Vertical electric business still has a strong survival alternative sample, 85 after the small man inflatable amusement equipment business booming

Although the majority of vertical electric operators can be sentenced to death, but still have a strong survival of alternative samples. At present, there is a large inflatable amusement equipment by selling a start of the 85 after the boy, in Canton through the foreign trade channels to the vertical electric business operation of the booming.

Although E-commerce is now very popular, but the foreign trade is still a lot of people feel unfamiliar industry. Compared with the competition of domestic electric companies, in fact, to target the market segments of foreign trade dealers still have great opportunities.

Gao Kaihua 2008 University graduation, after a year of work joined a friend just set up a start-up company Funcity, began to engage in foreign trade business. And they sell the product is a large inflatable recreational facilities, such as inflatable football, swimming pool, Yau bo Ball and so on.

In the first half of this year, funcity sales have exceeded 4 million yuan, which is a good result for a team of less than 20 people.

Unlike many internet startups today, Funcity has not received any investment from its inception to the present. Gao Kaihua that opportunities, experience and diligence are key to their success in today's performance. "Opportunities are the opportunity for us to see the foreign trade, and I have been in the foreign trade company's work experience can be well applied to the process of entrepreneurship." "he said.

Looking back on the days of its initial start-up, Gao Kaihua told Tencent: "The hardest thing to do at first is to get customers." We are in the first two years to improve information, do network promotion, so that customers can more easily find us. It was not until 2010 that we started to have more and more old customers and the business became better. ”

Cross-border e-commerce challenges: payments and logistics

The hardest part of Cross-border E-commerce is Payment and logistics, and the two issues often interact with each other. Most of the time because of the slow flow of logistics, causing the other side unwilling to pay the payment and so on.

Since 2010, Funcity has been using PayPal as a collection method in small transactions, which has helped their business. Gao Kaihua said that on the one hand, customers in small transactions often want to pay PayPal, on the other hand, because PayPal in dealing with transaction disputes is also fair and reasonable.

On one occasion, he met a British buyer to the "product does not meet the requirements" to submit a complaint to PayPal funcity refund, PayPal in the understanding of the buyer and seller of the communication process and investigation of the effect of the map to confirm the mail and other related materials, judge the responsibility in the buyer rather than the seller, Rejected the buyer's unreasonable request for a refund.

For others engaged in the outside of the electrical business, Gao Kaihua suggested that the transaction amount of less than 10,000 U.S. dollars when the use of PayPal collection.

Although in the collection aspect Gao Kaihua now found the better solution, but the logistics still is his biggest headache problem. "We started off by sea, but the shipping uncertainty was too high and too long, so customers often complained." This will cause us to not receive the money. "Gao Kaihua said.

Because the logistics is too uncontrollable, now some high-end customers will find their own express delivery. And funcity is still trying different logistics companies have found the best solution.

From pure Trading Company to industry and trade integration

For the electric business company, traffic is important, but its core competitiveness is the product. Funcity didn't have his own factory at first, so it was hard to control the quality of the product.

At the end of 2011, Funcity established its own factory and began to have better control over product quality and the whole supply chain of production and marketing. And with the factory, they can do more customized services.

Funcity has offered a plan to build two football pitches and a row of stadiums, based on the image, size and surroundings of the lawn from a customer in the UAE, combined with the preferences of the UAE's land sports enthusiasts and local weather conditions. "In the end we not only finalized this order, but also offered to represent our brand in the Middle East." ”

But owning the factory has created another problem, which is the management of the factory. Factory employees are generally wage earners, mobility is very large. This makes Gao Kaihua very headache. "Sometimes today said that do not do tomorrow to go, a little better to say hello to you, there are no one to call to go." ”

Because the domestic market is still very small, Gao Kaihua said they will continue to do across the border in the next few years, and hope to increase the sales of products, the business to do more.