianjin has a deep feeling in this regard. Since 2015, Tianjin has been approved as a national cross-border trade e-commerce service pilot, a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, and the first batch of cross-border e-commerce B2B export supervision pilots, integrating a series of first-in-first-1-1-1-1 policies. In the past two years, in the face of the rapid development of the cross-border e-commerce industry, Tianjin's exploration has also continued.

According to the data, in 2021, Tianjin's cross-border e-commerce export transaction volume was 9.675 billion yuan, which was 7 times that of 2020, ranking 4th in the country, of which tianjin production-oriented enterprises accounted for more than 90% of the B2B export commodities. With the help of cross-border e-commerce, more and more "Made in China" have gone abroad.

Self-built sites cross the ocean to sea

In the early stage of cross-border e-commerce development, most enterprises will choose to open stores on well-known platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba International Station for trade activities. However, as more and more enterprises join the track, the drawbacks of the platform are highlighted, and enterprises with rich experience in foreign trade have "independent portals" and turned to the development mode of "self-built stations". The so-called "self-built website" is a cross-border e-commerce website built by the enterprise itself or through a third-party professional company.

From the "Double 11" e-commerce festival to the "Black Friday" abroad, in the factory building of the Bridge Group in Xiqing District, Tianjin, the live broadcast activities have been continuous. Zhao Fanghong, the e-commerce marketing commissioner of Daqiao Group as a broadcaster, has a small goal to complete 100 live broadcasts in 3 months. You may not think that the products sold here are not fashion brands or delicacies, but welding rods.

Founded in 1957, the bridge welding rod is named after the product applied to the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. After the restructuring in 1997, Daqiao Group set up a 1800-mu welding consumables production base in Tianjin Xiqing District, and successively set up branches in Xinjiang, Gansu, Hunan, Jiangsu and other places, with an annual output of 1.5 million tons of various welding materials. The reporter learned that The Bridge Group has been in the field of e-commerce for 4 years. In the past four years, the brand of Daqiao Group has spread to more than 130 countries and regions such as Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador, and has developed more than 100 cross-border e-commerce customers. From opening online stores to strong brands, and now building self-built sites, the deepest feeling of The Bridge people is to let consumers continuously strengthen their awareness of corporate brands, which is the key to the gradual expansion of cross-border e-commerce.

At the end of 2020, the Mexican Alexei saw the homepage of the bridge welding rod on the Internet, and then exchanged many exchanges with Zhao Fanghong. Looking through the chat history, each video call between them was more than 30 minutes, and Zhao Fanghong called it a "factory transfer". "For example, when it comes to technology, we'll go to the workshop to show the welding process; when it comes to quality and product, we'll go to the warehouse and let him see the inventory and the physical goods." In this way, we demonstrate the production capacity and technical strength of the enterprise, and also establish the brand of the bridge, and pass on the confidence of customers. Zhao Fanghong said. Finally, on July 15, 2021, four containers of welding materials totaling 100 tons ordered by Alexei were shipped from the Tianjin Port Terminal to Mexico.

As a manufacturing company, why did Daqiao Group choose the road of self-built sites? Zhai Liyao, head of the e-commerce department of Daqiao International Trade Co., Ltd., believes that most manufacturing enterprises have scale, understand technology, strong financial strength, and have advantages in self-built sites, the key is to establish brand awareness, convert brands into traffic, and create their own network sales system. However, in the actual process of building the station, enterprises are also facing difficulties such as lack of professional talents, weak awareness of network promotion, and lack of initial traffic. In this process, the Bridge Group is also facing the crisis of brand preemptive registration. In the past three years, through legal and negotiation means, enterprises have revoked brand squatting in more than 10 countries and completed brand registration in more than 60 countries.

In Tianjin, there are not a few manufacturing companies like Daqiao Group that build their own sites and explore cross-border e-commerce.

The platform helps small and medium-sized enterprises

In Jize County, Handan City, Hebei Province, a small and medium-sized enterprise producing textiles has entered the global market through cross-border e-commerce. Since May 2021, the workshop of Jize County Color Textile Co., Ltd. has been tense and busy, and more than 200 workers are rushing to make a batch of woolen sweaters. "These cardigans will be exported to Kyrgyzstan on the China-Europe train." Gan Huilong, deputy general manager of the company, said.

In Gan Huilong's view, production-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises have disadvantages and advantages. On the one hand, small scale, low profit margin and poor ability to resist risks are all difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises; on the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises also have the advantages of rich product lines, strong ability to change production, and flexible production methods. "The key is to let small and medium-sized enterprises find a broad market and gradually become bigger and stronger."

