The 139th Canton Fair is being held, and Chinese products are attracting global attention with their “hard quality”.
Under the wave of overseas expansion, Chinese enterprises are moving from “buying and selling globally” to a new stage with multi-regional layout, localized operations and refined transnational management as the core.
Competition overseas no longer only occurs on the product side, but has also begun to extend to deeper links such as fund collection, compliance operations, payment experience and financial management.
At the Canton Fair booth, small home appliance company Douhe Technology (Douhe, hereinafter referred to as “Douhe”) showed off nearly 10 new products.
The successful expansion of overseas markets is indispensable to product quality and smooth capital flow.
“The first safety valve for going overseas is product compliance, and the second is capital compliance.” Douhe partner Le Jinliang said frankly, “Fund compliance is the lifeline, and we must meet the tax regulatory requirements of European, American and Southeast Asian markets, otherwise we will face high compensation risks.”
“Lack of global account services makes it difficult to do global business.” Ant International Vice President, Wanlihui
CEO Shi Wenyi said, “Currently, the core demands of companies going overseas have been upgraded from ‘whether money can be returned safely’ to the comprehensive demand for compliance, localized operation capabilities and efficient allocation of global funds. In particular, small, medium and micro enterprises urgently need full-link support.”
In the Guangzhou Shunde home appliance industry belt, Douhe is a more representative example of going overseas.
This small home appliance company was founded in 2014 by three partners with design and development backgrounds. Currently, its exports are mainly to the European and American markets, of which the North American market accounts for about 60%.
When the reporter visited Shunde, he saw that the Douhe exhibition hall was filled with heaters, fans, dehumidifiers, air purifiers and other environmental home appliances.
“Our Shunde production base, which is about 15,000 square meters, was put into production at the end of last year. We also have a Hunan production base, which is about 35,000 square meters. It will be launched in Hunan in 2021.
Douhe’s overseas path does not rely on low prices to open the market
The secret to its breakthrough is that it not only sells functions, but also sells design, scene and green concept.
Its popular semiconductor dehumidifier uses transparent water tanks, colorful ambient lights and other designs to make functional household appliances more in line with overseas aesthetics, and its sales exceeded 100 million yuan a year after its launch.
“This Canton Fair has seen a significant improvement in the number and quality of customers. The innovative strength and supply chain resilience of China’s intelligent manufacturing have allowed us to feel the strong pulse of the rebound in foreign trade.
” Le Jinliang said. Le Jinliang repeatedly emphasized: “The company is first and foremost a ‘product company’, not a simple cross-border e-commerce company.
Its core competitiveness is not just channels, but design innovation, supply chain capabilities and rapid iteration mechanism for consumers.
”
However, as the business scale expands, the pressure faced by Douhe is also changing, extending from front-end products to back-end operations. Le Jinliang bluntly said that for manufacturing companies, the front-end can rely on design, R&D and supply chain to make popular products, but the back-end has to face the challenges brought by multi-platform, multi-market, and multi-currency operations.
Practical issues such as capital collection, exchange costs, compliance payments and account management.
“Especially after further expansion from the European and American markets to emerging regions such as Southeast Asia and South America, the differences in regulatory requirements, payment habits and operating rules in different markets have also increased the complexity of ‘global operations’.
The needs of enterprises have begun to shift from ‘selling goods’ to ‘managing global business’.
Le Jinliang said.
In order to solve these problems, Douhe has accessed the global account service of Wanlihui, a subsidiary of Ant International. In Douhe’s actual operations, Ant International provides support beyond “collection”. On the one hand, Wanlihui helps companies complete the unified collection of funds from multiple platforms such as Amazon and Wal-Mart; on the other hand, companies provide services in advertising and logistics.
Expenditures in local operations and other aspects can also be paid in compliance with the system.
At the same time, relying on the ability to support payment in more than 40 currencies and AI-driven foreign exchange exposure forecasting capabilities, the global account is also helping Douhe improve the efficiency of cross-regional fund allocation and exchange rate management.
The changes in Douhe are the common problems faced by many overseas companies.
It is the lack of global account service capabilities that has become a key bottleneck that restricts companies from going overseas stably.
“One account, covering the world” has become a rigid demand for many overseas companies, and cross-border payment has increasingly become one of the foundations for enterprises to operate overseas.
Take WorldFirst, a subsidiary of Ant International, as an example. Its business has been booming since last year.
It has exploded rapidly.
Li Yiqi, head of Wanlihui’s Guangfo region, revealed that the company has achieved a compound growth rate of more than 50% for five consecutive years, and its cumulative transaction volume reached US$300 billion last year, and has exceeded US$500 billion so far.
The reporter learned that during the Canton Fair, Ant International officially launched Global Account Services.
Account
Services), relying on its subsidiary Wanlihui to provide one-stop cross-border financial solutions covering more than 200 countries and regions, covering capabilities such as multi-currency collection, fund collection, treasury management and compliance support.
In addition to Wanlihui, Antom, a subsidiary of Ant International, helps overseas companies solve global collection problems.
Shanhe’s global expansion.
“As a merchant payment and digital service brand, Antom can help enterprises access more than 300 global and local payment methods, support transactions in more than 100 currencies, and cover users in more than 200 markets. It combines intelligent routing, risk control and chargeback dispute handling capabilities to improve payment success rates.
” said Li Liang, Business Development Director of Antom China, Ant International.
In Li Yiqi’s view, when it comes to companies going overseas, it is no longer just about selling goods abroad, but about actually operating overseas. According to him, Wanlihui currently serves both large and super-large enterprises, as well as a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises; including
Cross-border e-commerce, traditional foreign trade companies, including digital entertainment overseas developers, and more and more local business entities who choose to build factories, companies, and teams overseas.
“What they need is no longer just collection and payment services, but a complete set of business support covering store opening, logistics and warehousing, advertising and marketing, financial and tax compliance, etc.
Li Yiqi said.
In addition to financial services, Wanlihui has also simultaneously launched the “Global Voyage Plan”. Through more than 30 offices and Chinese-speaking teams set up around the world, it helps merchants connect with popular global e-commerce platforms and local channel resources, and solves the tax supervision, data compliance and other issues faced by companies when registering companies overseas and long-term operations.
“At present, our ecological partners gradually cover financial institutions, e-commerce platforms, logistics and warehousing, fiscal and tax compliance, advertising and marketing, etc.”
This means that cross-border payment services are moving from “recovering money” to a set of “overseas operating systems” that support companies’ global expansion, allowing companies to sell goods globally as smoothly as they do locally.
“Li Yiqi said.
