A post-95s couple is engaged in cross-border business and earns tens of millions annually by selling plastic bags.
The more subtle the demand, the more likely it is to bring stable business opportunities.
Produced by | Cross - border Frontier Author | Hua Shao
A couple starts a business selling plastic bags
Most of the time, market demand is always fixed. If the goal is not to build a large - scale enterprise, then finding such demand can basically lead to a good business.
In Yiwu, a post - 95s couple followed this principle and chose to start a business selling plastic bags. In 2021, the couple pooled together 150,000 yuan and bought two most basic production machines to produce the most common plastic packaging bags. At first, the couple mainly relied on the door - to - door promotion model to expand domestic factory customers. During this period, the couple readily accepted both large and small orders.
The plastic factory of the Yiwu couple Image source: 1688
The next year, the couple started to operate overseas business. Their first order was sold to Nigeria in Africa. Now, this Nigerian customer has become a regular, placing orders worth 3 million yuan on average every year. After that, the couple continued to make extensive contacts with overseas customers and sold plastic bags to many countries such as Ethiopia and India. Driven by both domestic and overseas businesses, the couple's plastic bag factory has leaped from an annual sales volume of 700,000 yuan to an annual sales volume of over 15 million yuan.
The key to the couple's success is to accurately identify the market demand and sell plastic bags in Yiwu. As the "world's manufacturing center", Yiwu sends out 33 million express parcels on average every day, and a large number of small commodities need to be packed in plastic bags. This is undoubtedly a huge and fixed consumer demand.
Meanwhile, there is also a large number of overseas sellers who need to use plastic packaging bags. Especially in emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia, where the e - commerce scale is continuously expanding, but these regions often lack a complete industrial chain and the cost - advantage in manufacturing is not prominent. Sellers basically need to reach long - term cooperation with overseas manufacturers.
Data from the Plastic Industry Network shows that China is the world's third - largest exporter of plastic packaging materials, after the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 2024, China's export value of plastic packaging materials was 14.07 billion US dollars, with an average monthly export value of 1.17 billion US dollars, a 18% increase compared with the previous year.
Divided by export value, India, Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia and South Korea are the top five destinations for China's plastic packaging material exports. Among them, the demand from the top four destinations is the most prominent, accounting for nearly 30% of the export share. The export share of destinations after that is basically below 4%.
The top ten destinations for China's plastic packaging exports Image source: Plastic Industry Network
In addition, with the continuous development of the green economy, China's plastic packaging industry is also moving towards a sustainable direction. For example, in the European Union and Japan, paper - plastic composite packaging has become a new growth trend; in Australia, the demand for fully degradable shirt bags is rising.
Generally speaking, plastic packaging is still a category with high demand. Sellers can develop overseas customers targeted according to their own strength and development goals to achieve long - term and stable overseas development.
Dig for gold in niche markets
The overseas story of the Yiwu couple, who started from selling plastic bags, actually proves once again the potential of niche markets for gold - digging.
On the one hand, from an objective perspective, most people are small and medium - sized sellers. They can only be followers in the industry, not pioneers. This means that when most people do business and engage in cross - border trade, they look for business opportunities in the existing market. What they compete for more is the vision to choose the market and the ability of combined innovation.
On the other hand, starting from niche areas is also the most suitable way for novice sellers. Not only is the entry threshold relatively low, but it can also test the seller's business model within a certain cost of trial - and - error. If it works, they can continue to expand and strengthen; if not, they can immediately adjust the direction.
For this reason, many new sellers now choose to use niche areas as an entry point to break into the popular market.
For example, Shenzhen Woan Technology was established in 2015. In 2016, it founded its own brand SwitchBot, specializing in smart home products. At the end of the same year, SwitchBot launched its first product, a smart switch. It is the size of a charging head, with a built - in small motor to drive a mechanical arm. It is a smart tool that can be operated via mobile phone to automatically turn on the switches of objects such as coffee machines and wall lights.
SwitchBot smart switch Image source: SwitchBot
Following the same idea, SwitchBot launched a smart curtain switch, which can control the opening and closing of curtains through remote control buttons, mobile phone apps and voice assistants, transforming traditional curtains into electric ones. This is not only convenient for users' daily lives but also saves the cost of redecoration.
After SwitchBot grew, Woan Technology continued to expand its business and established a robotics company, entering the more cutting - edge AI embodied robotics track from the smart home track. Last year, the annual revenue of Woan Robotics exceeded 600 million yuan. In early June this year, Woan Robotics officially submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is preparing to go public on the Hong Kong stock market.
Shenzhen Woan Robotics plans to list on the Hong Kong stock market Image source: hkexnews
Another example is the domestic smart pet products brand CATLINK. In the first two years after its establishment, CATLINK focused on creating a smart cat litter box that can monitor the daily life of cats in real - time. Through feedback from domestic and Southeast Asian customers, it continuously iterated and upgraded the product to improve its performance.
Now, CATLINK's product line has expanded to a full range of products such as automatic feeders and smart water dispensers. Its products are sold to more than 100 countries and regions, with a cumulative sales volume of over 700,000 units. On the Amazon US site, CATLINK once ranked first in the category brand.
CATLINK's cumulative sales volume exceeds 700,000 units Image source: CATLINK
It can be seen that in the cross - border circle, the story of getting rich overnight by mass -铺货 is already in the past. The new wave of going overseas is to deeply cultivate niche markets and stand out from small business opportunities. Therefore, if new sellers want to enter the market, they need to investigate market trends more and choose suitable niche areas for in - depth operation.
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This article is from the WeChat official account "Cross - border Frontier", author: Hua Shao. It is published with authorization from Qiantang.