Providing services to Jize Color Spinning Company and helping it to develop overseas markets is Tianjin Zhongwu Network Technology Co., Ltd., a cross-border e-commerce service provider in Tianjin. Founded in 2010, Zhongwu.com is positioned as a one-stop foreign trade integrated service provider, focusing on cross-border B2B transactions in vertical fields. Up to now, Zhongwu.com has signed cooperation agreements with more than 300 small and medium-sized enterprises in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, exporting thousands of commodities such as building materials, clothing, lamps and lanterns to more than 50 countries and regions in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and other countries and regions, with an annual export volume of more than 1 billion yuan. In the past three years, Jize Color Textile Company has cooperated with Tianjin Zhongwu Network to export textiles such as clothing and bedding to countries along the "Belt and Road" through the cross-border e-commerce platform of Zhongwu Network. In just two years, the annual export volume of Jize Color Spinning Company has increased from 5 million US dollars to 8 million US dollars.

On December 7, 2021, in the office of the integrated service department of Zhongwu.com, more than 10 employees stared at the computer screen, switching between different platforms in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and other languages, and the sound of keyboard tapping came and went. It connects more than 100 related enterprises in countries along the "Belt and Road" such as Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

"In the field of cross-border e-commerce, service providers should first attract traffic for small and medium-sized enterprises and let more buyers pay attention to them." Liu Jianhua, general manager of Tianjin Zhongwu Network Technology Co., Ltd., said, "The market in countries along the 'Belt and Road' is growing rapidly, and the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises are more adapted to this kind of orders with low profits, fast product changes and small production batches." Therefore, we have integrated more offline resources online and opened up services for small and medium-sized enterprises. ”

In recent years, the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce has continued to promote the linkage development of cross-border e-commerce and foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises, and a number of comprehensive service providers such as Free Trade Connect, Tianjin Trade Connect and Zhongwu Network have built a localized foreign trade comprehensive service platform, which has led more than 2,000 small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises to embark on the road of "Internet + foreign trade" upgrade. At present, Tianjin's industrial drive to the surrounding areas is constantly strengthening, and special products such as porcelain from Shanxi, furniture from Shengfang in Hebei and leather from Baigou have all been realized through the Tianjin cross-border e-commerce platform.

Crack the bottleneck of talent shortage

Whether it is a self-built site or a platform, in the development process of cross-border e-commerce entities, it has encountered the problem of shortage of talents. According to eBay's survey of nearly 500 cross-border e-commerce companies and hundreds of universities in China, the surveyed companies reported that there were nearly 10,000 vacant positions, of which 80% of the enterprises said that operation talents, category development talents, sales and marketing talents were the most scarce, and there were still problems such as low matching, large initial training investment, and lack of vocational skills for graduates in recruitment.

What kind of talents are needed to develop cross-border e-commerce?

"To engage in the profession of cross-border e-commerce, you must understand the market, be able to operate, be good at communication, and be able to operate." These knowledge books are not in the books, they are all groped out of entrepreneurship. Wu Qiong, who entered the cross-border e-commerce industry in 2013, has now transformed into the education and training director of the Tianjin TradeCom Business Incubator and a lecturer at the Cross-border E-commerce School of Tianjin Open University. From 2013 to 2016, she operated 10 e-commerce stores, distributed in Amazon, eBay and other platforms, with an annual operating income of more than 20 million yuan. "In fact, we tell students about their own experiences and practical experiences to help students establish 'e-commerce thinking'." Wu Qiong said.

In April 2018, Tianjin Radio and Television University, the predecessor of Tianjin Open University, established the first cross-border e-commerce school in Tianjin to jointly cultivate cross-border e-commerce industry talents through "deepening the integration of industry and education and school-enterprise cooperation". "We are not only a college, but also a platform to open up schools and enterprises. At present, we have reached cooperation with more than 100 enterprises and nearly 30 colleges and universities, and send more than 1,000 talents to the industry every year. "Tianjin Open University Cross-border Business School Dean PingFan introduced.

Cross-border Business School, Tianjin Tradecom Business Incubator, cross-border e-commerce platform eBay jointly introduced the "E Youth Cross-border E-commerce Talent Training Project", Tianjin Business Vocational College, Tianjin Vocational University, Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Technology and other colleges and universities can enter the incubator internship, and participate in the "real battle", independent operation of stores, real-time online sales.

"The cross-border e-commerce talents cultivated now are more 'blue-collar' to help enterprises solve the problem of 'whether there are any' talents." However, how to improve the level of talents and cultivate high-end talents in the field of e-commerce still needs more efforts and explorations. Ordinary said.

Creating an industrial "tropical rainforest"

As the first cross-border e-commerce pilot city in the north of the mainland, Tianjin has a mature logistics network, rich route resources, and has policy advantages such as cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone and cross-border e-commerce B2B export supervision pilot, how can Tianjin build a cross-border e-commerce industry "tropical rainforest"?

