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Sourcing Success Stories: Standing Out from The Crowd|HKTDC

hktdc.com Sourcing】In a world where online sourcing has become well established and conventional, customers can cooperate with a wide range of suppliers that are not limited to those in local markets. For many businesses, this shift to digitalization can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, online platforms can create countless global opportunities to help grow your business to a new level. On the other hand, the amount of competition that is trying to compete with you is innumerable.  

Therefore, finding a way to differentiate your business from competitors is necessary to ensure that your business can attract attention and grow successfully. Choosing a credible sourcing platform with professional support and innovative functions such as hktdc.com Sourcing can help secure orders and find interested business partners to help your business stand out from the competition. 

Find out how businesses using hktdc.com Sourcing was able to thrive to success in the story below.

Azuda International Ltd is a Taiwanese home goods manufacturer. Founded in 2002, the company mainly designs and develops homeware for clients in Europe, the US and Canada. As the business focuses predominantly on exports, business owner Robert Chen started using hktdc.com Sourcing in 2006 to help connect with overseas buyers.

hktdc.com Sourcing has provided Azuda International Ltd with multiple new clients since 2006.

Witnessing his success from using hktdc.com Sourcing’s online platform, Robert started to attend HKTDC’s Homeware Fair in 2016. He mentions that this exhibition provided him an average of US$50,000 in on-site sales annually.

“With decades of experience hosting exhibitions, HKTDC has accumulated many connections with buyers. Most importantly, HKTDC knows how to use data received from their exhibitions to link up interested buyers with suppliers,” Robert said.

HKTDC’s Homeware Fair has provided Robert Chen with both on-site and off-site sales every year.

Throughout trade fairs and on their sourcing platform, hktdc.com Sourcing has always supported Robert’s business immensely. Robert recalls that he once received an initial order of US$10,000 from a company in Canada through hktdc.com Sourcing. Through establishing a close working relationship with this client, the orders received continued to grow in the past six years. During the peak of COVID-19, this buyer had placed an order total of US$200,000 in one year – significantly helping Robert’s business during challenging times.

Adjusting to Shifts in Sourcing Trends

Like many businesses, Robert’s company faced harsh adversities when the pandemic hit in 2020, with annual revenues plummeting by 20%. To counteract this declining performance, the company quickly adjusted its business strategies and focused its product line on bathroom and kitchen goods.

Azuda International Ltd. focused its product lines on chic and refined kitchenware and bathroom goods.

Robert explained that his rationale behind this shift in strategy is because he has observed that throughout the pandemic, people are more inclined to cook at home and pay attention to personal hygiene. Hence, the need for kitchenware and bathroom goods – especially those that are well designed has substantially increased.

hktdc.com Sourcing sends EDMs to relevant buyers when businesses have newly updated products to promote consumer interest.

Along with a line of well-developed products, Robert has also proactively worked with hktdc.com Sourcing and properly utilized various sourcing platform’s functions. “Whenever we produced new products, hktdc.com Sourcing’s automatic emailing system would send emails to interested buyers. If buyers are interested, they can directly send enquiry emails to us,” explained Robert. He mentioned that he received over 200 client enquiries last year with hktdc.com Sourcing alone. With these changes to the company, his business revenue rebounded by 12% in 2021 and 5% in the first half of 2022 alone. 

With life gradually recovering from the pandemic and with countries slowly lifting travel bans, Robert plans to attend various physical fairs – including HKTDC’s Homeware Fair once again. Learning from multiple challenges encountered during the pandemic, he intends to promote his business on offline and online platforms to continue achieving substantial business growth.

Choosing the Right Sourcing Platform

Like Robert, making the right decision to choose a reputable and established sourcing platform is key to his success. Apart from online platforms, engaging in trade fairs and hybrid exhibitions such as EXHIBITION+ can significantly enhance business performance.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) introduces ‘EXHIBITION+’, a brand-new exhibition model integrating online-and-offline trade show formats. This platform extends face-to-face interactions from its world-class exhibitions in Hong Kong to an online smart business matching platform to help you connect with business partners proactively. Learn more about EXHIBITION+ here.

hktdc.com Sourcing is a reputable B2B sourcing platform that reaches over 2 million international buyers and features over 130,000 quality suppliers. Powered by AI technology, the platform has multiple innovative functions which seamlessly match suppliers with buyers and bridge demand and supply gaps. You can learn more about hktdc.com Sourcing here.

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