What is the pain point for foreign trade people to break into the new blue ocean?

Since the beginning of this year, "weak external demand" has been a common keyword in the weekly meetings of foreign trade companies of all sizes. With the slowdown in demand growth in traditional markets such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, as well as the continued high inflation pressure, some foreign trade factories are happy while others are sad. Some have been unable to receive orders and have stopped production for months, while others have changed their fate by relying on self-developed new products.

On the other hand, the Canton Fair, known as the "barometer and weathervane of China's foreign trade", just concluded its 134th offline exhibition last weekend . Asian, African and Latin American faces were present at this Canton Fair, and new products such as new energy vehicles were the most eye-catching. Faced with the emergence of new markets, new varieties and other new foreign trade outlets, whoever can seize the opportunity will be able to do a good job in business next year.

Foreign trade opportunities in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America are coming

According to Xu Bing, spokesperson for the Canton Fair and deputy director of the China Foreign Trade Center, as of November 3 (the same below), a total of 229 countries and regions have participated in the fair online and offline. Among them, 197,869 overseas buyers participated in the fair offline, an increase of 53.4% ​​over the 133rd session ; 453,857 overseas buyers participated in the fair online , an increase of 16.2% over the 133rd session. Overseas buyers believe that the Canton Fair is a "treasure platform" where one-stop shopping can be achieved, and Chinese manufacturing is widely welcomed by the global market. Xiong Canxin, director of the Exhibition Department of the Commercial Industry Committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, also revealed that the proportion of exhibitors from countries participating in the "Belt and Road" co-construction at this Canton Fair reached 60% .

"Only by finding new growth space can we hedge the risks and uncertainties of foreign trade!" At the Canton Fair 2023 Foreign Trade Enterprise Cross-border Payment Development Forum , Wang Shan, Executive Director of Ebang Think Tank, pointed out that emerging markets play an increasingly important role in China's foreign trade, and the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and other places have great potential. First of all, the population potential of these emerging markets is much higher than that of traditional markets, and consumer confidence is also better than that of traditional markets; secondly, emerging markets are becoming new engines leading global economic growth; finally, the Internet penetration rate in emerging markets is around 65% on average , and there is still a lot of new traffic and new space to be tapped for Chinese companies in the future.

"I came to both Canton Fairs this year. Compared with the spring Canton Fair, although European and American buyers returned to this autumn Canton Fair , there were obviously more faces from the Middle East, Africa, India and Southeast Asia, " said Huang Weifeng , general manager of Ant Group's Wanlihui Foreign Trade B2B China . Data from the platform show that since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of China's foreign trade exports to "new markets" such as Asia, Africa and Latin America has accelerated significantly. Among them, the African foreign trade market has the fastest month-on-month growth, with month-on-month growth in the second and third quarters exceeding 20%, while the month-on-month growth rates in South America and ASEAN markets have reached 17.65% and 14.4%, respectively. "In the past two years, I have visited 200 small, medium and micro enterprises, and everyone agrees that the European and American markets should continue to be deepened, and emerging markets should also be opened up. "

" We used to buy cheap, low-cost mass-market goods, such as toys and clothes, from China. We now come to the Canton Fair to purchase more technologically advanced products, such as cars, electronic equipment and things that are not available in the West, " said Isabel , a buyer from Brazil who has been a regular at the Canton Fair for many years. Now that she has not seen the fair for three years, she is back to shop offline again. She feels deeply that Chinese goods have changed.

Africans want to buy good Chinese products but have "intestinal obstruction"

The optimization of the exhibition area structure of this Canton Fair has achieved remarkable results, and a large number of innovative exhibits have emerged. Exhibitors have uploaded more than 2.75 million exhibits on the online platform, including more than 700,000 new products, about 110,000 smart products, more than 430,000 green and low-carbon products, and about 230,000 products with independent intellectual property rights.

However, for buyers in emerging markets and the consumers behind them, if they want to buy such good Chinese products, they need to establish a deeper connection with Chinese foreign trade sellers. Previously, many places still had "intestinal obstruction", including difficulties in cross-border payment collection, which became one of the pain points affecting the transaction.

Amr, a buyer from Tunisia, runs a snack food business. This year is his first time to come to the Canton Fair, mainly to purchase some mechanical products. He said that the biggest problem he faced in paying Chinese sellers before was timeliness. "The cross-border payment service of the bank I currently use takes up to 2-3 days, and there are delays from time to time. This time I came to the Canton Fair and learned about Wanlihui, and I also want to try to use this faster, safer and more compliant payment tool to do business. "

At the same time, Chinese foreign trade sellers are also afraid of problems with cross-border capital chains when going to emerging markets. "If you ask 100 merchants engaged in China-Africa trade, what is the difficulty in doing business in Africa? 99 will tell you two words: ' frozen credit cards '!" Yu Lie , founder of African e-commerce platform Anile , said frankly that foreign trade in Africa is currently gaining momentum, 40 % -50 % of African wholesalers have smartphones, African buyers like Chinese products, and Chinese sellers are also optimistic about the African market. However, according to the feedback from 1,500 buyer questionnaires they launched in 15 African countries , the lengthy procurement process, opaque transactions, and blocked capital channels have seriously affected the "last mile" of China-Africa foreign trade.

