Wenzhou Shoe Enterprises Vigorously Develop To Las Vegas

For the footwear industry in Wenzhou, Las Vegas, the United States, is famous for its "gambling city" all over the world, and more importantly, it has the Las Vegas international shoe exhibition.

Since the 1996 China Leather Industry Association organized the Chinese shoe enterprises to participate in the Las Vegas shoe exhibition, the world's most recognized leather shoes professional exhibition is a major goal for Wenzhou footwear industry.

A few days ago, the 17 shoe companies in Wenzhou returned to Wenzhou after the end of the Las Vegas shoe exhibition. What are the new performances for this year's Las Vegas shoe exhibition?

What new feelings do you have?

Jill's nano shoes are quite fruitful.

The 17 enterprises in Wenzhou have more than 30 booths, most of which are two stalls, and 3 booths have been booked by enterprises.

It is understood that the cost of a booth is around 100 thousand yuan.

In addition to genuine leather men's shoes, children's shoes, rubber shoes and women's shoes are rich in variety and price range.

Famous enterprises such as Kangnai, Jill, Shu met, Dong Yi, Yi Mei Da, Tamar and so on have been attacking for many years, which has added a lot to this exhibition.

Although the exhibition did not receive many orders, they all thought the exhibition was more concerned about the consolidation of the customer base.

Many foreign businessmen have made a special trip to China to do fieldwork and further establish cooperative relations after the exhibition.

Yu Jinhua, chairman of jera, said that if we want to expand our international share, we must stick to the international exhibition and let the international buyers or agents know and deepen the impression of the company. Even if there is no direct order on display, we must make good use of the information exchange resources and platforms.

For this reason, the more than 10 leaders of Wenzhou shoe enterprises did not come back immediately after attending the Las Vegas exhibition. Instead, they stayed in the United States to conduct an inspection of the American shoe market, hoping to find more breakthroughs.

Because for Wenzhou shoes, the Americas market has always been a difficult fortress.

When the reporter saw Zheng Yujian, deputy director general of Dusseldorf, who was back from the United States, he was preparing to attend the shoe exhibition in Germany.

For the Las Vegas exhibition, Zheng Yujian sighed: a few years ago, there were more than 20 Wenzhou enterprises in the exhibition. Now the number is decreasing. It is fair to say that the United States is a big importer of shoes. Is Wenzhou shoes not in line with their tastes?

The reason is that product characteristics are still an insurmountable shoe for Wenzhou shoes.

In such a large exhibition hall, the enterprises that go to the exhibition are generally two stalls, and no need for decoration.

The head of the footwear association of the United States emphasizes that even international brands can not be separated from excellent products, and products are the pass to the market. Ordinary products are hard to be accepted by consumers who are very individualized.

This time, Jill was pleased that an American customer who had established relations with the Canton Fair last year met Jill's nanoscale shoes at the Las Vegas exhibition. The price was ultimately positioned at about $150 a pair.

Gilda put out a pair of nanoscale shoes at this exhibition. For this reason, Gilda advertised in the world famous magazines at the expense of his money, making publicity pages on the high places such as airplanes and foreign coffee shops.

The US trip has been fruitful. Individual retail giants have extended their olive branches to cooperate, and even suggest that they supply products to all parts of the world.

Although Gilda's nano shoe harvest is gratifying, but generally Wenzhou shoes are still difficult to perform well, and Wenzhou shoes are generally below US $twenty or thirty in the US market.

In this shoe exhibition, the American businessman's evaluation of Wenzhou shoes is that "Wenzhou's products have few distinct personalities, many styles but not new ones."

Xie Rongfang, Secretary General of Wenzhou shoe leather industry association, told reporters that in recent years, the export of Wenzhou footwear industry to the United States and the Americas has been increasing, but the brand impact of Wenzhou shoes is still a weak link.

Of course, our grasp of the market is not very accurate, and difficulties will exist in a certain period of time.

For example: Wenzhou shoes lack of market research, positioning is not allowed, thus reducing the ability to expand the market; in addition, the American consumer demand for products is very high, Wenzhou shoes products homogenization serious, lack of innovation, can only be piecemeal in the market, the form can not become a big climate.

At the same time, the scene of price competition is now appearing in the United States. The Wenzhou shoe is still a low mark for the US market.

Fang Yan, senior engineer of the Wenzhou Research Institute of the China Leather Research Institute, said that the price of the nano shoes was upgraded because of the innovation of the products. It has been comparable with AOKANG's breathing shoes GEOX in many details. In the future, it should have a better performance in the international arena.

The overall upgrading of Wenzhou footwear industry is worth studying in terms of innovation.

Can not insist on the back

It is not easy to go to the United States. It is not easy to open the market without good products. At present, Wenzhou shoe enterprises have opted out of the US market, some choose to go in, and more are sent to trading companies to operate.

