Recent surveys by the World Bank and the leading international brand development and valuation companies show that Chinese brands are on the move internationally. The big State-owned banks, technology and oil companies are now consistently in the top 100 and a number of them threaten the top 20 in the near future.

Remember that these brands (for example, banks like ICBC and Bank of China, the oil giant Sinopec and China Mobile) essentially did not exist 10 years ago. Much in the same way that the top Japanese brands like Sanyo, Panasonic and Toyota were 30 years ago, and Korean companies like LG, Samsung and Hyundai had no international presence 10-15 years ago.

We are all aware of the times when the phrase ‘Made in Hong Kong/Japan/Korea’ was used in a derisory manner to indicate low quality and unreliability. How things have changed (even despite Toyota’s current woes).

There are now a large number of Chinese companies that are poised to move into the world’s best brands lists in the next decade. Companies like Huawei, Midea, BYD and Haier to name a few.

Take Haier for example. One of China’s largest companies, they are now the 4th largest home appliance manufacturer in the world. You may have seen their low-cost and energy efficient refrigerators and air conditioners in your local stores. In many ways Haier have outmarketed and outplayed GE and the Japanese producers. Expect to see this company rocket up the leading brand lists in the future.

BYD (Build Your Dreams), the Chinese car manufacturer which has a special interest in electric vehicles and is the recipient of Warren Buffet investment, is also a brand that could be on everyone’s lips in the future. I will talk more of them in later posts.

And what does this increased brand awareness and success mean for online retailers sourcing products from China? One of the flow-on effects is that small to mid range Chinese manufacturers, including online suppliers, are rapidly improving their game in order to remain competitive – both in terms of cost and quality. We are currently seeing this on DHgate.com

Read more blogs like this on my “The View from China” blog at Practical eCommerce. Don’t forget to let me know what you think!

Insights from Around the World: China

Despite the winter chill, China was red-hot at the close of 2009.The country’s manufacturing activity accelerated in December at its fastest pace in several years and foreign exports were up USD$130.7bn, up 17.7% year-on-year. J.P. Morgan said it expects China’s growth momentum to continue throughout 2010. All this at the same time as internet shopping in the UK grew at its fastest rate for 22 months in December, as millions of shoppers migrated online to buy their Christmas goods.

Controversy over Beijing’s policy of pegging its currency to the U.S. dollar may continue to concern economists, but for the time being the fixed exchange rate gives China’s factories a nearly unbeatable price advantage against manufacturers in other countries.

The price advantage has grown even larger after the U.S. dollar, and therefore the Chinese yuan, fell sharply against other major currencies last year. Combine this financial situation with the growth of an already mammoth manufacturing industry and you get a retail buyers market.

Retailers purchasing inventory in China via DHgate.com demonstrated some interesting trends in 2009. Although Apparel and Accessories remained strong, technology purchases ranked as the most popular, accounting for around a third of transactions and a rise of over 10% on the previous year. Strong growth was also seen in the Health and Beauty and Home and Gardens categories, both showing year-on-year increases of around 40%. And with total Christmas stock purchasing representing DHgate’s busiest in its five year history, Chinese manufacturers are expecting to see huge growth in 2010.

With an increasing number of Chinese businesses setting up wholesale and manufacturing operations online, those who source from China will have a distinct advantage.  Traditionally it has been the Big Box retailers who benefit from China sourcing. The new evolution of this industry online allows smaller business to also benefit and pass on savings to their customers – increasing profits.

As consumers resume normal spending habits, retailers capitalizing on the surge of quality goods provided by Chinese manufacturers have the potential to expand their market share.

It has been a little while since I have highlighted a Blog of the Month here, but this month I feel compelled to do so.

As many of my regular readers will know, through this blog I share with small business owners my experiences and influences as an entrepreneur, insights on emerging market trends and the relevant ecommerce happenings in China and around the world. I also run a blog on Practical eCommerce that looks specifically at the growing importance of China as a global supply base.

Aside from the fact that I enjoy sharing any information I think others will find valuable, my aim is also to demystify the entrepreneurial process and open up China as a supplier hub for those that will benefit from it most – Small businesses.

