Known as the world’s largest wholesale market, Yiwu has trade relations with more than 230 countries and regions around the world. According to Yiwu Customs, in the first quarter of 2022, Yiwu’s foreign trade imports and exports reached 106.29 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 63.9%, accounting for 9.9% of the total imports and exports of Zhejiang Province.

Mar Wan, a businessman from Yemen, has run an international trade company in Yiwu for 15 years. Every month, he purchases 3 to 5 containers of small commodities in Yiwu and ships them to Yemen. On the morning of May 2, Mar came to the Yiwu International Trade City and asked Pan Caizhi, the shop owner, in Mandarin: “Are the razor samples I requested ready?”

“Of course, they are all here,” Pan showed the razors immediately. The blade of this razor is specially processed and customized for customers in the Middle East. Mar sent the information of the razors to his client through WeChat for confirmation, and informed them that in the Yiwu International Trade City the logistics are “business as usual”; please rest assured and place orders.

Due to COVID-19, Mar’s clients are unable to come to Yiwu in person, which changes the traditional trade model. In the past, Mar would accompany his clients to visit the physical shop in the trade city; now he has become the eyes of the clients and shows them the samples via online video.

Affected by the pandemic, the Yiwu International Trade City has cultivated a new trade model: livestreaming + e-commerce. The trade city sets up public rooms for livestreaming free of charge. Many shop owners also livestream on Chinagoods, the official website of the trade city.

“Chinagoods has launched multi-national stations, including English, Arabic, Spanish, etc., and has brought in more than 60,000 stores, integrating 2 million micro, small-, or medium-sized enterprises along the supply chains, with more than 5 million categories of goods. The sales revenue of this online platform exceeded 21 bn RMB in the first quarter of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 90%,” said Chen Zhixing, deputy general manager of the market operation department of the trade city. (By Wu Fengyu, translated by Li Ziyi, edited by Kendra Fiddler)