"Made in Yiwu" enjoys the World Cup feast

The 2018 Russian World Cup kicked off yesterday. The biggest event in the football world brings a huge business opportunity for merchants in Yiwu. All kinds of World Cup products in Yiwu market are booming with the rising of the World Cup.

According to the statistics of Yiwu customs, the export volume of Yiwu to Russia exceeded 1 billion yuan in the first 4 months of this year, an increase of 4.6% over the same period last year. And among these export products, sales of sporting goods grew by 16.9%.

In the list of goods sold in Yiwu (30 days), as of 17:30 on June 13th, top three on the list are “2018 Russian World Cup flags, sizing 14 x 21 cm”, “national flags of all nations” and “hot national flags of nations in the world”, with its total sales amounting more than 9,700 million. Among them, the sales of “2018 Russian World Cup flags, sizing 14 x 21 cm” and “national flags of all nations” break through the size of million, with their sales amount reaching more than 7,000 million pieces and 19 million 690 thousand pieces respectively.

Li Xiaomei, who runs a banner shop in No.3 District of Yiwu International Trade City, has been busy working on the World Cup orders for more than half a year. As an official authorized supplier for the Brazil World Cup in 2014, Li Xiaomei has accumulated rich experience of preparing for the World Cup. As the coming 2018 World Cup this year, she has received two or three times orders more than last year, of which the maximum amount of single order reached 2.3 million yuan.

Since last October, Li Xiaomei’s factory in Wuyi has been running at full capacity, and the workers are working overtime. Even during the Spring Festival, everyone was busy until the last day of the month. Until the end of May, there are trucks lined up in factories every day. Once the products are shipped, they will be loaded on flight to Brazil, Germany, and the United States and so on.

Li Xiaomei didn’t know much about football, but she can speak on every team in the World Cup finals. “This world cup, Brazil, Germany and Argentina are hot in taking the crown.”

Li Xiaomei told reporters that most of the Russian World Cup orders have been finished before the opening. But according to her experience, as the World Cup competition enters the phase of the knockout stage, orders will increase on the winning team products.

Speaking of the popularity of the World Cup customers, Li Xiaomei frankly said that the quality of her products is really up to the mark. No matter it is design or embroidery, printing or dyeing, they are able to check at all levels and provide the best. In front of service desk of the shop, the mark of “Brazil World Cup FIFA official authorized supplier and the Beijing Olympic official authorized product supplier” is particularly prominent, highlighting the store owner’s confidence in their products.

Table-flags in embroidery patterns, colorful hanging flags, and the latest design football……The market operators are very smart, putting the new products designed this year on the table, hoping to get a share from the fans market, of which many are “80 generation”.

Since the end of last year, after the top 32 of the 2018 Russia World Cup came out, Zhang Huamei’s factory has been busy. “Orders on football are already arranged at the end of July.” Zhang Huamei told reporters that from the end of last year to March of this year, she has received orders from Russia, Brazil, Mexico and other countries, and every single order purchase volume was large, and the sales volume increased by about 30%. For her, this year’s Russian World Cup is both a challenge and an opportunity.

In 2012, Zhang Huamei just entered the football market, when the European Cup football match was held that year. Due to lack of understanding of the market, she missed the best selling time. In order to seize the business opportunities of the Russian World Cup, Zhang Huamei designed the pattern in advance. “Basically, 40 styles will be updated every month.” Zhang Huamei pointed to a self-designed football on the shelf and said, “This year, one million of this football are sold.” Zhang Huamei’s products are well received by foreign businessmen for their unique design and novel style. Not long ago, the Pepsi Co reached out to her and intended to authorize Zhang Hua Mei to produce the football of the top 32 teams, with a total value of about one million yuan. Unfortunately, due to capacity constraints, Zhang Hua Mei cannot guarantee delivery in accordance with customer requirements, so she reluctantly gave up this order.

In fact, in addition to flags and football products, other products related to the World Cup are becoming more and more popular among the customers of the world, such as the fans’ wigs, wrists, and hats. As the market of the World Cup became bigger and bigger, “made in Yiwu” has also been making every effort to seize the market share. In the current market in Yiwu, there are more than 3000 kinds of products related to the World Cup.