Lee Oden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, believes that for small businesses, blogs are useful for communications, PR, and marketing purposes. They can also be used as a content management system for a Web site. In his blog on AllBusiness.com this month, he shares with readers “10 Essential Tips for Starting a Small Business Blog“. His quick list will help those of you considering starting a blog to get off on the right foot. And once you have, don;t forget to add you link to the comments section here!

1. Set goals and answer, “Why are we starting a blog?”

Do this before going out and registering a domain name or anything else. Is the blog going to serve as a journal for starting the business? Is it a search marketing tool? Is it to be used to demonstrate thought leadership and create credibility? Will it be a communication tool for customers? Will it also serve as the main company Web site? Is the purpose some or all of the above?

2. Decide your address.

If the purpose of the blog is to support company brand and audience, then the URL should be part of the company Web site. Ideally, the blog hosting situation allows for a sub directory such as companysite.com/blog.  Otherwise, a sub-domain such as blog.companysite.com will work and you can can host the blog elsewhere, separate from the company Web servers. (IT will like that.)

If the purpose of the blog is independent of the primary company brand, or messaging, then a dedicated domain name such as topicgoeshereblog.com might work better.

It’s tempting to use a keyword-only domain name, but those keywords will not be a silver bullet for search engine rankings. A catchy, meaningful brand name for the blog will go much farther as content can always be optimized for search engine rankings.

3. What blog software to use?

In most cases, WordPress is the way to go. An inexpensive Linux platform hosting account that supports PHP and mySQL can be secured for $10-$20 per month. However, should the blog get really popular, expect to upgrade to support increased demand. It’s entirely worth it.

The blog software will need to be installed on the server that will host it and the database will also need to be set up. This is fairly straightforward, but in all honesty, it’s best to have someone that knows what they’re doing help. As an example, I do very little of the technical work on our blog and prefer to have a specialist (Thomas McMahon) take care of maintenance, adding plugins, design, and functionality updates. We have outside programmers do any heavy lifting in the application development department.

Wordpress software is open source, ie free, so if you are code/technically savvy and you have the time to figure it out, it’s certainly doable. There is no one “right way” to setup a blog. There are literally hundreds of shades of gray.

It can cost a hundreds to thousand of dollars for a blog consultant to install, set up, and customize the design of your blog. You’re not paying for the software, you’re paying for expertise that will save you MONTHS of time and allow you to get to market more quickly and efficiently.

4. Modify the design.

After installation of the core blog software, there are a number of customization tasks.

First, the blog design should be modified to match your branding. If you don’t hire a consultant to do this, there are many free templates that can then be customized, but many of them require a link to the author at the bottom. Personally, I’m not a fan of those, but they are a low/no cost place to start. Design customization involves modifying the CSS, JavaScript, graphics, and possibly a few database elements.

The second set of customization tasks involves plug-ins to improve the administration, front end functionality and the SEO friendliness of the blog.

5. Plan your content.

In concert with the purpose of the blog, it’s important to generate a basic editorial guideline for creating content.  The easiest way to manage this is by creating categories for the kinds of content you plan on posting.

Before you create those categories, it’s a good idea to do some keyword research as the categories will become excellent repositories of related content. Why not make it even easier for search engines to understand and rank them?

Once you identify which keyword phrases best represent the content you’ll be publishing, use them to name your content categories. Each time you make a blog post, that entry will be associated with one or more categories, creating a very search engine friendly repository of content.

Create an editorial calendar or schedule of posts to keep you on topic for your audience and true to the purpose of the blog. Leverage interactions with blog readers as well as your analytics to know if your content and keyword picks are productive or not.

6. Who will blog?

In the case of most small businesses, the blogging team is a team of one. That’s fine, just be sure to document what’s working and what’s not so when the time comes, you can get your blogging team mate up to speed quickly.

Since blogger’s block (like writer’s block) can really dampen a good thing for a small business blog, go ahead and keep a good number of posts in draft mode. Add to them as you get new ideas and inspiration. Or facts and examples. That way, you’ll have a steady stream of blog posts ready to publish in advance. In fact, you can schedule blog posts in advance using WordPress.

