The National Colleges and Universities "Three Innovations Competition" launched the first cross-border e-commerce practical competition, and the eBay platform team broke through the waves

July 19, 2022, Hangzhou – Recently, the 12th National College Students’ E-commerce “Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship” Challenge (hereinafter referred to as “Three Creations”) cross-border e-commerce practical competition came to an end in Hangzhou. Ten teams stood out from thousands of teams across the country and came to Hangzhou to compete in the “Three Creations” cross-border e-commerce practical competition eBay platform practice competition. After two days of fierce competition, two teams from Qianjiang College of Hangzhou Normal University and Ningbo Vocational and Technical College stood out and won the “National Special Award” of the eBay platform comprehensive competition with their outstanding entrepreneurial planning and meticulous operation.

The National College Students' E-commerce "Three Innovations Competition" has been successfully held for 12 sessions since 2009. It is one of the highest-level competitions in the field of e-commerce in the country. This year, the "Three Innovations Competition" added a cross-border e-commerce practical competition for the first time. eBay is one of the four tracks of the practical competition and the only overseas e-commerce platform. It also provides real accounts for the participating teams throughout the competition. Since the competition started in December last year, thousands of teams from 211 colleges and universities in 31 provinces and cities across the country have gone through two stages of competition, theoretical competition and practical competition, for 8 months. In the end, 10 teams came to Hangzhou to compete for the eBay platform competition comprehensive competition award.

Professor Li Qi of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition , believes that "the actual competition combines college students' innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial practice with the urgent demand for talents in the cross-border e-commerce industry for the first time, which meets the needs of the country to develop new formats and the urgent desire of enterprises to recruit talents. Thanks to international platforms like eBay , which provide college students with a battlefield for innovation and entrepreneurship, allowing them to realize their ambitions. "

" The professional support provided by eBay for this competition has made the organization and operation of the competition full of highlights and surprises, and ignited the enthusiasm of college students for cross-border e-commerce, a new form and model of global trade. " Wu Changhong, director of the Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Division of the Hangzhou Free Trade Commission and first-level researcher, said, "We have done a lot of cross-border e-commerce talent training in cooperation with eBay and other platforms. The hard work and excellent results of the eBay team in this competition have shown us the future vigorous power of the cross-border e-commerce industry. We look forward to taking this competition as an opportunity to better attract a steady stream of cross-border e-commerce talents to Hangzhou, enhance the vitality of the entire city, and enhance the reserve force of cross-border e-commerce talents as a whole. "

"eBay has been committed to cultivating talents in cross-border e-commerce and has practiced various forms of industry-education integration cooperation over the years . We are very happy to cooperate with the 'Three Innovation Competition' and the Hangzhou Comprehensive Pilot Zone to jointly create a cross-border e-commerce practical competition . Through the competition, we have seen the rapid growth of a new generation of Chinese cross-border youth. " Pang Tao, general manager of sales and category management for eBay Greater China, said, "In the future, eBay will continue to work closely with the government and universities to cultivate more high-quality talents with international vision and resource integration capabilities, and inject momentum into the cross-border e-commerce industry."

College students conquered the eBay platform, selling more than 2,000 categories and helping their hometown industries to expand overseas

The "Three Innovation Competition" cross-border e-commerce practical competition is divided into three stages : theory competition, practical competition and comprehensive competition . Since the competition was officially launched in December last year , thousands of college teams have signed up to participate in the eBay platform track.

In order to help students experience the overseas sales environment and e-commerce environment firsthand, eBay provides real accounts throughout the entire process, allowing participating teams to sell on the platform with real guns and real ammunition . During the 70-day practice competition , the top 100 teams sold Chinese-made products to dozens of countries and regions such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Australia and Spain through the eBay platform , achieving real sales of nearly 300,000 US dollars. These products exported to the sea are in more than 2,000 categories , covering different categories such as auto parts, home gardening, and electronic appliances. Among them, auto and truck spare parts, mobile phones and accessories, and air fryers have become best-sellers. Some participating teams have a keen insight into overseas market demand and have discovered products such as energy storage power supplies that have strong demand growth under the current energy shortage in Europe.

At the eBay comprehensive competition, the top 10 contestants showed their abilities, and demonstrated their team's cross-border e-commerce operation capabilities and innovative entrepreneurial capabilities through marketing demonstrations, on-site defense, etc. In the end, the judges on the scene awarded the "National Special Award" of the eBay platform comprehensive competition to the "Standing and Making Money Team" of Qianjiang College of Hangzhou Normal University and the " Little Raccoon Team" of Ningbo Vocational and Technical College based on the on-site roadshow performance and comprehensive assessment of store operations .

The "Standing and Earning Money Team" of Qianjiang College of Hangzhou Normal University combines the advantages of the auto parts industry belt in Wenzhou and Taizhou, and creatively adopts a cost-sharing and profit-sharing model with factories to focus on the sales of auto parts . Team leader Chen Yi said, "Our team comes from Zhejiang, which has a strong gene for innovation and entrepreneurship. With the dream of starting a cross-border e-commerce business, we chose the eBay track without hesitation. We used eBay's market research tool Terapeak to learn that the modified parts for family cars and family pickup trucks are in the blue ocean market, with large market demand and relatively small competition. In addition, Zhejiang has rich auto parts industry resources, so we took it as the main category, hoping to help the hometown auto parts industry belt go overseas. "

The "Standing and Earning Money Team" faced store traffic problems at the beginning of the competition. " Under the guidance of eBay , we improved the listing, optimized the title and product details page, and the store traffic increased significantly in early May , ushering in a sales boom. All the hard work was worth it! " In more than two months of operation, the team achieved sales of nearly 10,000 US dollars, and sales continued to rise. The whole team felt very accomplished. "We have gained a lot of knowledge and skills that cannot be learned from books, including product selection, operation, logistics, and communication with overseas customers. We have trained our team coordination ability, negotiation ability, emergency response ability to emergencies, etc. We have truly experienced the difficulty of entrepreneurship and tasted the sweetness of entrepreneurship, which has further strengthened our determination to start a cross-border e-commerce business."  

Just as small streams converge to form a river or sea, the development of cross-border e-commerce needs to continuously inject high-quality new forces. eBay will continue to work with the government, national universities and cross-border e-commerce industry ecological partners to jointly explore practical and effective in-depth cooperation, provide a practical battlefield for the growth of a new generation of Chinese cross-border e-commerce youth, work hard to cultivate cross-border e-commerce talents, and showcase Chinese products and brands to the world.

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