On the morning of July 14th, Hu Chunhua, Vice Premier of the State Council, came to the Yiwu Operation Center of Sellers Union Group to inspect the business performance since the outbreak of Covid-19. Zhong Shan, Minister of Commerce, Yuan Jiajun, Governor of Zhejiang Province, Zou Zhiwu, Deputy Administrator of General Administration of Customs, Ren Hongbin, Assistant Minister of Ministry of Commerce, Zhu Congjiu, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province, Sheng Qiuping, Director of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, Lin Yi, Secretary of Yiwu Municipal Party Committee, Wang Jian, Mayor of Yiwu accompanied the investigation. They received warm welcome by Patrick Xu, President of Sellers Union Group, Vinson Qian, the Vice President of Sellers Union Group, and Jimmy Gong, Deputy Director of Administration Department.

Vice Premier Hu Chunhua first debriefed the basic situation of the group. Vinson Qian introduced that Sellers Union Group is a diversified business unit specializing in general merchandise export, while covering cross-border e-commerce, market procurement trade, foreign trade supply chain management, import of high-level consumer goods and other fields. Since its establishment 23 years ago, Sellers Union Group has maintained long-term and stable trade with nearly 1,600 buyers from over 120 countries and regions, more than 3,000 domestic manufacturers, and more than 10,000 booth merchants of China Commodity City. The offices of Sellers Union Group cover 5 main cities in China: Ningbo, Yiwu, Hangzhou, Shantou and Guangzhou. There are over 1,200 professional and high-quality employees. Patrick Xu reported that the import and export volume of Sellers Union Group in 2019 were $550 million. In the first half of 2020, the group achieved the contrarian growth. Since May, orders and shipments of general trade business have been witnessed a significant recovery. The third quarter of the group would be expected to exceed 700 million US dollars. 

Vinson Qian introduced that foreign trade enterprises have faced with severe challenges since the Covid-19 outbreak. By taking advantage of diversified development, the import and export volume of first half year of Yiwu office achieved a 15% growth ($110 million) for the following reasons. Primarily, the group quickly switched to the epidemic prevention products on the basis of extensive client resources, which covered the initial business losses. Secondly, the group seized the opportunity of online consumption growth during the epidemic by making use of rich home decorations lines and mature platform operation experience. Moreover, the group actively used new methods and channels such as taking clients to Yiwu Market by video calls, improved the functions of ‘Sellers Union Online’, and strived for more opportunities. Finally, the group made use of advantageous channels to import high-end consumer products, especially the initial import of epidemic prevention products, therefore the group achieved the substantial growth in terms of import business. In the near future, the company will deepen the cross-border e-commerce business, increase the overseas warehouse layout and promote self-built station operation. Additionally, the group will actively promote products via overseas social and marketing platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to continuously expand sales channels.    Then, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua visited the product exhibition center, where tens of thousands of products in more than 30 categories are displayed. These displayed products are self-selected or self-developed hot-selling series and the latest products of important cooperative suppliers. The center provides customers with extended space to efficiently choose the current market hot products. During the visiting, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua frequently asked about the style design, functional utility and material selection of products. In the area of ‘Sellers Union Online’ display screen and the ‘live broadcast room’, Patrick Xu introduced that ‘Sellers Union Online’ is a trading platform integrating the functions of product display and transaction. With 5,128 registered overseas clients, 12,438 domestic suppliers, 36 product categories, and 500,000 product styles, it has become an effective online platform for serving many small and medium-sized suppliers and a wide range of overseas clients. The platform has been timely added a special area for epidemic prevention materials, and the transaction rate of this category has been increased significantly recently. Faced with the live broadcast room, Patrick Xu stated that the group actively participated in the first online Canton Fair in the early stage and accumulated related experience. The group has now built a normalized live broadcast room, hence it is quite convenient for salespersons to regularly select various market hot-selling and self-developed products and recommend them to foreign customers in the live broadcast room.  

Vice Premier Hu Chunhua came to the office area. Vinson Qian claimed that the group has actively undertaken the corporate social responsibilities by making sure no downsizing during the epidemic. At the same time, the group has actively recruited hundreds of fresh university graduates in the first half of this year. Through the systematic training of ‘Sellers Union College’, new employees will be more familiar with professional trading processes and operating skills.     Vice Premier Hu Chunhua fully affirmed the Sellers Union Group’s success in overcoming difficulties, exploring new measures and models, and achieving better performance during the special period. At the end of the visiting, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua wished the Sellers Union Group a better prospect and a promising future.