7. Plan to interact.

Blogging in a vaccum is inevitable blogging death. It’s essential that you solicit comments in your posts, respond to comments quickly, create and enforce a commenting policy. Don’t covet the comments either. Visit other blogs in your industry and write useful comments. Those bloggers may notice you and it can become something more, like an invite for a guest post, collaboration or simply a new online friend.

Make it easy for readers of your blog to save and share your content with sharing buttons or widgets. It pays to create accounts on the more popular services and develop social networks there. Your contacts on Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and similar services will watch for your next post and vote for the good stuff, which can drive your content to be exposed on more popular areas of those Web sites. More exposure can mean more traffic.

8. Socialize.

RSS feeds come with blogs and it’s worth taking the time to make sure the RSS feed is readily available and obvious for people to subscribe. Submit your blog and RSS feed to our HUGE list of blog and RSS directories.

Set up social profiles on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as appropriate and automate the sharing of links from your blog posts to those services. In other words, you could use a service like TwitterFeed to publish your latest blog post to Twitter and Facebook automatically.

Be sure to publish your blog URL everywhere you publish your web site address.

9. Make your pages.

If you’re using the blog as a CMS for a small business Web site, then make your static Web pages such as those for About our Company, Product/Service pages, Contact Forms, etc. The blog can be customized to have a home page like any other Web site as well. That way, visitors arriving on your site can see what they expect from a company selling products/services. At the same time, blogging creates a rich and frequent source of useful content that’s syndicated via RSS, promoted automatically to relevant social channels and leaves the door open for interaction via comments.

10. Use blog and social media analytics.

It’s important that you set goals for the blog, a plan to execute tactics and most of all, measure progress. Most Web site measurement is focused on web analytics and metrics specific to different types of marketing such as with email, SEO or PPC.  Standard web analytics software such as Google Analytics will address the vast majority of your needs.

As the only person in the world to have built seven billion dollar companies from scratch in seven completely different sectors, Branson has remarkable advice on how to grow a lasting and viable business. And unlike some business authors, he is not afraid to address the failures as openly as the successes, making his insights significantly more realistic and valuable.

As a British entrepreneur he launched, amongst other global ventures, Virgin Mobile USA, the fastest growing company in history to reach a billion dollars in revenue, faster than Microsoft, Google or Amazon.com. His approach to borderless business holds particular relevance in for any company looking to connect overseas – be it with suppliers or customers. He is down to earth and straight up, and I find him an extremely inspirational businessman and author.

See Richard Branson talk about \’Business Stripped Bare\’ in a short video

Several years ago I devoured his autobiography, “Losing My Virginity” and “Business Stripped Bare” is proving to be equally addictive. He tells the story behind the launch of Virgin America, his new airline in the USA and how Virgin Galactic is set to initiate a new era of space tourism from a spaceport deep in the Mojave desert. He also shares his thoughts on the changing face of the global economy and how businesses worldwide need to work together to tackle environmental challenges and invest in the future.

Enjoy!

Spring Festival also involves one of the largest annual human migrations with well over 200 million people making their way around the country; usually back to their home town for a family reunion.

Not surprisingly, China closes down for a week or so. Officially the country is on holiday from the 13^th to the 20^th February; however, the Festival can unofficially run from a week before to a week after these dates. In the case of businesses, most will only close for a few days of the official holiday. For example, at my company, DHGate.com, our customer service team be on holiday between the 13^th and the 16^th but will operate with a skeleton staff from the 17^th to the 20^th .

Most Chinese suppliers and shipping companies will be closed for a few days; therefore slight delays in processing overseas orders may be encountered. The shipping of products that are warehoused in the US and UK should not be affected.

During my recent business travels around Asia and the US, something that has caught my attention is an ad that promotes the ‘Made in China’ brand which is frequently appearing on international television. You may have seen it on CNN. The slick advertisement is a deliberate attempt, (the first to my knowledge), by the Chinese Government to rebuild and promote the China brand in the international market. Have a look at the ad here.

The theme of the ad is ‘Made in China, Made with the World’. Clearly the intention of the Government is to rebuild trust with overseas consumers after a string of product safety and quality issues and also to allay fears that cheap Chinese products take jobs away from overseas countries.

The message is that it’s a collaborative effort. People don’t often realize that over 60% of Chinese exports to the US are produced by firms owned by foreign companies. A computer ‘made in China’ is likely to contain a large portion of imported components. Also, although the final assembly and testing is done in China, the design and specifications were created overseas.

