At present, with the implementation of a series of opening-up measures both at home and abroad, the main contradiction of international trade has shifted from the obstruction of the supply chain and the insufficient performance capability to the weakness of external demand and the decrease in orders. We must strengthen the docking of supply and purchase, and strive to snatch orders and open markets.Going out one day earlier means one more business opportunity.
Just like Christmas, the Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China. Many MU people gave up the wonderful time of reunion with their families, and setted out to visit customers, actively participating in the “100-day Battle”.
A face-to-face encounter is better than a thousand emails. Davy Shi, a senior director of the European Union Division of MU (1931) , may have sent thousands of emails over the past three years of the COVID epidemic, but he was more eager to pack his luggage and start his European journey that had been delayed for three years on the first day of the Chinese New Year.
Starting from Shanghai, via Copenhagen and Poland, he finally met his old customers in Warsaw, both of them feeling particularly cordial and moved. After visiting cities such as Bydgoszcz, Gdansk and Lodz, Davy Shi hurriedly drove to Germany with his old customers as the second stop of this trip. Two business groups of them attended the Nuremberg Toy Fair and the Frankfurt Ambiente respectively.
“Although customers generally reported that there were still a lot of inventories to be digested, especially for garden and outdoor products, it is very important to contact retail customers during the Spring Festival!”, Davy Shi believed that the situation should improve further by May and there would still be many opportunities to place orders for seasonal products such as BACK TO SCHOOL and Christmas products.
Throughout the Spring Festival, Gary Li spent it with his customers in places such as North Somerset, London, and Cambridge. His job in the Amazon Division of MU mainly serves Amazon e-commerce sellers, and it is very important to understand their new product development plans for 2023. In Berlin, Gary Li also exchanged and learned from local e-commerce creators, which not only strengthened the relationship with customers, but also promoted mutual progress.
“All the customers we visited this time are e-commerce sellers, and from the feedback, the purchase volume will increase this year. Customers are very interested in our overall e-commerce service process!” Gary Li felt that European customers still have confidence in e-commerce, and the share of e-commerce retail is still increasing and eventually has the opportunity to exceed offline retail.
Customers now pay more attention to the functionality and differentiation of online products, which is the focus of product development this year in his division.
As the general manager of Greenhill Furniture, Jony Zhu was the first person to set off, and his journey was the most difficult and complex: from Southeast Asia to Europe and then to the United States, across Christmas, New Year, Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and other important festivals. Therefore, he saw the most customers and felt the deepest.
“Although the ‘B-class & B-management’ policy has been implemented in China, my survey found that 80% of customers still choose to come to China in the second half of the year, so our proactive visits are particularly important.” Regarding the trend of outdoor product market in the future, he holds an dialectical view:
on one hand, with the decline of energy prices and food prices in Europe, the consumer market will slightly revive, and the customer’s procurement budget will increase by 20-30% compared with last year, but it will still be lower than before the Russia-Ukraine war; on the other hand, some new uncertainties are accumulating, affected by factors such as the earlier relaxation of the Southeast Asian epidemic, more customers purchase products from Southeast Asia, so the transfer of orders cannot be ignored.
Overall, Greenhill Furniture will still closely follow the customers’ demands for new products and new styles, and adopt a more active business development strategy.
Jason Zhou, manager of Multi Channel, is making his first overseas visit. He has been in the company for 1 year and 4 months, mainly dealing with the professional product line of home textiles. This trip is mainly to visit new and old customers in Germany, Italy and Dubai and to compete for orders.
He happily said: “On-site visit can effectively seize the time point of ordering, resulting in many old customers ordering in advance with a deposit, and negotiations with new customers are also going smoothly, and follow-up will be needed later!”
At the same time, in the fierce market competition, customers are now paying more attention to the quality and patterns of textile products. This year, measures will be taken to make up for these pain points, continuously improving the quality and grade of products to adapt to the new changes in market demand.
Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, once said, ”Meeting is the basis of trust, and true trust is the nature of friendship.” Will Wan, manager of the D Department of Topwin, always regards customers as friends. He set the departure time on January 24th, which was the third day of the Spring Festival.
Will Wan visited the American Midwest region, which had never been involved before. He met with new customers in the cold of minus 26 degrees. Both sides were full of confidence in future cooperation. He also conducted field research on some wholesale markets and supermarkets in the local area to understand the latest product trends.
He then went to Mexico to meet some old customers and old friends. Feeling deeply, he said, “We have always not only promoted business cooperation with customers, but also sincerely shared Chinese culture and our family stories with customers. We have become friends with customers and their families, which is essential for the stability of cooperation.”
At this moment, many MU people are shuttling between skyscrapers, market streets and country roads in foreign countries, even entering customers’ homes to link services and customers, products and markets. They take planes, ships and taxis, dragging suitcases and running against time to advance to the future.
Giving up the Spring Festival is not a depressing thing, because they know that they value customers and always honor them as priority and they believe that opportunities always favor hard-working and striving people!
Post time: Feb-21-2023