Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce and 1688 reached a strategic cooperation, allowing 320,000 factories to learn how to walk on both domestic and foreign trade

Dongguan Praya Textile Factory confirmed this with results. Since digitalization, this factory, which manufactures for international brands, has maintained a 60 % year - on-year growth rate in online transaction volume, breaking the 50 million yuan mark in 2020. Moreover , it has also completed the optimization of its business model and started to "walk on two legs of domestic and foreign trade."

Plaiya is just a microcosm of the digitalization of factories in Guangdong's industrial belt. On April 16 , at the launch meeting of Guangdong Fashion Week (Spring), a series of 100 events of "Guangdong Trade Nationwide" , the Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce and 1688 reached a strategic cooperation plan on the digital transformation of Guangdong's small and medium-sized enterprises, further helping "Guangdong goods" to expand the market, secure orders, and stabilize production capacity . Next, the two parties will rely on e-commerce digitalization to help Guangdong's industrial belt factories "integrate wholesale and retail" and realize "Guangdong Trade Nationwide" .

The "Industrial Belt Digital Transformation Report" previously released by the Ministry of Commerce shows that Alibaba's 1688 platform covers 172 first-level industrial belts, accounting for about 70% of the number of first-level industrial belts in the country. Guangdong Province is one of the regions with the most concentrated business on the 1688 platform. By the end of 2020 , the number of companies registered on the 1688 platform in Guangdong Province exceeded 327,000, and the industrial belts covered 132 daily necessities industries such as clothing, digital, home appliances, department stores, home decoration, and home furnishing industries .

1 688 Guangzhou “wholesale and retail” jeans production factory workshop.

After reaching this strategic cooperation, 1688 will focus on development pain points such as the lack of orders, e-commerce operation capabilities, and the ability to create explosive products. Focusing on the "Super Factory Plan", through joint marketing, the establishment of local e-commerce service centers and other digital one-stop service initiatives , it will help 320,000 factories in Guangdong Province develop new production and sales capabilities.

Data shows that at the beginning of last year, affected by the new crown epidemic, the delayed delivery rate of small and medium-sized enterprises increased by 52%, the fulfillment capacity decreased by 46%, and the number of customer order cancellations and returns increased by 51%.

On April 7, 2020 , Alibaba restarted the "Spring Thunder Plan" after an 11-year hiatus. In May, it signed a strategic cooperation agreement on the "Spring Thunder Plan" with the Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce to help Guangdong's industrial belts transform digitally in many aspects, including "foreign trade upgrades and online breakthroughs", "helping foreign trade to shift to domestic sales", and "building digital industrial belts" .

In September last year , 1688 announced that it had fully connected with Taobao Special Edition , helping factories in industrial belts to achieve a deep integration of sales and wholesale data, goods, and local services of merchants . In addition to spot wholesale and processing and customization, factories can also directly connect with consumer retail , realizing "wholesale and retail integration" .

1 688 Guangzhou “wholesale and retail” cosmetics factory production workshop.

As of now, 40% of the factories in Guangdong's industrial belt have grown into super factories with an annual output value of more than 20 million through "wholesale and retail integration" . They not only have the ability to customize production , but can also expand a multi-channel distribution system that integrates wholesale and retail . They are also the source factories of the entire network's explosive products .

According to the plan, in the next three years, 1688 and Taobao Special Edition will be fully connected to help 1,000 industrial belt factories upgrade to "super factories" with an output value of over 100 million yuan .

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