In the Dounan Flower Market in the south of Kunming, it will be lively at about 5 p.m. every day, with large trucks and small three-wheelers full of flowers shuttling between the Kunming International Flower Auction Center and the Dounan International Flower Industrial Park on Huadu Road. In the Dounan Flower Market, nearly 30 million flowers are sold all over the country every day. Seven out of 10 fresh cut flowers purchased by mainland consumers and placed at home, office, and major events and exhibitions are sent from here.
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Video Production: The Paper Yuanshen Video Producer: Huang Wufeng, Wen Ruoyu Director: Yang Huimi Copywriter: He Huizi Producer: Zhang Xinni, Hu Hongbiao, Shen Xingnan Design: Feng Kaiyan (04:50)
With the blessing of the Internet, the fame of Yunnan flowers has also spread more widely. Flowers, which were once only circulated offline, have completed the exchange of information and goods in a broader sense through e-commerce, and a handful of flowers has also reached the hands of more consumers.
The huge potential of the online terminal consumer market has made the fresh cut flower industry change rapidly.
The carnation trading area of Dounan Flower Market is full of flowers. (The pictures in this article are all taken by Hu Hongbiao)
The old flower man embarks on a new "flower road"
Dounan Flower Market belongs to tourists during the day and is the home of wholesalers and e-commerce companies at night. Flower farmers will cut the flower branches for sale in the flower field, according to the standard grading and packaging, and then send them to the "flower shuttle", wholesalers and e-commerce companies choose one by one, carefully check whether the flower buds are damaged, pick out satisfactory samples and write down the number, waiting for the hammer to fall after the flowers.
Kunming Flower Auction Center is not far from the Dounan Flower Market, everyone who has just arrived at the Flower Auction and Trading Center of the Dounan Flower Market, will be shocked by the vision: thousands of clappers sit in front of the computer, the auctioneer determines the starting price, the electronic clock on the venue displays the auction price, after the auction begins, the price falls from high to low one by one, the bidder thinks that the price can be accepted, press the bidding button, the highest price wins, this is a "speed game", the whole transaction process is only 4.5 seconds on average. In the pick-up hall, pick-up trucks shuttle through the Huahai warehouse, which is about to be sent to the warehouses of the various bidders.
At the auction site of Kunming International Flower Auction and Trading Center, every flower person participating in the auction is gearing up to grab their favorite flowers.
Founded in 2001, Kunming Flower Auction Center is a comprehensive industrial service platform focusing on flower auctions, integrating flower standard formulation, new variety research and development and promotion, market information services, technical services, financial services and logistics services. It undertakes the important task of promoting the innovation and upgrading of Yunnan's "Yunhua" industrial chain and realizing the internationalization, standardization, informatization and digitization of flower trading.
In 2014, local Wang Zongtang visited the flower auction and trading center of Dounan Flower Market for the first time, and was as excited as most first-time visitors. Since then, he started from learning to shoot flowers and procurement, and after slowly getting in touch with the industry, he first did traditional wholesale, then began to do e-commerce, and later expanded his business on Pinduoduo, rooted in the industry for 10 years, and with the blessing of e-commerce, he did not live up to his persistence.
At the Kunming International Flower Auction Center, Wang Zongtang is taking flowers.
Wang Zongtang rarely mentions it to people, and he didn't like flowers at first when he stepped into the flower industry. In 2014, the Dounan Flower Market was still a traditional wholesale model, Wang Zongtang came to the Dounan Flower Market every night to select flowers until the early hours of the morning, and the black and white reversed schedule made him want to give up purchasing. Later, Wang Zongtang also chartered a piece of land to plant flowers for two years, but because of his lack of experience, he finally failed.
The failed experience of flower farmers did not make Wang Zongtang give up the flower industry, but strengthened his determination to continue to do more in procurement. In 2018, Wang Zongtang and his friends who made fruits online tried to open up flower categories in the store. Wang Zongtang, who has many years of purchasing experience, has been conscientious for every bouquet of flowers he handles, and his new business has gradually improved.
In recent years, Wang Zongtang, who is in the industry, deeply feels that more and more consumers are buying flowers online, and flowers have entered many people's lives. From the original "seasonal" to the current "daily", e-commerce has lowered the threshold for buying flowers, and its price and convenience have promoted the daily life of flower categories.