In 2004, more than 20 Wenzhou shoe factories took part in the Las Vegas exhibition, and nearly 40 exhibition booth of standard stalls took up nearly half of the "China Pavilion" of Las Vegas shoe exhibition.

Big names such as Kangnai, AOKANG and Jill are competing for appearance, while Tamar, shoeme, bully and Jin Di are also unwilling to lag behind. However, Wenzhou shoes account for only 1/10 of the Asian Pavilion this year. Compared with the aggressive Fujian sports shoes, 17 Wenzhou footwear enterprises obviously feel a sense of loss.

"The reason why we can't stick to it is that the profit is too small."

Wenzhou shoes sell for 2 US $thirty or even four or five US dollars in the US market. At such a low price, they still compete but come from shoes with lower price in Wenling and other places.

A shoe company owner who once attended the exhibition told reporters: some enterprises are going with the luck or the psychology of trying. The product lacks pertinence, and the result can not take orders.

You know that a booth at Las Vegas Shoe Fair is about 100 thousand yuan, and the other costs are even greater.

Besides, there is not much advertising effect. American customers are very realistic. They are products and prices are cheaper. So many shoe companies are often exhausted but still busy.

Zheng Yujian has revealed his secret: the exhibition in Las Vegas depends on keeping. The exhibition is first looked at by the old customers. If the old customers are consolidated, they will be harvested. Otherwise, your resources may be others. Once a new customer is negotiating the next order, he will earn 10 times or more of the cost of the exhibition.

Of course, the premise is that preparatory work is better than a year.

After all, it takes time and patience to develop and cultivate foreign markets. It is a great investment for enterprises to set up an enterprise and product image in a planned way.

Foreign trade talents become the key

He has participated in the 10 Las Vegas shoe exhibition for a long time.

Zheng Yujian believes that going abroad to participate in the exhibition and expanding the international market is not an easy task. If we want to enter the US market, it is bound to be clear about the requirements of the US market for footwear products, and do well in finding the right position.

In addition, exhibitors are familiar with foreign trade and technology, and have good English expression ability.

The internationalization of Wenzhou's footwear industry has always been very scarce. The chairman of the company, Yu Jinhua, laughs at the fact that "one will be hard to find".

He analyzed the reasons. First, there were no foreign trade talents who specialized in training shoes industry. Foreign language learning is not necessarily competent for international trade. Two, it is difficult for enterprises to train their own talents, and not one or two years of training.

In addition, let the boss headache is foreign trade talents job hopping problem.

A shoe boss who asked not to be named said: a foreign trade worker from the first month one thousand or two thousand yuan annual salary of fifty thousand or sixty thousand yuan or less is stable, once in important positions directly dealing with customers, that is, delegate power to them, often put forward salary sharing requirements.

A manager of his company worked in the company, but he co operated an intermediary company with others. He quietly pferred orders belonging to his company to his company's name.

At present, many shoe enterprises specializing in foreign trade in Wenzhou only have several ordinary staff members, and the foreign trade business is often taken care of by the senior managers of the bosses and enterprises.

In an exhibition like Las Vegas, many shoe companies are leaders of corporate strategy and do not allow foreign trade personnel to directly contact orders.

Once there is a shortage of trade talents, the limitation is very obvious. Business is mostly maintained by old customers.

Huang Haiping, a marketing expert, believes that the footwear industry in Wenzhou lacks flexible mechanisms. The core resources of the market economy are talents. If the business is not good enough, the enterprises will not go too far.

Don't let visa get stuck.

Another problem with the shoe exhibition in Las Vegas is the issue of visa to the United States.

Xie Rongfang, Secretary General of Wenzhou shoe leather industry association, told reporters: last year, a delegation from the relevant departments of the state visited the United States. She was the head of the Wenzhou team, but in the end, only one of her team passed the visa in Wenzhou.

A lot of Wenzhou bosses want to go to Las Vegas, but they get stuck in visa.

Four years ago, the Las Vegas Shoe Fair attracted more than 20 Wenzhou shoe companies to participate in the exhibition. However, five or six bosses were brushed off when they were visas.

Even one business owner and salesman failed to step out of the country, and the sample shoes that had been booked and displayed were also delivered to the United States. Finally, they had to ask other manufacturers to help them.

There are also enterprise stalls or empty space. As a result, bargaining and Exhibition parties must negotiate with each other for certain losses.

This year's news is more favorable. This time, the shoe companies going to the US have basically made their way.

But there is also some fear: will the next time be smooth?

According to the insiders, Wenzhou shoes are still in the "survival" situation in Las Vegas. Wenzhou shoe enterprises are still very far away from the way of shoe throwing, but Las Vegas shoe exhibition is a market target for Wenzhou shoe industry.

When Wenzhou shoes are in Las Vegas, it means when Wenzhou shoes are really close to the rest of the world.