Students Driving Cross-Border E-commerce in Quanzhou

Students are actively engaging in entrepreneurship across China, and this is well demonstrated in Quanzhou, Fujian province.

“University students have started businesses in Quanzhou's cross-border e-commerce sector,” says Canyang Huang, general manager of the Donghai Cross-Border E-commerce Ecosystem Park in Quanzhou. Established in 2017, Donghai is Fujian's first integrated cross-border e-commerce hub. Being close to universities, many students naturally gravitate here to start businesses.

“Quanzhou has a deep-rooted business culture. Influenced by their families, many students would launch cross-border ventures. The success stories of some alumni have also inspired younger students,” says Huang. “Recently, some interns at the park have began founding companies of their own.”

Find a Viral Product

“Almost every firm with annual sales surpassing 100 million yuan ($13 million) at the park was started by university students,” Huang notes. A common secret of success is: Find a viral product.

“Product selection accounts for 70% of whether a venture can succeed,” Huang adds.

NingChuang Trade was founded by a college student, Ning He, in 2015. At the very beginning, there were only three people in the company, handling everything from product selection to logistics. Later, He recruited more than 10 classmates. Within two years, NingChuang’s sales exceeded 100 million yuan. 

Specializing in footwear and sports wear, the company targets consumers in Europe and the U.S. By 2019, it has become the No.1 seller of outdoor rain boots in Europe and the U.S.

He believes that the first step in opening a store on Amazon involves choosing the right track andidentifying strong product categories by evaluation. Replicating and expanding successful strategies after evaluation will significantly reduce costs and achieve a competitive advantage.

“Conversion rate is the criterion of evaluation. If the new product’s conversion rate is higher than the average, then you should seize the opportunity. If it is on par with the average, then tweak the go-to-market strategy. If it is lower than the average, pivot to a new product,” He said.

NingChuang is now expanding beyond Amazon to TEMU and TikTok Shop.

Navigating Competitions

Driven by international demand, cross-boarder e-commerce emerging. With more and more companies entering the game and bringing similar products, the global market has gradually saturated.

20 years ago, Lin Shile, who was a sophomore, founded Shinetime, a company focusing on women’s apparel sale. Facing increasingly homogenized products, Lin Shile accurately captured the fashion trends and responded quickly.

“On the one hand, we collect overseas fashion information and provide it to the development team. On the other hand, we provide specific overseas buyers with 80 to 100 styles weekly and collect their suggestions."

This “market-oriented” model replaces the old “development-test” cycle, allowing Shinetime to launch trendy items faster than its rivals.

“The global market is still vast,” says Canyang Huang. “When one market saturates, firms will move to other platform or region.”

Strenght in Numbers

Cross-border e-commerce is thriving as a cluster. As early as 2014, sellers realized that success required ecosystem-level collaboration, not solo efforts.

By attracting veteran sellers, service providers, and supply-chain partners, the Donghai park offers end-to-end support, from manufacturing and platforms to logistics and sales. By now, the park have hosted over 1,000 firms, offered 10,000 positions and shipped 30 million pieces of products every year.

In the past two years, some factories have set up offices in the park, enabling direct seller-manufacturer collaboration and a complete industrial ecosystem.

Donghai's model epitomizes Quanzhou's strategy of “pooling resources to achieve big goals”. Through the integration and sharing of assets, the park helps countless micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises ride favorable conditions to access global markets.

文字丨郑阳 

图片丨来源于网络