How to solve the pain points of Chinese foreign traders in opening up new continents?

Anile, which focuses on serving small and medium-sized wholesalers in Africa , has now entered 15 countries and regions including Cameroon, Senegal, and Nigeria. The difficulty in collecting payments for China-Africa trade is their pain point. What should they do if they can neither get in nor get out?

Fortunately, since this year, Wanlihui has tailored a one-stop funding solution with China-Africa characteristics. On the one hand, local currency payment allows African buyers to avoid exchanging dollars, solving the dilemma of delaying payment due to lack of dollars in Africa; on the other hand, the payment channel is transparent and compliant, so that both buyers and sellers on the Anile platform do not need to go to the black market, which not only solves the problem of frozen cards, but also has 0 exchange losses, 0 account opening fees, 0 management fees, and 0 entry fees, which is also very "beautiful". In addition, it can also exclusively settle foreign exchange to Alipay and purchase foreign currency directly at 1,688 .

From the Silk Road to Zheng He's voyages to the West, from the Tanzania-Zambia Railway to the Belt and Road Initiative, the history of exchanges between China and Africa stretches back thousands of years. When the ancient camel bells are transformed into silent codes, the development of the digital economy has given Africa's modernization vitality and vigor. "Anile hopes to provide a true 'one-stop' solution for China-Africa trade, so that China and Africa can share the opportunities and success given to us by the era." Anile founder Yu Lie said. This "two-way rush" across thousands of miles has just begun.

In Africa , the local conditions are just a microcosm. In response to the new needs of Chinese foreign trade people to do business in more new markets under the new trend , Wanlihui Foreign Trade B2B has also released new products such as "Foreign Trade Loan" at the Canton Fair, and enterprises can apply for a loan of up to 3 million yuan; at the same time, the "October Cross-border Autumn Festival" was launched, and newly registered merchants can enjoy a free loan of up to 500,000 yuan for a limited time until mid - November , providing a strong backing for the peak season at the end of the year.

Such favorable conditions also give Chinese sellers who are looking for new markets more confidence . In the first week of the Canton Fair alone, Wanlihui's B2B merchants in the manufacturing industry received a 150% increase in payments compared to the previous week . The three industries with the most significant increases were hardware tools, lighting and electrical, and industrial manufacturing. They received orders and payments during the Canton Fair.

" MyBank's 3 10 model is very useful for China's small and micro businesses; and Wanlihui Foreign Trade Loan provides a 3 10 model for us foreign traders : as long as foreign traders apply online directly on the Alipay mini program, they can apply in 3 minutes, get the loan in 1 second, with 0 manual intervention, and use data to restore credit to solve the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises . " At the Yunqi Conference last week, Jing Nong, China Product Manager of Ant Group's Wanlihui Foreign Trade B2B , revealed on site how to use digital technology to customize a "safety valve" for cross-border trade collections . The current daily call peak of the entire Wanlihui system can reach 1 million transactions, and it has been 100% available in the past two years without any technical failures .

As a one-stop digital payment and financial service platform, Wanlihui helps global cross-border SMEs realize various needs such as global multi-currency payment and collection, supply chain financing, etc. through global corporate accounts. The above-mentioned foreign trade 310 model is simple to operate for foreign trade merchants, especially small and medium-sized enterprises , but the simplicity is actually not simple. It relies on the cutting-edge technology capabilities of Ant Group such as security risk control, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. For example, blockchain is used to solve the problem of trust, artificial intelligence is used to improve service efficiency, and privacy computing is used to achieve "available but invisible" data to improve security .

Data shows that: Wanlihui's underlying technology uses intelligent risk control to allow foreign trade merchants to receive payments in as fast as 1 minute, avoiding the freezing of cross-border foreign trade funds or bank cards without reason. The AI-assisted real-time review rate exceeds 90%, and the speed of entry is increased by 200%. It can also be reviewed online in real time 365 days a year. At the same time, Wanlihui, which was ranked first in the " Top 20 Cross-border Payment Institutions " for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2021 , has more than 60 payment licenses worldwide, can accept 30 currencies worldwide , and supports foreign trade companies to open accounts in more than 40 countries and regions with one global account , helping more Chinese products to sell globally through technology.

In this regard, Cui Shuang, Vice President of Guangdong Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said: Although the weakening of external demand and the continued influencing factors such as geopolitics, in the face of the continuous impact of multiple factors, Guangdong's foreign trade has played the role of a pillar and ballast in the overall stability of foreign trade in the country after hard work. From January to August, the growth rate of Guangdong's foreign trade has turned from negative to positive, and the scale of imports and exports has hit a new historical high for the same period, among which exports were 3.49 trillion, an increase of 4.3%. The vitality of foreign trade operators has been further enhanced. Among them , a group of emerging financial institutions represented by Wanlihui have provided foreign trade enterprises with more flexible financing channels and more complete financial services, helping more Guangdong-made and China-made goods to go global.

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