Summer Rush to Meet Christmas Deadlines: Yiwu’s “Off-Season” Orders Witness China’s Foreign Trade “Rising Curve”

Our reporter Du Yumeng, Liu Qi

Intern reporter He Chenghao

In June, the city of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, exudes a palpable "heat wave" of commercial vitality. In the Christmas supplies section of the Yiwu International Trade Market, Christmas tree lights glitter, and various exquisite ornaments are a feast for the eyes. Merchants are busy checking orders, organizing samples, and connecting with overseas buyers...

This bustling scene of summer preparations for winter holiday goods clearly reflects the resilience and vitality of Yiwu's foreign trade. And this cross-season production and sales boom extends far beyond the Christmas supplies sector alone. Across the entire Yiwu International Trade Market, categories such as home apparel, craft accessories, and daily necessities are flourishing, with overseas orders pouring in.

Taking Yiwu as a window, we can see the solid foundation of China's current foreign trade: innovation and upgrading open up value-added space, industrial clusters build supply confidence, and diversified global layouts spread external risks. Although the global trade environment is complex and volatile, China's foreign trade continues to maintain a stable and improving trend, steadily releasing strong growth momentum.

From "Volume-Price Competition" to "Value-Added Competition"

As the world's largest distribution center for Christmas supplies, Yiwu is experiencing an "off-season" production and sales boom.

"Right after the Spring Festival this year, long-standing overseas customers began sending orders one after another, and order delivery is now scheduled through the end of August," said Zhuang Yanqiao, owner of Xingda Christmas Craft Gift Store in the Yiwu International Trade Market, as she swiftly organized hanging Christmas balls and bow ornaments on the wall. "Starting in May, we entered the busiest shipping peak of the year. Particularly for orders bound for Europe and South America, transit times are longer, so all goods must be shipped by the end of July."

Facing rapidly changing domestic and international market demands, these seemingly ordinary decorations have quietly undergone quality upgrades.

"The wall-mounted LED tunnel light is our new self-developed product and the factory's best-selling export item this year," Long Xijin, marketing director of Little Angel Christmas Craft Factory, told our reporter. The market response to the new product has far exceeded expectations. Most of the European and Latin American customers visiting this year are willing to purchase it, with this single product contributing nearly 20% of new orders for the factory.

The popularity of multiple self-developed products is inseparable from the company's long-term and stable R&D investment. Long Xijin said his company consistently invests about 20% of its revenue in R&D, conducting regular technological iterations and product updates.

In the past, Yiwu small commodities entered the global market through standardized mass production and low-price, high-volume models. However, as competition intensifies both domestically and internationally, the drawbacks of homogeneous low-price competition have become increasingly prominent. Against this backdrop, many merchants are either focusing on customized services or increasing original self-developed products to drive new demand.

"In the early years of foreign trade business, it was all about low prices and high volumes. Now, to secure orders and retain customers, we rely more on superior quality," said Xiang Lili, general manager of Yiwu Zuoxi Sports Goods Factory, which has been deeply involved in the sports goods industry for over 20 years. "Currently, the football goods industry is in a period of relatively flat production and sales. We are taking advantage of this gap to focus on product iteration and quality upgrades."

The factory is making parallel efforts in both raw materials and design: improving material formulations in the production process to enhance abrasion resistance, waterproof performance, and fabric density, thereby strengthening the core durability of the products; in terms of appearance design, leveraging professional design teams from universities to tap into trendy creativity that aligns with aesthetic trends in overseas markets. Xiang Lili admitted, "In the past, we sold whatever we had. Now, we produce whatever the customers need."

To sharpen the tool, one must first make it efficient. To refine high-quality products, many companies are upgrading equipment and adopting smart transformations as key quality improvement measures. Zhao Yundong, chairman of Shanghai Gu Ming Fragrance Co., Ltd., which is rooted in Yiwu, told reporters that fragrances have a wide range of applications, including daily chemicals, aromatherapy, and food. Since last year, his factory has gradually introduced digital intelligent equipment. Such equipment is expensive but highly productive, with one hour of work equivalent to a full day's work by over a dozen workers. More importantly, manual feeding inevitably leads to errors, while automated equipment offers extremely high precision, reducing product defects and lowering defect rates from the production source, meeting complex customer customization needs.