One of the other themes in the ad is that China is now very serious about the integrity of its brands both national and product specific. The commitment to product safety, quality and integrity by the Chinese government and manufacturers is greatly improving. In the future, I’ll detail the efforts being made in these areas.

To keep regular readers of this blog in the loop, I will repost my monthly entries here – So you will have a single hub for all my thoughts on entrepreneurship, running a business and the developing supplier and eCommerce situation here in China. And, if you have any areas you would particularly like me to cover, why not drop me an email or comment below? I’d love to hear form you.

“The View from China”

by DHgate.com Founder and CEO, Diane Wang

On the eve of the Year of the Tiger, I’m proud to present a new blog to readers which will give regular updates on the events and opportunities within the Chinese ecommerce scene. Here, I aim to give an insight into doing business in China and an insider’s eye into the world’s most exciting emerging market.

International ecommerce and ecommerce technology have been my passion for the last two decades. After leaving the security of senior management at Microsoft and Cisco I decided to go it alone. My first company, online consumer marketplace Joyo.com, was acquired by Amazon in 2004, and that same year I founded DHgate.com. My purpose was to create a platform which connects SMEs to the manufacturing hub which is China, and therefore level the playing field.

Despite the global financial crisis, 2009 was a great year for China. GDP growth for 2009 was 8.7% and the country’s manufacturing activity accelerated in December at its fastest pace in several years. Foreign exports rose to US$130.7billion, up 17.7% year-on-year, and analysts expect that the Chinese growth momentum will continue in 2010. Although the Chinese Government is playing it down, it has been confirmed that China has overtaken Germany as the world’s biggest exporter.

As an increasing number of Chinese businesses, large and small, are setting up wholesale and manufacturing operations online, I believe that there are now great opportunities for US retailers, particularly SME’s, to source products directly from China.

Recently, as part of its extensive stimulus packages, the Chinese government has implemented a policy to spur the growth of SME manufacturers and suppliers throughout China. In particular, it has directed local and provincial governments to encourage emerging industries through reform, assistance with market access and fostering local banks to provide finance to expanding businesses.

At DHgate.com, we have seen a surge in the number of Chinese SME manufacturers and suppliers who have migrated online. As these numbers grow, so do the opportunities for US retailers to be cost effective. I believe that there has never been a better time for US retailers to take advantage of the Chinese online sourcing market.

Because of this, I believe it is timely to introduce a blog on the Chinese ecommerce scene which will post regular updates on the ecommerce market in China with a particular emphasis on B2B sourcing.

The regular reports will focus on issues such as trends, new platform innovations, technological and other improvements and government initiatives and policy developments. I will also address pressing consumer issues such as product quality and safety.

“Brand identity” has become something of a buzzword in business and marketing circles. But that doesn’t mean that the brand you establish for your own business isn’t really important. Years ago, countries and companies battled for land and resources. Today’s savvy, web-enabled companies are fighting similar turf wars, only now, it’s for a share of the consumer’s memory. With customers being exposed to literally thousands of icons, logos, product names, and promotions per day, having a memorable brand is key to your businesses success.

One of the challenges of establishing a strong brand identity is that it can take a lot of time and money. If you’re a start-up or small business, it might seem like an unnecessary added expense. But remember, if your brand isn’t memorable it will have a negative impact on all your future advertising and marketing efforts. People might love the new bus stop ad you put up, but they still might forget your company name or customer might buy a great sweater from you once, but not remember your URL when describing it to a friend who’s just paid a compliment.

Not all of us have tens of thousands of dollars to hire a branding agency. But what we lacked in dollars, we can commitin time and energy. If you follow the steps outlined below, you can make sure your company is memorable too.

1. Know the Brand Basics

First off, it’s important to know what a brand is. A brand is “the promise, the big idea, and the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service, or company.” Your company’s mission, vision, ethos, unique selling points, customer satisfaction policy along with every interaction a customer ever has with you help define your brand. Everything you or your employees do can have an impact on that brand awareness.

Brand identity is the application of a brand that allows a customer to interact in some way. Your company name, logo, signage, packaging, marketing efforts, slogans, et cetera all inform your brand identity.