In tianjin hexi district network information building Jinmaotong cross-border e-commerce industrial park, 1900 square meters of shared space gathered more than 40 cross-border e-commerce entrepreneurial team. Among them are students who have just come out of campus, there are traders and agents who have worked hard for many years, and there are also small manufacturing enterprises that are looking for business opportunities online.

Jin Qianru is one of them. In 2020, after graduating from Tianjin Modern Vocational College, Jin Qianru entered the cross-border e-commerce field to start a business. Now she has opened online stores on Amazon and eBay UK, specializing in selling toys and bedding, and her online store turnover has exceeded 7.5 million yuan in the first half of 2021.

As the first cross-border e-commerce industrial park in Tianjin to propose to build a cross-border e-commerce industry park with comprehensive services for the whole industry chain of cross-border e-commerce, Tianjin TradeCom focuses on a complete cross-border industrial ecology. "To develop cross-border e-commerce, the industrial ecology such as product selection, logistics, and overseas warehouses should be carried out first." Therefore, we have determined the development idea of 'nesting and attracting phoenixes'. 'Nest building' is to build and improve the service system; 'attracting phoenix' is to attract small and medium-sized enterprises to settle in, and to exert scale and cluster effects. Sun Bowen, general manager of Tianjin Jinmaotong Enterprise Incubator Co., Ltd., introduced.

"Companies with overseas business must raise their legal awareness. For example, whether the trademark is registered locally, whether it has applied for intellectual property protection, etc. Nie Zijing, general manager of Ruifeng Deyong Enterprise Management Consulting (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., said, "If there is no planning and no compliance procedures in advance, the product may not be able to clear customs, cannot be traded, cannot be paid back, and is also prone to default." A legal consultation hotline makes "compliance" no longer difficult. At present, Ruifeng Deyong has cooperated with Tricor Group to set up 47 branches in 21 countries around the world, providing cross-border e-commerce enterprises with financial, legal, intellectual property and other services.

Enterprises go global, and capital security is put first. In the park, PingPong, a cross-border e-commerce support platform, has also set up a service center. "For small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border transactions must first ensure the safety of funds. At present, Ping Pong cooperates with more than 10 world-class financial institutions and cooperates with more than 3 banks in each country and region to ensure the safety of funds to the greatest extent. Ye Liwei, regional director of the company's cross-border payment in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, said.

In the view of Yao Ping, deputy director of the e-commerce department of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the cross-border e-commerce industry is upgrading from the development of goods and low prices to boutique and branding. Tianjin will take the B2B model as the starting point, actively introduce cross-border e-commerce entities, and continuously improve the industrial ecology. At present, Tianjin's cross-border e-commerce industry still has problems such as low concentration of enterprises and imperfect service facilities in the park. To this end, Tianjin has carried out the identification of cross-border e-commerce demonstration parks, and has identified 3 cross-border e-commerce demonstration parks, attracting nearly 100 enterprises such as Douyin, Idle Fish, Snail Cloud Warehouse, and Shenzhen Yicang to settle in. In October 2021, the Tianjin Cross-border E-commerce Demonstration Park (Economic Development Zone) was inaugurated and operated, bringing together bonded warehousing, overseas warehouses, international logistics, customs clearance and other enterprises, providing a package of incubation services including foreign trade comprehensive services, financial services, human resources, fiscal and tax laws, etc. for the settled e-commerce enterprises. This is the third cross-border e-commerce demonstration park identified by Tianjin since 2021.

"Tianjin has determined the development idea of building a cross-border e-commerce industry chain and ecological chain, improving the industrial ecology in the form of a park, and accumulating replicable and generalizable experience in institutional innovation, industrial development, ecological construction, innovation and entrepreneurship." Shen Lei, director of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said.

Independent brands go abroad smoothly through cross-border e-commerce, and they are inseparable from convenient customs clearance services. In terms of facilitating customs clearance, Tianjin Customs has launched innovative regulatory measures such as priority inspection and simplified declaration, supporting export returns by enterprises and supporting cross-border e-commerce businesses such as "idling to empty" and "idling to sea". Li Xu, deputy director of the Postal Supervision Department of Tianjin Customs, said that after the implementation of the cross-border e-commerce B2B export supervision reform, Tianjin Customs has launched 8 customs clearance facilitation measures such as "one registration, one-point access, allowing customs transfer, and priority inspection". At present, the amount of goods exported by Tianjin production-oriented enterprises through cross-border e-commerce B2B has accounted for more than 90%, involving many characteristic industries such as bags, bicycles, furniture, fitness equipment and so on. (Economic Daily reporter Shang Rui)