"More and more market players are proactively breaking away from homogeneous competition, delving into creative design, and building superior products. This not only precisely responds to the personalized pursuits of young overseas consumers but also reflects the hard power of the domestic supply chain, which is capable of rapid iteration, small orders, and quick turnaround." Xiao Hongwei, director of the Policy Simulation Laboratory of the Economic Forecasting Department of the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, told our reporter. He believes that this change strongly confirms that China's light industry foreign trade is accelerating its transformation from the previous "volume-price competition" to "value-added competition."

Industrial Clusters Forge Hardcore Supply Capabilities

Balancing cost pressures, meeting delivery deadlines, and satisfying diverse customization needs—these challenges that trouble many manufacturing enterprises are precisely the strengths of "Made in Yiwu," creating the unique "Yiwu Speed."

During on-site visits, reporters found that Yiwu has formed a mature and distinctive industrial pattern of "centralized operation, decentralized production, and global marketing," effectively addressing land resource constraints and capacity bottlenecks, establishing a precise division of labor and efficient linkage between trade-driven order acquisition and production-side collaborative coordination.

"Our factory was 'born' right here in Yiwu!" said Song Guanghui, chairman of Zhejiang Wenbo Daily Necessities Co., Ltd., known as the "Compression Bag King." He told our reporter that in 2009, he rented a factory of over 4,000 square meters in Yiwu's Qingkou Industrial Park and invested more than 2 million yuan to set up a production line, forming a "front shop, back factory" model. This allowed him to stay close to the market, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and flexibly take orders to meet customer needs.

He gave an example: a customer might fancy a sample in the store but request a color change or a logo addition. In the past, it would take a week to provide the sample. Now, the salesperson takes a photo with their phone, sends it to the factory group, and the factory can produce the modified sample on the same day. The customer can get the sample before leaving Yiwu. "Orders placed in the morning, samples made in the afternoon; confirmed orders, overnight production scheduling."

"The 'front shop, back factory' model is a highly representative industrial organization form in Yiwu," said Luo Yu, Party branch secretary of Yiwu Live E-commerce Association, in an interview. The "front shops," represented by the Yiwu International Trade Market, directly face global buyers and precisely align with market demand. The "back factories," scattered in Yiwu and surrounding areas like Dongyang, Pujiang, and Taizhou, follow order dynamics and flexibly adjust product styles and capacity. Coupled with the comprehensive industrial support within Zhejiang Province, this forms an efficient collaborative system of "orders taken in Yiwu, produced in Zhejiang."

Ren Ziyu, general manager of Zhejiang Aoshan Craft Products Co., Ltd., whose store is in the Yiwu International Trade Market and factory is in Dongyang, deeply appreciates the convenience brought by such high industrial agglomeration. He told reporters that all major equipment, raw materials, and auxiliary materials needed for production can be procured within Zhejiang Province in one stop.

Compared to cross-provincial procurement, the advantages of localized industrial clusters are very prominent: On one hand, the overall cost advantage is clear. According to Ren Ziyu's estimates, procuring raw materials within the province reduces overall costs by about 10% compared to outside the province, while also eliminating large long-distance transportation and warehousing transfer costs, effectively compressing production costs. On the other hand, the response efficiency of supporting industries is extremely high. Local suppliers are close by, communication is convenient, and they can quickly supply materials and flexibly replenish orders based on demand. Additionally, long-term stable local cooperation ensures more consistent material quality and stronger overall support capabilities.

The mature supply chain system on the manufacturing side has solidified Yiwu goods' advantages in cost, quality, and efficiency. Meanwhile, the efficient and diversified cross-border logistics system helps small commodities complete the final transformation from "capacity advantage" to "overseas advantage."

