The 138th China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, launched its inaugural matchmaking event for domestic sales of export-oriented products on Thursday, establishing a dedicated zone spanning approximately 3,000 square meters.
This aims to promote the integration of domestic and foreign trade and support the new development pattern of dual circulation between domestic and international markets.
At the event’s launch ceremony, Deng Minyu, business manager from a participating company, held a memory foam pillow while queuing at the purchasing booth of Jingxi, a discount shopping platform under JD Group.
This is the first time the company, with over 50 years of foreign trade experience, has attempted to tap into the domestic market. “Last year, we sold about five million memory foam pillows in Japan, but we still lack expertise in the domestic market,” Deng said.
Jingxi has helped many foreign trade enterprises expand into domestic markets. A typical example is a clothing manufacturer with two decades of foreign trade history, which sold out tens of thousands of inventory items in just three days. The enterprise only needed to supply the goods, while the platform handled key links such as operations, logistics and after-sales services.
Those that are interested in export-to-domestic products extend beyond e-commerce platforms to include many offline supermarkets.
Xiao Lei, purchasing manager of Wuhan Wushang Supermarket Management, said: “We introduced a type of shoes, which was initially for export, this year, which later became a hit. During its trial sale across more than 60 stores in Hubei province, we restocked it three times in just one week, with sales of the single item reaching several thousand pairs.”
Xiao noted that the shoes retail for 129 yuan ($18), yet their quality rivals that of products priced at 300 yuan on the market. “This shows domestic consumers are not seeking the lowest price, but rather high cost-performance,” he explained.
“The cost performance of foreign trade goods is impeccable, especially those exported to developed countries,” Xiao added, citing another example that a batch of over 10,000 foreign trade backpacks placed in Wushang Supermarket stores also quickly became bestsellers.
As of the end of September, Wushang Supermarket had connected with 398 foreign trade enterprises, placed 436 products on its shelves, and achieved sales of nearly 3.4 million yuan.
“The Canton Fair is a pivotal event for upstream producers, midstream distributors and downstream channel providers,” Xiao said. “Here, we can not only capture industry trends but also forge connections with high-quality manufacturers.”
Yan Jia, general manager of public affairs for Southern China at Taobao & Tmall Group, said that the company highly values the efficient matchmaking platform built by the Canton Fair. “It provides foreign trade enterprises and domestic e-commerce platforms with opportunities to deeply explore high-quality production capacity resources and expand domestic sales channels,” Yan noted.
Liu Zhiqin, sales manager of Shenzhen Cheerlux Electronic Technology, said that the company requires professional support to analyze domestic market demand and address previously unencountered challenges such as after-sales services and channel development.
“At this matchmaking event, we found partners capable of providing such assistance,” Liu added.
Source: China Foreign Trade Centre
