These days, vendors have been busy receiving guests at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu city, China’s small commodities trade hub in Zhejiang Province.

Lu Qingrong, a local vendor, received a guest named Bi Xunu, a Nepalese business man running a foreign trade company which sells toys, accessories, and ironware to clients based in Nepal and India. Lu and Bi first established a business partnership more than 10 years ago.

Merchants select goods at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 20, 2021. (Photo by Gong Xianming/Xinhua)

"Yiwu is so important for me and my clients. The city has all types of commodities that are of high quality, and boasts a complete logistics network, enabling us to sell the small commodities to places around the globe," Bi expressed.

Sheng Yafang, another vendor at the Yiwu International Trade Market, received an order for 2 million pairs of winter shoe pads placed by a Russian client via video link.

"In the past, 80 percent of our products were sold to overseas clients, while last year, the percentage of goods sold to domestic clients rose to 40 percent from just 5 percent. We also sold 3 million pairs of winter shoe pads, our flagship products, by holding livestreaming shows," Sheng said.

By actively embracing an ecosystem that combines live broadcasts together with e-commerce, Sheng has become a main supplier for a number of e-commerce companies and individual influencers.

The Yiwu International Trade Market has set up public livestreaming rooms for vendors to promote their products for free, with many vendors having made use of the facilities to hold livestreaming sessions during the online version of the Yiwu International Trade Market.

"There are over 10,000 shops and more than 5 million commodities available on the platform, and the accumulated volume of transactions completed via the platform has exceeded 16 billion yuan," introduced Wang Xiangrong, general manager of the operating company for the Yiwu International Trade Market.

In 2021, the average daily volume of visitors at the Yiwu International Trade Market was 122,400, and the occupancy rate of stores at the market stood at above 98 percent.

According to statistics from the customs department of Yiwu, last year, the value of exports in the city was 365.92 billion yuan, up 21.7 percent year on year, and the value of imports was 24.39 billion yuan, up 95.3 percent year-on-year. 

Editor: Li Qiaoqiao