The vast continent of Africa is becoming the next destination for Qingdao's cross-border e-commerce nuggets. The hot land under construction also spawned a wealth of opportunities. Reporters learned from the cross border electricity supplier Association of Qingdao, many of Qingdao's cross-border electricity providers have done business in Africa. Sui Zhengqi, chairman of Qingdao open Auto Sales Co., was one of them. He was engaged in the import and export trade of heavy trucks. Since he first sold six tankers to Madagascar more than a decade ago, he realized the huge market opportunities in the African continent and kept ploughing the African market and writing his own. The story of the continent.
The seductive continent of Africa
For many foreign traders, Africa is a piece of land that they want to dabble in. Even in the highly developed technology today, in many African regions, infrastructure construction is still outdated and backward, which also means huge business opportunities. As an example of truck and accessories business, trucks are an indispensable tool in infrastructure construction, and the high speed developing countries have a huge demand for trucks. According to statistics, it is usually a year to about one and a half years to take back the cost of a truck in China and Southeast Asia, but in African countries, a car is put into a car and the cost can be recovered in six months. This is mainly due to the serious shortage of local transport conditions and capacity in Africa, constrained by geographical and economic conditions, many traders are reluctant to go to Africa. Therefore, in some market segments, there are few competitors, and the products can quickly occupy the local market after entering the market.
However, because the local conditions in Africa are more difficult, and the foreign trade companies are mostly small and medium enterprises, it is difficult to find suitable candidates to open a branch in Africa. Even if they are open, they are also faced with the problem of quick turnover. Especially in Central Africa and other countries, the lack of material conditions, hot weather, as well as the face of loneliness and other problems, it is difficult for companies to pay high salaries to retain talent. "As long as we can stay there, we can make money basically." Sui Zhengqi told reporters.
Participation in the construction of large projects in African countries
The origins of Sui Zhengqi and Africa can be traced back to more than 10 years ago, when his Qingdao Auto Sales Co., Ltd. was not large, and one day through the Internet received orders from the oil tanker from Madagascar, Africa, which also gave Sui Zhengqi a keen sense of the heavy trucks and accessories that had not come to Africa. There is a huge market space. The heavy trucks produced in European and American countries are prone to millions of yuan, and the heavy trucks produced in China can be bought by 3. 4 million yuan, and there is no doubt that the price of the heavy trucks is much higher. The heavy trucks from China have a market in Africa.
Subsequently, the car sold trucks to Tanzania, Garner, Somalia and other African countries. In every way, the cars are expanding by working with local powerful dealers. By working with the largest local truck dealer in Somalia, cars sold by cars have occupied a considerable share of Somali trucks. In this way, the car has also been involved in the construction of a number of major African projects, in which the partners in Tanzania participated in the construction of the tanzan railway, and most of the truck accessories used by the partner came from the auto company. He told reporters that in recent years, Chinese businessmen can feel more convenient to do business in Africa, some problems encountered in the operation can be solved in time.
Build Africa's largest truck parts platform
With the company's business center turning to Africa, Sui is also thinking about the transformation of the company's business. In his view, simply selling China's trucks and their accessories to Africa's business model, though making money, is not long lasting. We should make good use of the Internet to complete the transformation of the company's business. This time, Sui is aiming at cross-border electricity providers. Three years ago, he began to plan an African - oriented Chinese truck - accessories network. The site is now running. From scratch, the platform has brought sales of $2 million last year. The Sui is also summoning the team to constantly improve the site. The development of Internet in many countries is different from the path of PC to the mobile phone. Many countries in Africa have not developed through the PC end, but directly across the mobile phone, which means that the mobile phone has been greatly popularized in Africa. Sui is designing a web page for mobile phones to facilitate browsing by African businessmen.
In the Sui's plan, the China truck accessories network will take the cross-border "Jingdong model", that is, most of the truck accessories on the site are self operated, and can solve the problem of after-sales service for customers, and also accept other truck accessories manufacturers and foreign parts libraries and maintenance stations. African merchants can find the truck accessories they want and get timely maintenance services on this website.
In order to cooperate with the operation of the website, Sui is investing and building a logistics warehouse in Garner, East Africa, and is preparing for the cooperative spare parts library of Tanzania in East Africa. Relying on the local self warehouse and joining warehouse, the African merchants send the goods directly by setting up the logistics warehouse in Garner at the fastest speed. The degree is delivered to the hands of the merchants. Transportation can also be carried out in Africa in the future. Through cross-border electricity supplier this new mode, continuously ploughing the African market.
Personage interview
Successful failure to succeed
Although the business has been done in many countries around the world, Sui Zhengqi jokes that he has been trying hard to fail. For example, in 2009, he set up a branch office in Egypt, but because of political reasons, the investment of nearly one million yuan was finally wasted. He also set up a branch office in Burma but was revoked 4 years later for management reasons. In the Sui Dynasty, these are their own tuition fees in the process of doing business. With these experiences, they will be more prudent in the future investment process. It is clear that only through the strength of the brand and platform can we really make the enterprise big and realistic in the future. For the future development of Africa, Sui Zhengqi is very optimistic. By providing the overseas customers with the timely supply of accessories and quick after-sales service, the Chinese trucks are really based on the world truck freight forest.
