There is no doubt Alibaba.com and Made-In-China.com are wonderfully successful trade lead and ecommerce platforms, for the owners. I would never recommend using either service, or any other. I am standing by my argument they are a net-deficit for the users, at least at the small and medium enterprise lever. But let's look at the numbers:
Trade through electronic platforms in China grew from 1.5 trillion yuan ($240 billion) in 2006 to 5.9 trillion yuan in 2011, according to Nie Linhai, deputy commercial counselor of the ministry's Department of Electronic Commerce and Informatization.
OK, is that all ecommerce sales, or is that only export? Goods and Services? I'd like to see more detail. But no doubt the business is vast. And no doubt both services can provide satisfied users who have done well. My argument gets to the unseen, as opposed to the seen. The process of starting up a viable successful company has to do with customers and product, and a focus on the exact market you desire to serve. These two services, and the ones like them, take too much time with too many sources to get to the best supplier or customer. Whether you are buying or selling there is just too much to wade through to get to a reliable partner. As an importer in USA, I can find better partners faster without these services, plus I am not plagued by useless offers and spam I'll get when I register my interests at either.
Now, I will sing the praises of the Hong Kong Trade Develoment Council, with started as a private initiative and then became public-private, as it is now semi-governmental. I normally do not appreciate government involvement, but in this case the Government takes a junior position and their services are rational, clean, direct, smart. So I do recommend, especially for USA importers, if trading with China, to consult the HKTDC.com.
For Chinese firms that desire to export, I'd certainly list myself with HKTDC.com, but there is more an individual company must do. There are so many companies with fantastic skillsets yet excess production capacity, that Chinese capacity and USA market could grow should he two manage to meet and work together.
Many Chinese exporters had USA customers, at at one point had to turn business away. But the economic downturn has opened up production capacity, and Chinese exporters are keen for new business. These are not the low-cost mass producers, these are the precision manufacturers who usually claim a premium price for their expertise.
Word of mouth referrals, or new business when an old buyer changes to a new company, or joint ventures, and then just plain reorders are the sources of business. That is not fruitful enough.
With so much business in the past, they never bothered with alibaba, made-in-china.com and such. They never even bothered to put up a website, for that would just bring in time-wasting inquiries. Now these firms are looking for new business and rethinking a web presence.
My advice would be to affirm that a website is a good idea. But the few exporters websites I see are not very well done, from a buyers point of view. If anything, the websites are way too overworked.
First, less is more. An exporters website should make clear precisely what advantage the exporter has: "precision after-market auto parts." Let's look at this one for bridal shoes.
This is well conceived, but needs help in execution. A website is an advertisement, meant to generate sales. All sales pitches need the word "you" within the first three words:
No "you" at all in the first paragraph, and there is some confusion as to what the core business is about. Is Shenzhen Rose about high quality or low price? If I was looking for a supplier of shoes, I would pass on this company since I cannot tell what they do. It does not matter if I am looking for low price, because if so I do not care about quality, but Shenzhen Rose claims to be quality. If I am looking for quality, I would avoid Shenzhen Rose because although the say "quality" they also mention "price" which means they make cheap products. First rate importers do not buy cheap products, since their customers do not want junk.
So Shenzhen Rose needs to figure out what business it is in, and then offer that. Say they do truly make first rate shoes. If so, then never mention price.
"We provide you with wedding shoes to your specifications, and OEM parts of shoes."
That replaces the two sentences quoted above. Next Shenzhen Rose makes reference to their customers:
Why not name names? Shenzhen Rose should name their USA customers, as well as UK, Greece, Italy, etc. In time I will always ask for references anyway, and if Shenzhen Rose will not provide references, I will not do business with them. Might as well get that information out immediately.
It may be true some customers may not want Shenzhen Rose revealing their name, but not all customers feel this way. Any customer of Shenzhen Rose who is happy will often agree to allow their name to be listed.
Now Shenzhen Rose might be afraid that competitors will see XYZ company in USA is a customer of Shenzhen Rose and try to steal the USA customer with lower prices. In real life, this risk is minimal for many reasons. In any event, fear fails in business, and open communication wins. If Shenzhen Rose sells to USA, they should be happy to name their customers.
