Alibaba.com invited 16 well-known buyers including Lowe's, Carrefour and Wal-Mart to Shanghai for the Home Textiles Sourcing Event on May 20, 2008. Hundreds of suppliers came from Sichuan, Anhui, Hebei, Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Tianjin, Guangdong and Liaoning to meet with the buyers, and show them their wares.
May 20th, 7:00 - 9:00am
9:00 – 10:30 am
10:30 am – 5:00pm
Sear Holdings is America's fourth largest retailer, it has 3,500 stores in the U.S. and Canada, with annual sales over $50 billion.
This is the second time that Sears Holdings has participated in Alibaba.com's events. "More and more suppliers are able to meet our standards now. But because many suppliers started as OEM, they appear weak in the marketing, R&D, quality control and evaluation departments. I hope they'll improve in these aspects through cooperation with retailers.
The company's attitude towards Alibaba.com's events is made clear by participating for a second time. If there are other events like this, we will surely participate again."
Otto Group is the biggest mail shopping company in the world, dominating the European, North American and Asian markets. Sales volume reached over €1.62 billion in 2006. Otto has representative offices in Shanghai as well as three offices in Tsingdao, Xiamen and Beijing and two test centers in Shanghai and Tsingdao.
"We met 15 suppliers today and found some pretty good suppliers. Being able to find suppliers online is quite good, but we want to know more about them such as their previous experience with big buyers, if they have detailed description of their products or design sketches and so on. Knowing these details makes it easier for us to do business. We look forward to more detailed information and quotations."
Interviewee: Li Xiaoliang, Anhui Langying Import & Export Co., Ltd
Li Xiaoliang, the Managing Director of Anhui Langying Import & Export Co., Ltd spoke to our reporter about the event.
"We feel honored to be here, and were able to meet three buyers that we adore: H&M, Coles and Otto. This event is a perfect match-making occasion for us. We have always wanted to partner with them, so it was a very good thing we managed to get on their list. They have very good classification for their products, which makes it easier for us to recommend our products selectively.
This event helped us save a lot of time and money, since usually, we have to go abroad to contact these buyers. Events like this are really helpful!"What preparations did you make beforehand?
We studied their websites and major products very closely. After that, we were able to select items we though were relevant to them so that we can make the negotiations easier.
What do you think the buyers focus on?
They are very focused on R&D. They are also interested in our business with similar buyers and our performance in quality control and certification.
What do you think of the sourcing event?
It is a very good platform, a time-saver for both buyers and suppliers.
We heard you got up at 4:30 am this morning and arrived here at 7:30. Are you here with high expectations?
Yes! We highly value this opportunity offered by Alibaba.com to communicate face-to-face with new customers. We also wish to learn and improve the service our own team provides to clients.
Do you think the buyers here today are your target market?
We're an integrated company engaged in R&D, manufacturing, sales, import and export, so our services should cater to their needs.
What have you accomplished so far?
We met two buyers in the morning and one in the afternoon. Two of them had clear intentions to purchase.
Is there anything you want to share with us?
We have learned something very valuable here. There were two questions we tried to solve by attending this event. First, what are our advantages? Second, what kind of buyers’ demands can we meet? Through one day of conversation with our counterparts, we feel we didn't have enough knowledge in some needs of the market where the buyers are located, such as colors and trends. These are things that we will definitely improve on when we get home.