2. Research, Research, Research

Before you begin your branding exercise, you should conduct plenty of research – both about the competitive landscape and the goals and values of your own organization.

When conducting a marketing audit of your own business, compile or construct information that includes:

• Mission, vision, and values statements

• Value proposition (what is the unique offering of products/services that you are making available to consumers?)

• Organizational structure/chart

• Any business plans or strategic plans

• Existing marketing collateral and assets

• Any press releases or company-related media

• Organizational history

If you have this information in one place, you can easily review it during the branding process to ensure you’re establishing a brand that’s in line with what your company is all about.

Be sure to compile information on the competition so that you can a) be non-duplicative by establishing a unique brand, and b) avoid spending time and money on work that’s already been done. It’s important to know the following about the competition:

• Who are they? Compile a list of companies that offer similar goods and services to your proposed business. Be sure to identify indirect competitors too (e.g., if you sell ceiling fans, potential customers might be drawn away by discounts on air conditioning units).

• How are they branded? Create a list of all the company/product names and logos. Identify any similarities in words, colors, shapes, symbols, typography, etc.

• What are their key messages? Just as you’ve compiled your mission/vision, be sure you understand what’s driving the competition and how they’re presenting that to the rest of the world.

• What are they sending out? Gather as much competitive intelligence as you can by collecting marketing material including ads, brochures, flyers, coupons, website URLs, etc.

• What’s the consumer experience like? Whenever possible, play the role of a customer and see how the competition interacts with consumers. You don’t have to actually buy anything!

3. Design Your Identity

When you start to design your identity, a company and/or product name is the first step, followed shortly by a logo or graphic representation of organization or product. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and your logo is no different. It’s likely going to be the most memorable part of your brand that the customer will interact with prior to making a purchase.

When it comes to having your brand designed, you may want to consider this a major investment and spend money on a reputable designer with specific experience creating brands. You’ll save on costs if you’ve done your homework by researching the market and have a good idea how you want to represent yourself. The more details you can provide, the more targeted the first round of designs you get back will be. Focus your thoughts on shapes, color, and then content/text that you want your brand to convey. That’s the order in which most people recognize logos.

4. Put Your Brand to Work and Manage Assets

Once your brand has been designed, it’s time to make it work for you. In addition to the obvious applications in signage, letterhead, envelopes, business cards, and your website, you should think of creative ways to incorporate your identity into your business. If you have a physical location, this could mean using the colors in the logo when painting or decorating the space. If you exist online, incorporate design elements of your brand into email communications, customer receipts, and promotions. When you have the budget, custom packaging (boxes, shopping bags, etc.) can also be a great way to promote your brand.

There are also countless promotional items ranging from pens and mugs to calculators and other gadgets you can add your brand to. The key here is to select items that are going to be used over and over again (spend the money on a oversized coffee mug for a client gift rather than disposable water bottles) and that ties in to your business in some way (if you sell eco-friendly cleaning products, skip the branded sticky notes in favour of a reusable shopping tote).

For more related articles, why not log on to www.IntroducingSuccess.com. Don’t forget to leave your feedback here!

You can read more about how the site works in the press release pasted below or by logging on to the site here, but what I wanted to talk about in this post is how the launch represents my attitude to business growth.

As frequent readers will know, when I started DHgate I did so to help small and medium business enjoy the same opportunities which had previously only been available to Big Box retailers. We were the first company to fully integrate all aspects of the cross-border wholesale trade with China on a single ecommerce platform, allowing cross-border trade to be conducted entirely online. This process involved (amongst many other things) designing proprietary technology, attracting the web best systems development professionals, securing investors, educating the market and doing everything we could to make it actually work. It hasn’t always been easy, and the work is far from over, but it has certainly been rewarding to watch it, and its users, flourish.

Creating a healthy, prosperous environment where SMEs have the tools they need to thrive fuels good business for everyone. And I know that that extends beyond transactions; SMEs face other challenges where help is also welcome.

I’m not claiming that one microsite will hold all the answers, but perhaps it is a step in the right direction and may inspire others to invest their time and expertise, too. Being open, proactive and supportive is win-win for all involved – and I’m prepared to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

So please log on to the site, offer your opinions or suggestions for improvement here and let me know if it helps. It was created to help you, and I want to make sure it does.

