There Is A Chinese Apprentice Behind Many Brands, And The Foreign Goods You Buy Are Likely To Be Made In China.

Ren Xiaohua's fortune group was founded 30 years ago, and has been established in overseas markets and foreign trade businesses. What supports them today is the customer orders from Europe, America and Japan, including Muji, Disney and WAL-MART.

For a long time, orders from the domestic e-commerce platform can only be regarded as "drizzle" of the source of the proceeds of Furi. However, from the 2016 year of the year, the "rain" became more and more dense.

According to the Research Report of China Merchants Securities, in 2017, the total amount of orders from only 200 million of NetEase strictly selected, big time and Mi Jia went straight to RMB.

These new faces familiar with the flow of electricity providers are not less demanding than the "high-end" customers of foreign countries.

Ren Xiaohua did not dare to slack off.

Initially, the company did not set up a dedicated team to butt these new brand customers, but after two years of cooperation, the other party in the process,

The demand for performance is "no bad money".

In the factory of Fu sun, there are different production lines that meet the requirements of high and low grade, but when it comes to cooperation, these Internet brands will not hesitate to consider "quality" before "cost".

In the context of "consumption upgrading" and "new retail", Internet Co and a group of entrepreneurs began to use towels and ODM brands from towels.

The bed products to the sofa, tea table, "wrap round" the lifestyle of the new consumer class, but what they must conquer is the Chinese manufacturing industry that they are not familiar with and reefs everywhere.

The arrival of laymen

Ren Xiaohua now remembers the first meeting with the "outsiders" of the manufacturing industry.

In the 2015 year of the year, a team selected by NetEase made a "bottom out" survey of the production capacity and production line of the company.

"Although they did not have a large number of orders in the initial stage of cooperation, they were very sincere and were planning cooperation for several years at a time."

Ren Xiaohua feels that NetEase's "sincerity" is reflected in paying enough money.

They promise to pay in advance, and each time they take the goods, they will settle the payment immediately.

But they suggested that they should participate deeply in raw material procurement, production and quality inspection.

This kind of "play" is seldom seen among domestic customers.

Whether for a large manufacturing enterprise such as Sun Fu, or a small and medium-sized manufacturer, the "account period" that domestic customers can not readily commit to will always be the "pain" of those companies that are accustomed to foreign trade business, in the international arena they are familiar with.

There is a very mature set of international settlement rules, but this rule does not always work in the domestic market.

This is also a very long time, many business owners prefer to enter the foreign trade card with low gross margin, and have no motive to try the important reason of the domestic market.

In the past, a net profit of more than 400 million yuan a year, a capacity of 65 tons, or even a dominant market in overseas markets may not accept these unworthy orders.

But in recent years, the pulling effect of foreign trade on the company's business has slowed down, so that the management of the company began to think about how to turn around and expand the vast consumer market that is rising in China.

Customers such as NetEase's strict selection and big era have become the targets of the company's trial.

This has nothing to do with the pformation background of China's manufacturing industry.

The increasing production cost, manpower cost and floating exchange rate are losing the advantage of "China made" in the foreign trade market by 20 years ago.

Fixed sales channels restrict product sales. How to increase sales and digest excess capacity has become the key to heavy manufacturing.

What Ren Xiaohua did not understand was that the team he met with was directly led by the NetEase founder, chairman of the board and CEO Ding Lei.

2015 in the second half of the year, when the NetEase began to investigate the manufacturing capacity of Chinese manufacturers and plan for the strict selection of NetEase, Ding Lei's first request was to find a bath towel that was good enough, soft enough, but not too expensive.

According to Ding Lei, the idea of starting a strict NetEase election stems from his experience of buying a bath towel.

He wants to buy a soft bath towel, but he can't be satisfied with the electricity supplier's website. His friends advised him to go abroad to buy expensive bathing towels that came across the ocean. The price tag was marked "Made in China".

"Buying a good bath towel is my basic requirement.

I always wonder why no one in China is going to look into this matter. Since others are not doing it, we will do it ourselves and make it the best.

In an interview, Ding Lei once said so.