"Yiwu Port, as the 'sixth port area' of Ningbo Zhoushan Port, is a major hub for small commodity exports. Some shipping companies can directly pick up containers, pack, and issue bills of lading in Yiwu, making it very efficient and convenient," said Jin Xiaomin, chairman of Zhejiang Kingston Supply Chain Group Co., Ltd., to our reporter. Additionally, for some European inland customers, the company regularly recommends rail transport, with frequent departures that effectively hedge against the uncertainty of maritime shipping schedules.

Data from the Yiwu Market Development Committee shows that in the first five months of this year, the China-Europe Railway Express (Yixinou) dispatched over 109k TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%.

"There is no accessory you can't buy, no process you can't solve" — this was the most common sentiment heard during our interviews. The complete closed-loop industrial support system within Zhejiang Province enables companies to quickly complete style modifications, sample production, and flexible customization, effectively shortening delivery cycles and reducing overall production costs. This cluster advantage has become the core competitiveness of Yiwu small commodities in stabilizing overseas markets and continuously securing overseas orders.

Accelerating Expansion into Emerging Markets

From small stalls in the early days of "feather for sugar" trading to the world-renowned "global supermarket" of today, the subtle fluctuations in Yiwu's overseas orders and cross-border freight not only directly reflect changes in global market demand but also serve as an important window for observing China's foreign trade situation.

During our multi-day visits, many merchants mentioned that in the past two years, export orders from emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa have increased significantly. "In the past, African customers didn't order large quantities, but since last year, orders from Africa have surged," said Zhuang Yanqiao.

Huang Xiuying, a store owner specializing in blind boxes and figurines in Zone 6 of the Yiwu International Trade Market, shared a similar sentiment. "In terms of blind box exports, orders from European and American customers used to dominate. Now it's completely reversed; total orders from Southeast Asia have surpassed those from long-standing European and American clients."

The merchants' intuitive feelings align with Yiwu's foreign trade data. According to Yiwu Customs statistics, in the first quarter of this year, Yiwu's total import and export value reached 209.37 billion yuan, breaking the 200 billion yuan mark one month earlier than last year, a year-on-year increase of 25%. Among this, exports were 178.61 billion yuan, up 21.3% year-on-year. In terms of trade partner structure, Yiwu had trade exchanges with over 220 countries and regions in the first quarter. Among them, total import and export volume with ASEAN increased by 68.3%; total import and export volume with Africa reached 41 billion yuan, up 47.3%; and total import and export volume with Belt and Road Initiative countries reached 147.4 billion yuan, up 29.8%.

Currently, emerging markets are in a golden period of accelerated development, with industrialization processes advancing steadily, leading to rapid growth in market demand for various commodities. Meanwhile, China's manufacturing industry is strong, with a mature and efficient supply chain system, and products have outstanding cost performance, highly matching the consumer and procurement needs of emerging markets.

General Administration of Customs data shows that in the first five months of this year, China's total import and export value of goods trade was 20.68 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%. Among this, the total trade value between China and ASEAN was 3.52 trillion yuan, up 16.6% year-on-year; China's total import and export with Belt and Road Initiative countries was 10.57 trillion yuan, up 13.6% year-on-year; and China's import and export with African countries reached 1.14 trillion yuan, breaking the 1 trillion yuan mark for the first time in the same historical period, up 18.2% year-on-year.

"Deepening the cultivation and layout of emerging markets not only fully unleashes China's industrial advantages but is also a core measure for China to seize market dividends and expand development space," said Lü Yue, professor at the National Academy of Development and Strategy and vice dean of the School of International Trade and Economics at the University of International Business and Economics, in an interview.

From the busy order-taking in small commodity shops in Yiwu to the "going global" of thousands of foreign trade enterprises nationwide; from innovative and upgraded Christmas supplies to "Made in China" products spread across the globe... China's foreign trade is resisting risks with diversified layouts, exploring potential with innovation and transformation, and solidifying its foundation with supply chain advantages. It is foreseeable that China's foreign trade will continue to steadily advance, injecting continuous momentum into the recovery of global trade.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

Keywords:

                                                            Yiwu
                                                            Foreign Trade