There are only two months left before the start of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and Chinese foreign trade merchants have already filled up the World Cup atmosphere early.
“Orders for World Cup jerseys are now four times higher than usual!” Wen Congjian is the founder of Yiwu Danas Import and Export Co., Ltd. The company mainly produces various designed and improved and independently developed football training clothes and other products. Sold to Africa, South America, the Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia and other places.
According to FIFA, as of mid-August this year, 2.45 million tickets for the Qatar World Cup have been sold, with a winning rate of only 5%. Wen Congjian, a football enthusiast, is more sensitive to the World Cup than other Yiwu businesses. In order to “prepare for the World Cup”, he not only contacted other manufacturers for cooperation several months in advance, but also rented more than 1,000 square meters in July The new factory building will be used for supplementary warehousing.
He revealed to Times Finance that after participating in several World Cups, he is fully prepared for this year. Although the price of jerseys has increased by 10% compared with previous years due to rising raw material costs, the popularity of orders is still beyond imagination. “The factory is adding goods every day.”
Picture source: Picture provided by interviewee
The factory has limited production capacity. He sends half of his orders to other factories for production. He also set a record of running seven factories in one day. Currently, the combined daily output of these factories exceeds 5,000 jerseys. If he encounters an urgent customer, he will come down personally to make samples.
“Affected by the epidemic, it is inconvenient for customers from other places to come, so many customers choose to place orders in groups. For this year’s World Cup jersey products, a single customer can order more than 100,000 pieces at most.” Wen Congjian revealed that since July, his goods have been shipped with Many containers travel across the ocean.
“It takes 50 days to go to countries such as Africa, and about 30 days to Southeast Asian countries. Often a container can hold goods worth 1 million yuan,” he said.
Made in China has never been absent from world events, and the quadrennial World Cup is no exception.
As early as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the competition trumpet “Vuvuzela” with an ex-factory price of only 2 yuan became popular all over the world. Most of them come from Yiwu, the small commodity capital of China.
In addition to the jersey products operated by vuvuzelas and Wen Congjian, all World Cup-related peripheral products, such as balloons, fan scarves, national flags, key chains, medals, etc., are available at the booths of Yiwu Trade City. Since the end of 2009, Yiwu Customs has exported more than 10 million US dollars of sporting goods per month, and from April to May 2010, it exceeded 15 million US dollars per month.
During the 2018 World Cup, according to “Yiwu Business Daily”, from January to May of that year, Yiwu’s exports to Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and other countries with a hot World Cup atmosphere all had double-digit year-on-year growth, of which exports to Brazil reached 2.79 billion. Yuan, an increase of 34.8%.
A Yiwu businessman recalled to Times Finance that a few months before the opening of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Yiwu International Trade City welcomed waves of foreign businessmen, with people coming and going in the aisles. Their main purpose is to select various merchandise around the World Cup.
Xiaopai learned that the atmosphere of the Yiwu World Cup this year is slightly different from previous years, and the excitement has shifted from offline to online. According to the above-mentioned merchants, this year, the pedestrian streets in the otherwise bustling Trade City seem a bit empty because the epidemic has increased the cost of foreign businessmen choosing goods in Yiwu. However, even so, it only affected the growth rate of new customers, and sales were still booming before and after the World Cup.
A trophy and medal manufacturer also told Times Finance that they are used to communicating online with customers around the world. Previously, a Southeast Asian customer signed an order online from June to October. In the past two months, orders for World Cup peripheral products and accessories have reached the level of one million yuan. Since the beginning of this year, the company’s orders have increased by more than 50% year-on-year.
“I have never done this before. Only when old customers made demands did I independently develop and innovate the design, and then I came up with the World Cup series.” Molin (pseudonym), a holiday product manufacturer and trader who followed the World Cup for the first time, also tried It’s sweet.
In July this year, Morin launched a series of World Cup-themed “party glasses” (a kind of costumed photo props) on an e-commerce platform called ToB, with a wholesale price of about 2 yuan. The transaction page shows that in less than two months, the cumulative transaction volume of this series of new products has reached 92,000 pairs, and is marked as a “store treasure”.
According to Mo Lin, including other channels, the actual sales volume of this product is higher, with 200,000 to 300,000 pairs sold in a month, mostly through cross-border trade. “It may be too late to place an order now, but some people still inquire about placing orders. One of the customers placed an order of more than 70,000 yuan at a time.” Molin said.
However, many merchants operating related products revealed to Times Finance reporters that at present, World Cup peripheral products are basically supplied to cross-border e-commerce sellers or foreign customers.
“My jerseys from Mexico, Brazil and Argentina sell best here. The football-loving atmosphere in South American countries is a little different from other countries. They are very enthusiastic. During the World Cup, everyone may wear jerseys, and the number of purchases will naturally be more.” According to Wen Congjian’s prediction, compared with countries with rich football cultures such as South America and Europe, significant growth in domestic orders for jersey products will have to wait until around the World Cup.
Xiaopai discovered that peripheral products officially authorized by the World Cup had quietly landed on major domestic e-commerce platforms in mid-August. On Tmall International, there are dozens of peripheral products such as mascots, plush toys, and World Cup emblems. All on the shelves.
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