Wang Zongtang buys flowers at the Dounan Flower Market
In order to reach more consumers, in 2013, Wang Zongtang partnered with a friend to open a flower shop on the Pinduoduo platform. Wang Zongtang believes, "Flowers are not a necessity of life, I joined Pinduoduo to let more people understand that you don't have to spend so much money to get a sense of ritual, and you don't have to wait until special festivals to let yourself enjoy this happiness." ”
The e-commerce road of Wang Zongtang, an old flower man, is more methodical.
Because of its rich experience in source procurement, and with the good supply chain system of the Pinduoduo platform and the support of flower e-commerce policies, Wang Zongtang's store has now achieved an advanced jump. In just one year, Wang Zongtang's "July 7 Flowers" store has now ranked among the top 3 flowers on the platform.
Purchasing at the Dounan Flower Market, Wang Zongtang is carefully inspecting the quality of the flowers.
In the tenth year of wandering the flowers and lakes, Wang Zongtang now has a special affection for flowers. For himself, he seized the new opportunity of flower e-commerce and completed a breakthrough in life. For more workers in their hometowns, flowers not only provide them with employment opportunities, but also help them achieve a better life.
The online road of flowers makes it easier for "flower freedom".
Flower e-commerce is still developing rapidly, so that many people in the industry have to face this track.
"Satisfied, for the first time I felt the happiness that comes from spending very little money. "The flowers are fresh, the logistics are good, there is no flower damage, they are all washed for me." "The first time I bought flowers online, I DIY my own graduation flowers, and my classmates said they were very good-looking. ”......
In Wang Zongtang's Pinduoduo store, looking at user reviews, you will have a new understanding of consumers' purchase of flowers. It is the enthusiasm to decorate life, the new way for young people to please themselves, and the effortless quality of life under consumption upgrading.
In Wang Zongtang's Pinduoduo store, the recognition of consumers has given Wang Zongtang encouragement and confidence.
Nowadays, more and more consumers of the younger generation will buy flowers to add some romance and ritual to their busy lives. According to the data of Pinduoduo platform, in the past two years, consumers' demand for high-quality flowers, high-end varieties and categories has increased rapidly, with Floyd, Roselle, Cappuccino, Aisha and other flower varieties performing the most eye-catching, and many stores have exceeded 80,000 pieces of single variety orders;
In Wang Zongtang's view, e-commerce makes it easy for young people to realize "flower freedom", and also brings more benefits to the upstream of the flower industry.
At the Kunming International Flower Auction and Trading Center, flowers are sold at a price of grade. Based on factors such as the length of the flower branches, the state of the flower stems, the color of the flowers and the normality of the flower type, the fresh cut flowers are divided into AA, A, B, C, D, E and other grades. What has touched Wang Zongtang deeply over the years is that "in the original period of offline flower sales, most of the flowers were gift attributes, and flower shops generally needed A-grade flowers with long branches, and if they didn't need C, D-level flowers with short branches, there would be fewer people shooting." The flowers that are sold every day can only be thrown away by the flower farmers. With the rise of e-commerce, different grades of goods are also vertically consumed, which meets the diversified consumer needs of the mass market, reduces the losses of flower farmers, and also prompts many flower farmers to be willing to plant flowers. ”
Behind the "flower freedom", there is no shortage of stories of Dounan flower farmers who endure hardships and stand hard work and dare to be the first. Driven by the market and policies, flower farmers with rich experience in planting flowers have rented land to grow flowers in various parts of Yunnan. As of 2022, the planting area of flowers in Yunnan will reach 1.94 million mu, and the planting area of fresh cut flowers will reach 340,000 mu, with an output of about 18 billion branches, an increase of 10.9%.
In the finished flower quality inspection area of Kunming Dounan Flower Auction Center, the staff is preparing for the flowers that will be auctioned every day.