After that, he convened his colleagues for more than two months to find a good manufacturer in China.

"Willing to throw money" is the first key to open the supply chain, including NetEase's strict selection, name creation and superior products.

From the original towels, slippers, and then extended to shirts and furniture, according to Ding Lei's statement, in May and June of the 2017 year of May and June, when the NetEase had been selected strictly for a year and a half, its SKU had reached about $5000.

Following the strict selection, the giants such as millet and Jingdong began to make efforts to "made in China" on the "new retail" road.

The situation looks great.

But according to Ren Xiaohua, the attitude of caution is still the main mindset when cooperated with these new brands.

Including Fu Shi, many foreign trade companies did not think that they could make a brand in the e-commerce platform by making their own brand.

If you want to be a retail expert in the domestic market, or if you build a team, you have to be a retailer or an Internet player, if you want to engage in domestic 2C.

Dealing with turnover and inventory is not that simple. "

Ren Xiaohua said.

Over the past few years, due to the lack of 2C experience in the "gene", the self owned brand has not made any money on the electronic business platform.

Nowadays, these outsiders bring rich cash, abundant traffic and a strong future of uncertainty.

A sense of security that is uncertain

"Mainly depends on whether these customers can solve the problem of" safety "of manufacturers.

Good thing APP CEO Zhang Zhongyi said.

Zhang Zhongyi, who was over 50 years old, had owned a medium-sized furniture trade factory in Guangdong before joining the good thing team.

After 2008 years of financial crisis, he clearly felt that business was becoming less prosperous.

"We all know that the foreign trade factory is not doing so well."

Zhang Zhongyi also tried to sell products directly produced by the factory on the domestic e-commerce platform directly, but because of the lack of understanding of brands, electricity providers and retail outlets, the attempt in 2008 years ago failed.

In 2015, Zhang Zhongyi decided to continue his experiment in a different way. He eventually joined the lifestyle brand of the e-commerce provider as a consultant, because he became an experienced CEO in the supply chain.

Dachang, such as NetEase and Xiaomi, can build up a supply chain ecosystem by throwing money, and promote their products and platforms with strong traffic advantages. But to become a trusted supplier and establish long-term cooperative relations, the entry threshold is not low. In the complicated and waiting manufacturing system, the capacity, scale and prestige of such a large number of companies such as FoxThe are still few; and the situation of more small and medium-sized foreign trade suppliers is more embarrassing. From a few years ago, they hoped to embrace the domestic market, and gradually began to try new brands of electricity suppliers or other channels, but the initial contact process was more like "gambling".

Being a factory owner and now returning to the identity of these manufacturers' brand customers, Zhang Zhongyi's feelings are very obvious.

"We are selecting suppliers, and suppliers are assessing us."

Zhang Zhongyi said.

No more than NetEase's "big deal". Venture companies such as good things have can only choose from mugs, cutlery and other categories, but because of the initial market situation is not known, the first batch of goods only dare to set one hundred or two hundred pieces, and then get the market to test the water.

Every day a machine opens and a worker goes to work, which means that the cost has already been expended. For a factory, it is not worthwhile to not take the big list.

"Many factories are reluctant to pick up such a small quantity."

Zhang Zhongyi initially had to rely on his "brush face" to find his former colleague's help.

The other side is losing the risk of losing money.

But relying on the "connections" to establish cooperative relations can not last long. "At the very beginning, you can rely on your face to ask them to help solve a few problems. If you can't grow up, you will lose confidence, and it will be difficult for you to cooperate later."

After running for a period of time, the stable sale of "have" has begun to appear on the platform of good things.

But in the remaining time, in the process of expanding SKU and developing new products, good thing have is still constantly eliminating and upgrading the supply chain. In the more than 200 partners currently established, the list is still changing.

Zhang Zhongyi still remembered that the industry entered the golden age before fifteen.

At that time, every batch of products produced in the factory was gathered by customers' lorries at the gate of the factory, waiting for "first to pull goods".

Today, such a grand occasion is no longer.

And his colleagues had to begin to adjust the balance of the scales carefully in the shrinking trade list and the uncertain domestic market.

