The 5th China International Import Expo just closed. According to major news report, it was a “great success” with multi-billion deals signed and large scale project landed, as it used to be.
However, when you read closely, the companies and brands attending the expo are mostly big name brands who had already entered China for years. L'Oreal, Canada Goose, Chia Tai Group, Estee Lauder, etc. all famous with deeply cultivated brand awareness in China. The expo is more of a showcase of how big brands are successful in China, but not for new comers.
WKI attended since the first Import Expo, we met a lot of CEOs and sales representatives from all over the world making contacts and promoting samples. The following years Covid hit, you can see the numbers of foreigners with unknown brands to China dropped a lot and the show mostly was first tier international brands presentation.
As a matter of fact, the Covid policy stopped many potential attendances. For those who are still looking for opportunities to enter China, expos might not be the best choice especially these years, contacts can be easily made online and offline meeting opportunities were minimized.
Other than CIIE, many other shows and expos were delayed or canceled.
When attending exhibition is no longer a valid or cost-effective option as lost of audience, choosing a partner and making debutante on digital marketing is a much better choice.
In the end, WKI would like to share some findings. From hundreds of overseas brands who had attended the first CIIE, with whom WKI staff made contact in person, 99% of those brands are still not presented in China. Either they were stopped by the coming Covid, either they were unwilling to invest in marketing but looking for a direct sell. WKI has been told so many times that they wish to find distributors, yet with so many distributors and dealers at the show, they still didn’t make it.
If your are already well-known with “Daigou” searching the world to purchase for Chinese users, distributors will be fighting each other to represent you and buy your products. But if your brand was completely unheard of by Chinese consumers, no distributor would be willing to take that risk or invest in marketing for you. Talking about bargaining power!
You may find more about the logic behind and the mentality of distributors in our previous posts.
In this ever-changing ecology of the consumption business, especially for imported products, the old method simply won’t work well. Contact us to find out more.
However, when you read closely, the companies and brands attending the expo are mostly big name brands who had already entered China for years. L'Oreal, Canada Goose, Chia Tai Group, Estee Lauder, etc. all famous with deeply cultivated brand awareness in China. The expo is more of a showcase of how big brands are successful in China, but not for new comers.
WKI attended since the first Import Expo, we met a lot of CEOs and sales representatives from all over the world making contacts and promoting samples. The following years Covid hit, you can see the numbers of foreigners with unknown brands to China dropped a lot and the show mostly was first tier international brands presentation.
As a matter of fact, the Covid policy stopped many potential attendances. For those who are still looking for opportunities to enter China, expos might not be the best choice especially these years, contacts can be easily made online and offline meeting opportunities were minimized.
Other than CIIE, many other shows and expos were delayed or canceled.
When attending exhibition is no longer a valid or cost-effective option as lost of audience, choosing a partner and making debutante on digital marketing is a much better choice.
In the end, WKI would like to share some findings. From hundreds of overseas brands who had attended the first CIIE, with whom WKI staff made contact in person, 99% of those brands are still not presented in China. Either they were stopped by the coming Covid, either they were unwilling to invest in marketing but looking for a direct sell. WKI has been told so many times that they wish to find distributors, yet with so many distributors and dealers at the show, they still didn’t make it.
If your are already well-known with “Daigou” searching the world to purchase for Chinese users, distributors will be fighting each other to represent you and buy your products. But if your brand was completely unheard of by Chinese consumers, no distributor would be willing to take that risk or invest in marketing for you. Talking about bargaining power!
You may find more about the logic behind and the mentality of distributors in our previous posts.
In this ever-changing ecology of the consumption business, especially for imported products, the old method simply won’t work well. Contact us to find out more.