Wang Junying, a flower auctioneer at the Kunming International Flower Auction and Trading Center, said: "At the beginning, there were only 2 electronic bells in the Flower Auction Center, but now there are 13 bells and nearly 1,000 trading seats, basically all year round. At present, more than 4 percent of the flower materials in the flower auction center will flow into the online market. ”
Seize the new opportunities of flower e-commerce
The empowerment of flowers by e-commerce platforms not only expands marketing channels, but also greatly reduces the operating costs of "flower people". To a certain extent, it is forcing the flower industry to continue to adapt and evolve, helping the industry to find new opportunities in the transformation and development.
At present, how can e-commerce platforms empower Yunnan's flower industry to take another step forward?
Since 2023, Pinduoduo has announced the launch of the "Agricultural Cloud Action", and has continued to invest advantageous resources to promote the 100 agricultural belts across the country to "join the cloud" faster and create a more resilient and competitive digital agricultural belt. Due to the superior ecological environment and many agricultural products in Yunnan, due to the lack of local e-commerce talents and high logistics costs, most of the sales radius is limited to the province and surrounding areas, which has become the first stop of the "Agricultural Cloud Action" survey.
In Dounan, flower farmers are picking flowers.
In order to help Yunnan flowers go out of the southwest and "popular" the whole country, since last year, Pinduoduo has helped businesses that have started and have a good supply chain to complete the jump from "1 to 100", and on the other hand, it has done everything possible to encourage and train young new farmers in the agricultural belt to open stores on the platform to complete the "from 0 to 1" start.
Open Pinduoduo, search for "fresh cut flowers", no matter what time it is, you can see affordable flowers for 9.9 yuan. This is a spike subsidy for different flowers on the Pinduoduo platform, in addition to giving merchants "zero commission", enhanced traffic exposure and other policy support to help them open up business sales. It is understood that there are now nearly 10,000 consumers who search for "flower spikes" and "flower 10,000 groups" in Pinduoduo every day.
Behind every gorgeous flower is the careful care of the flower farmer
Now, not only merchants like Wang Zongtang who take goods in the market have got a broad business "money" scene on Pinduoduo, but the platform has also helped many base cooperative merchants to enter the flower industry.
Last year, a fruit seller in Kunming started a cross-border flower business, buying fresh cut flowers from Kunming to selling them on Pinduoduo. Due to the low threshold of platform operation and the large space for market development, Xiaoer also gave help to open stores, and the sales of merchants were very fast, with sales reaching 800,000 in only two months, and sales of nearly 3 million in one month up to now, with a significant year-on-year increase in performance. In the future, the merchant plans to expand from a single category of niche flowers to flowers that are popular with consumers, and gradually expand the scope of business.
With the birth of these small and beautiful stores, Pinduoduo has become an important channel for many base-based flower merchants to ship goods at low cost and stably. It is worth noting that in 2024, Pinduoduo will comprehensively upgrade the flower support policy for farmers, and on the basis of opening stores and activities, it will also support merchants participating in live broadcasts to help more merchants in the country of origin increase sales and allow consumers to buy high-quality and affordable flowers.
Specifically, in terms of store opening, the official subsidy continues to be upgraded, and the platform will give tens of millions of traffic support to merchants who open stores, helping merchants quickly build links with daily sales exceeding 10,000. The platform will also directly connect with merchants to help optimize the business layout of supply chain and customer service, and can also connect with head goods experts for free to help reduce business losses and increase gross profits.
In terms of live broadcasting, merchants can enjoy up to 1 year of live broadcast deduction points, in addition to traffic support and advertising red envelope rights.
More and more "flower people" are sending out Dounan's flowers through e-commerce live broadcast tools.
Driven by Pinduoduo, practitioners like Wang Zongtang have explored their own unique "flower road". As Wang Zongtang said, "Whether it is the unsold volume of flowers or the unsold volume of flower farmers, it has been greatly reduced, and Pinduoduo has used its own way to make the entire flower industry in Dounan achieve a win-win effect." When it comes to future development, Wang Zongtang is full of confidence in flower e-commerce, and he hopes to expand the supply chain and achieve self-production and self-sale in the later stage. He said with a smile, "According to the current sales volume, the planned 1,000 acres of production area can meet the supply, and it should be able to rank in Dounan at that time." ”
In Dounan, Kunming, new and old "flower people" are building a "flower freedom" format.