Factory owner's dream

For the time being, it is unclear who will be in a strong position between the Internet users and factory owners who will play traffic.

"It seems that China's manufacturing sector is complete and large, but if China's supply chain is to be further segmenting, the best suppliers will still be scarce."

Zhang Zhongyi said.

The last supplier found by the big brand is still a few factories. Besides a few factories on the "spire", there are still a lot of factories that can hardly receive large orders from domestic customers at once.

The gap usually exists outside the capacity.

Compared with some "small workshops", factories that have done foreign trade have paid more attention to the quality of products, and even in details, they are close to "international norms".

"For example, in terms of intellectual property rights, only factories that have done foreign trade will consciously protect customers."

The founder co-founder Guan Zai, after inspecting a supply chain factory, found that the foreign trade factory would open several close confidential sample rooms for different brand proofing products, so as to prevent the leakage of customer design.

It's very important to find such a "careful" factory for independent design.

And those factories that are temporarily unable to get "big bills" and have foreign trade experience have become the best choice for startups.

But this does not mean that the "danger" signal is lifted, so that it can be verified quickly and flexibly.

For example, the start-up companies such as have and SKU are even more frequent updates. "Some products can not be accepted on the market and we will adjust them quickly."

Guan Zishan said.

This also means that if we can not show mature management capabilities and coping strategies and make "burst funds", the factories behind them will be hard to be eliminated.

Even those factory owners who have the ability to eat the old books in the foreign trade list do not dare to slack off now.

Even their attention to the quality of products is beyond the imagination of customers who come to us.

"If you want to rush out, you still have to spend money on machines, willing to spend money to recruit powerful people, not just to do foundries, but also to know something about design."

Zhao Zhendong, who owns a furniture manufacturing plant in a family enterprise in Foshan, Guangdong, said.

In the period of no worry about orders, this factory with 1000 multiple workers and hundreds of millions of factories does not need to worry about design. But now, this company sends people to Milan Furniture Fair every year.

Zhao Zhendong took the company from his father a few years ago.

In the industry, Zhao Zhendong belongs to the "young school", the most popular group of customers who want to test the water in the new consumer market.

Most of them are "two generation factories". They are only more than 30 years old, open minded and willing to take risks.

In order to cooperate with the new brand customers, their decision is fast enough. They even pull out several production lines to train workers for targeted production.

But at the same time, Zhao Zhendong is more strict with factory management. Even in the eyes of some customers, this kind of harsh is a bit "unnatural".

At one time, a new brand customer who held a large list came to Zhao Zhendong, asking him to mix half of the New Zealand materials and domestic materials with high quality to make a group of dining chairs. Zhao Zhendong also had to "reluctantly" refuse.

"In fact, according to the environmental standards, there is no problem at all, but we really dare not do it. If we fear that the reputation will be destroyed, we will never get a good list, and emphasize the quality in front of the workers every day. If we make such a list again, how can we manage it?"

"There is no way to compete.

You've done a good job this year. There's a factory that he will do better than you.

As for why, you sometimes don't know.

Maybe it's the bottom line.

Zhao Zhendong said.

As the weakest end of the whole sector, after entering the industry competition period, how to "keep the quality bottom line" and kill a "living road" at the same time, becomes the next problem Zhao Zhendong faces.

He has begun to feel the pressure from customers' "price reduction", but still hopes that these new brands will continue to rise at an explosive rate.

"As long as there is no big mistake, the small brands that we stabilize will eventually become big brands and will take our factory to a new level."

This is a commitment to father after taking over the factory.

This is also the goal of new brands that are rushing towards the front end.

People often compare the rise of these new brands in China with the growth history of Muji. In the 80s, when Japan's unusually prosperous economic scene and the upgrading of consumers' consumption concept, the brand of Muji produced the demand of the middle class who wanted to save money and unwilling to give up taste and quality at that time.

Then, from towels, clothing to fresh, hotels, Muji became a symbol of life with strong meaning.

Now, before embracing the bright future of Muji, they seem to spend a long time building up enough understanding with Chinese manufacturers behind the brand.