DHgate.com First in China to Launch Virtual Office

New Website is Geared to Help New and Growing Online Retailers

Navigate an Ever-Evolving Industry

China’s leading wholesale marketplace and champions of small businesses, DHgate.com, today launched IntroducingSuccess.com, a virtual office created exclusively to support America’s aspiring entrepreneurs and SME retailers.

The free site serves as a repository of information about starting and running a successful online business. IntroducingSuccess includes detailed guidance on all avenues from website tips to international product sourcing – including practical know-how on increasing profits through easy dealings with China-based suppliers.

The site, a first of its kind in this market, features a team of animated professionals all working for fictional start-up company, ‘SuccessCo’. Each team member has a specific area of expertise, such as Susan Oliviera in Accounting and Richard Cooke in Operations, all headed by CEO and Founder, Maggie Succesco. They share their insights and resources with visitors in an easy-to-navigate virtual office space.

Introducing Success is broken into three primary areas. The first is for ecommerce novices and provides a questionnaire for would-be-entrepreneurs and details on starting a business. The second section which provides content ranging from web design tricks to shipping options is geared towards those who might already be retailing, just not online using an international sourcing model. The last section includes marketing and sales tips that can be used by newcomers or experienced sellers. The site also features valuable information on doing business with China.

Ecommerce pioneer, DHgate.com, is the first Chinese company to specifically focus on helping western business owners get the most out of trade with China by addressing everything from “Chinese Business Practices” and “Choosing the Right Supplier”, to useful resources such as ““Taxes, Duties and Customs Considerations”.

This innovative thinking is typical of DHgate.com and Founder and CEO, Diane Wang.

Diane is an experienced entrepreneur who left senior management at Cisco and Microsoft to start Joyo.com, which she grew to China’s most successful B2C site and was subsequently acquired by Amazon in 2004. Having been an ambitious online retailer with little start-up capital, Diane learned the hard way that international trade with China could be made much easier. She launched DHgate.com that same year.

“DHgate.com takes the hassle out of cross-border trade with China, allowing safe transactions to take place in a few clicks of the mouse. 1.5 million small businesses have been able to grow their profits through purchasing from the 500,000 China suppliers on DHgate.com, and IntroducingSuccess.com has been created to take that further.”

IntroducingSuccess.com is a resource hub that helps with the other fundamentals, and is designed to save businesses time and money.

“It was also important to me that the site doesn’t just cater to those businesses which use DHgate.com to buy their inventory – we wanted it to be a place that ANYONE interested in starting an online shop could go for information. That’s why we used a virtual office and separate URL. “

As a market-maker, DHgate.com adopts a forward thinking business model, based on providing “freemium” (free and premium) services to business owners. IntroducingSuccess.com is a free, value-added service which complements the free membership model offered by the DHgate platform. On DHgate.com buyers pay nothing upfront; DHgate earns its revenue through commissions paid by the seller—only after a transaction is completed successfully.

The company is focused on providing easy access for buyers to learn more about making the most of China’s supplier base and making the most of the boom in ecommerce. They frequently update their Facebook page and Twitter accounts as well as running two popular blogs. Blog.dhgate.com focuses on wholesale trends and The Gateway Blog (www.thegatewayblog.com) shares Diane’s personal advice to entrepreneurs and retailers. With webinars, podcasts and even a YouTube Channel in store for 2010, buyers will find DHgate.com a hub for all their business needs. And starting this month, Diane will also host a regular blog entitled “The View from China” on PracticalEcommerce.com.

As Diane says, “It’s not just about transactions – It’s about leveling the playing field for businesses of all sizes and opening up China to the world.”

Online publication, Internet Retailer, recently published the findings of a report prepared by Retail Systems Research LLC entitled “Online Commerce in 2009: The Game Has Changed—Have Retailers?”. The prospects for online retailers in the coming 12 months looks promising. IR conclude that “in an increasingly multichannel retail world, retailers surveyed in the report listed online merchandising and cross-channel capabilities as the two technology areas that will bring the most value.”

See some of the findings below. Are these in line with your thoughts? Let me know!

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