In fact, Shenzhen Rose should simply list reviews of their work by their customers. For example, if Shenzhen rose was to get a letter from a customer complimenting Shenzhen Rose on their work, Shenzhen Rose should instantly ask that customer if Shenzhen Rose might quote the USA Customer on the Shen Zhen Rose website.
So the new layout of Shenzhen Rose would be the header, a picture of wedding shoes, the quote
"We provide you with wedding shoes to your specifications, and OEM parts of shoes." and then reference reviews from satisfied customers around the world:
"Excellent quality and we are very pleased with the service." XYZ Company USA
"We sold through immediately and we need another order" ABC Company UK
"Although we presented our designs, your ideas made them even better." LNO Company Italy.
I want to know what Shenzhen Rose makes and what their customers think. The website should tell me that immediately. Shenzhen Rose spends a lot of webpage space talking about what Shenzhen Rose thinks. Nobody cares. Buyers want to know what other buyers think. So take all of the other information away.
Next, be specific in claims:
Never say "quality thread" that is a waste of time. Say "We use 64HS Polyester 6s Coretex 5m Dual Duty in a double thread lockstitch on the sole." Every claim should be specific. If I am a real buyer, talk to me like a real buyer.
Also, for maybe $300 from 99designs.com, they could have the English perfect and the layout more professional.
As I read through more of Shenzhen Rose website, it seems to me they want the mass merchandise business, so If I was looking for top quality shoemaker, I'd keep looking. If I am wrong, Shenzhen Rose should redesign their website.
And if they are not sure, then ShenZhen Rose should have two websites, one for upmarket business, and another for mass merchandise business. With all of the cheap computer power, businesses should be aggressively testing new ideas.
There is more I would say this website, but my point is with all of the information available out there, websites should speak clearly and directly to a real buyer. The website should save the buyer time, and ruthlessly eliminate anything that waste a buyer's time. People pay too much to have websites do too much. If so, your company will be just another exporters website with which serious buyers will not bother.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
Trade through electronic platforms in China grew from 1.5 trillion yuan ($240 billion) in 2006 to 5.9 trillion yuan in 2011, according to Nie Linhai, deputy commercial counselor of the ministry's Department of Electronic Commerce and Informatization.
"In the current global economic situation, e-commerce trade will help reduce costs for Chinese manufacturers. And a growing number of domestic exporters have realized the importance of doing trade through electronic platforms," Nie said.
OK, is that all ecommerce sales, or is that only export? Goods and Services? I'd like to see more detail. But no doubt the business is vast. And no doubt both services can provide satisfied users who have done well. My argument gets to the unseen, as opposed to the seen. The process of starting up a viable successful company has to do with customers and product, and a focus on the exact market you desire to serve. These two services, and the ones like them, take too much time with too many sources to get to the best supplier or customer. Whether you are buying or selling there is just too much to wade through to get to a reliable partner. As an importer in USA, I can find better partners faster without these services, plus I am not plagued by useless offers and spam I'll get when I register my interests at either.
Now, I will sing the praises of the Hong Kong Trade Develoment Council, with started as a private initiative and then became public-private, as it is now semi-governmental. I normally do not appreciate government involvement, but in this case the Government takes a junior position and their services are rational, clean, direct, smart. So I do recommend, especially for USA importers, if trading with China, to consult the HKTDC.com.
For Chinese firms that desire to export, I'd certainly list myself with HKTDC.com, but there is more an individual company must do. There are so many companies with fantastic skillsets yet excess production capacity, that Chinese capacity and USA market could grow should he two manage to meet and work together.
Many Chinese exporters had USA customers, at at one point had to turn business away. But the economic downturn has opened up production capacity, and Chinese exporters are keen for new business. These are not the low-cost mass producers, these are the precision manufacturers who usually claim a premium price for their expertise.
Word of mouth referrals, or new business when an old buyer changes to a new company, or joint ventures, and then just plain reorders are the sources of business. That is not fruitful enough.
With so much business in the past, they never bothered with alibaba, made-in-china.com and such. They never even bothered to put up a website, for that would just bring in time-wasting inquiries. Now these firms are looking for new business and rethinking a web presence.
My advice would be to affirm that a website is a good idea. But the few exporters websites I see are not very well done, from a buyers point of view. If anything, the websites are way too overworked.
