Foreign B2B Taps into Chinese Market

Despite the fierce competi- tion， China is becoming a lucrative market for foreign business-to-business (B2B) companies which are striving to satisfy Chinese clients’ needs.

Tradekey， a leading online B2B marketplace based in Saudi Arabia is one of such companies.

“As China plays a vital role in the international market， TradeKey has always considered China as its most important customer and most of our strategies have specially focused to facilitate the export-oriented businesses in China，” Junaid Mansoor， CEO of Tradekey， told China’s Foreign Trade in an interview.

TradeKey has now established TradeKey Consulting in China and is now expanding its comprehensive VIP marketing and consulting solutions with local presence in different cities of China.

While the Chinese market is also growing more competitive day by day -orders are shrinking and new markets are evolving. “In such a scenario even a conventional B2B portal will face severe challenges，” said Junaid.

However， “the VIP services we have introduced are the answer to most of the challenges faced by the Chinese suppliers these days. Hence we foresee a very good response in China. We intend to open at least 8 VIP centers in most of the major cities of China by the end of this year，” he added.

The focus of TradeKey consulting is to go beyond the conventional online B2Bs and merge the e-business expertise with the real world one-onone business activities to create a smart synergy and leverage on the advantages both methods of approaching customers.

“The entering of foreign B2B companies is good news for Chinese users， especially those engaged in foreign trade， as they have more and more choices when doing online business，”said Xiao Feng， vice general manager of Shenzhen OneTouch Enterprise Service Co.， Ltd.， a BPO services provider for SMEs under the leadership of Alibaba.

As for Chinese customers， Junaid suggested that while selecting the type of service package， they should also analyze their target markets， the online habits of the buyers and their own organization expectations from the investment.

Usually some companies make wrong choices and select wrong service packages which in turn results in dissatisfaction and poor results. There are some product lines that have ample buyers online and there are industries whose buyers are specialized “so the choice of the right services is the key to good results on TradeKey，” Junaid said.

Against the backdrop of the weak world economy， the expectations of customers are changing rapidly from online exposure to inquires， from inquiries to connected buyers and from connected buyers to closed orders. B2Bs in the market are under pressure of how to satisfy these customers’needs.

“Now the customers are more keen on the ROI and how much business the B2B can provide. In such a situation only those B2Bs will survive and prosper in future who understand the need of the customers and either expand outside the portal to facilitate the customers or integrate the supply chain to create value for businesses，”said Junaid.

“The foreign trade B2B portals have passed through their first stage with focus on providing information. In the future， they should attach more importance to service， customer experience and foreign trade supply chain，”Joe Wei， CEO of OneTouch， told China’s Foreign Trade.