First, less is more. An exporters website should make clear precisely what advantage the exporter has: "precision after-market auto parts." Let's look at this one for bridal shoes.
This is well conceived, but needs help in execution. A website is an advertisement, meant to generate sales. All sales pitches need the word "you" within the first three words:
Shenzhen Rose Bridal Shoes Co.,Ltd is a shoe factory majoring in wedding shoes,parts of dressshoes and evening shoes. We can supply high quality bridal shoes with competitive price.
No "you" at all in the first paragraph, and there is some confusion as to what the core business is about. Is Shenzhen Rose about high quality or low price? If I was looking for a supplier of shoes, I would pass on this company since I cannot tell what they do. It does not matter if I am looking for low price, because if so I do not care about quality, but Shenzhen Rose claims to be quality. If I am looking for quality, I would avoid Shenzhen Rose because although the say "quality" they also mention "price" which means they make cheap products. First rate importers do not buy cheap products, since their customers do not want junk.
So Shenzhen Rose needs to figure out what business it is in, and then offer that. Say they do truly make first rate shoes. If so, then never mention price.
"We provide you with wedding shoes to your specifications, and OEM parts of shoes."
That replaces the two sentences quoted above. Next Shenzhen Rose makes reference to their customers:
Most of our goods are for export worldwide, we have longtime cooperation with customers from USA, Germany, UK, Greece, France, Czech, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and South Africa.
Why not name names? Shenzhen Rose should name their USA customers, as well as UK, Greece, Italy, etc. In time I will always ask for references anyway, and if Shenzhen Rose will not provide references, I will not do business with them. Might as well get that information out immediately.
It may be true some customers may not want Shenzhen Rose revealing their name, but not all customers feel this way. Any customer of Shenzhen Rose who is happy will often agree to allow their name to be listed.
Now Shenzhen Rose might be afraid that competitors will see XYZ company in USA is a customer of Shenzhen Rose and try to steal the USA customer with lower prices. In real life, this risk is minimal for many reasons. In any event, fear fails in business, and open communication wins. If Shenzhen Rose sells to USA, they should be happy to name their customers.
In fact, Shenzhen Rose should simply list reviews of their work by their customers. For example, if Shenzhen rose was to get a letter from a customer complimenting Shenzhen Rose on their work, Shenzhen Rose should instantly ask that customer if Shenzhen Rose might quote the USA Customer on the Shen Zhen Rose website.
So the new layout of Shenzhen Rose would be the header, a picture of wedding shoes, the quote
"We provide you with wedding shoes to your specifications, and OEM parts of shoes." and then reference reviews from satisfied customers around the world:
"Excellent quality and we are very pleased with the service." XYZ Company USA
"We sold through immediately and we need another order" ABC Company UK
"Although we presented our designs, your ideas made them even better." LNO Company Italy.
I want to know what Shenzhen Rose makes and what their customers think. The website should tell me that immediately. Shenzhen Rose spends a lot of webpage space talking about what Shenzhen Rose thinks. Nobody cares. Buyers want to know what other buyers think. So take all of the other information away.
Next, be specific in claims:
Rose bridal shoes offers the very best DYEABLE satin bridal shoes, or SILK satin,with handmade quality beaded and embroidered styles, decrorated with longlasting crystle ornaments which never turns color or been oxidized. Quality thread and brilliant hand-done stitching is our advantage.
Never say "quality thread" that is a waste of time. Say "We use 64HS Polyester 6s Coretex 5m Dual Duty in a double thread lockstitch on the sole." Every claim should be specific. If I am a real buyer, talk to me like a real buyer.
Also, for maybe $300 from 99designs.com, they could have the English perfect and the layout more professional.
As I read through more of Shenzhen Rose website, it seems to me they want the mass merchandise business, so If I was looking for top quality shoemaker, I'd keep looking. If I am wrong, Shenzhen Rose should redesign their website.
And if they are not sure, then ShenZhen Rose should have two websites, one for upmarket business, and another for mass merchandise business. With all of the cheap computer power, businesses should be aggressively testing new ideas.
There is more I would say this website, but my point is with all of the information available out there, websites should speak clearly and directly to a real buyer. The website should save the buyer time, and ruthlessly eliminate anything that waste a buyer's time. People pay too much to have websites do too much. If so, your company will be just another exporters website with which serious buyers will not bother.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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