After Labubu became extremely popular, young people who went to Yiwu made a fortune.
Regarding Yiwu, Pumpkin always remembers a magical scene from her childhood - hundreds of "Jesus" statues in various postures and expressions surrounded her layer by layer while she was doing her homework in the middle.
In recent years, Yiwu has attracted many members of Generation Z to start businesses there. They have gradually formed a large group - the "Yiwu drifters". They contribute their efforts day and night to the Yiwu·China Commodity Index (abbreviated as the "Yiwu Index"). Many people have overcome their mental exhaustion here because in this place, they don't talk about "underlying logic" or "granularity", but only focus on practical work.
Pumpkin is a post - 90s native of Yiwu. When being interviewed, she had just returned from leading a two - day - one - night "Yiwu study tour group", but she was still full of passion and spoke at a rapid pace, like an indefatigable perpetual motion machine.
In the past two years, she has been engaged in the emerging industries derived from the Yiwu International Trade City. She noticed that more and more people wanted to get closer to this city - some wanted to start their own small businesses, some wanted to explore e - commerce on social platforms, and some wanted to build bridges for cross - border trade. So she organized groups to take people to visit shops and source factories, enabling those who wanted to start businesses to quickly find the money - making secrets of this city in the shortest time.
On January 7, 2023, in Zhejiang. Yiwu Railway Station welcomed a peak of passenger flow, and passengers queued up to enter the station and wait for the train. (Photo/VCG)
This is also Pumpkin's first business venture. She was originally an office worker in Hangzhou. The turning point in her fate came from a "casual attempt": once, she casually shared a post about Yiwu commodities on a social platform, and it unexpectedly went viral, receiving four or five thousand "likes". Commodity orders then poured in. Soon after, she was laid off by her company, so she naturally devoted herself whole - heartedly to her side business.
Now, she, her husband, and her sister have formed a mini "family business". On one hand, they shuttle between the stalls in the Yiwu International Trade City for "walking live - streaming", holding mobile phones to hunt for business opportunities in the jungle of shelves. On the other hand, she acts as the leader of the study tour group, leading entrepreneurs from all over the country to crack the code of this "world supermarket".
01 Magical Memories of Yiwu
Regarding Yiwu, Pumpkin always remembers a magical scene from her childhood - hundreds of "Jesus" statues in various postures and expressions surrounded her layer by layer while she was doing her homework in the middle.
Pumpkin attended a boarding junior high school, which was next to the Yiwu International Trade City. Every Sunday afternoon, she would go to her aunt's stall to finish the homework due on Monday. "Hundreds of different Jesus statues surrounded me, but I didn't have any special feelings at that time. I just thought they were some commodities. It was only when I grew up that I realized how magical it was."
This sense of intimacy with the market is not unique to Pumpkin. The childhood memories of many classmates in her class were also naturally tinged with the color of the commodity city: their parents all had stalls in the Yiwu International Trade City, selling all kinds of small commodities. The children chased and played in the maze - like shop passages, and the whole trade city was their playground.
In Pumpkin's growth map, the Yiwu market has always been an important coordinate. When she was very young, Pumpkin had the experience of "purchasing goods". Since her parents had a daily necessities store in Hangzhou, she followed her father to Yiwu to purchase daily necessities such as towels and toothbrushes, and then wholesale them to other merchants in Hangzhou.
(Photo/VCG)
She even understood what "starting a business" meant at an early age: during the Spring Festival, her parents would set up a small stall for their daughter in front of their stall and give her some Spring Festival couplets to sell for fun. As a result, she earned more than 100 yuan when she was in the third grade. "I thought it was a huge sum of money at that time! But it wasn't my pocket money and I still had to hand it in. The huge sum of money just passed through my hands." Pumpkin said with a smile.
This kind of "small street stall" is still popular in the Yiwu International Trade City. During holidays, it is common to see "child soldiers" setting up stalls in front of their parents' stalls. The business culture in Yiwu has been passed down from generation to generation as naturally as breathing.
Every time Pumpkin looks back on her childhood, she realizes the advanced side of the Yiwu Commodity City. Although she was unaware of it at that time, she only knew that everything was full of freshness. Among the dazzling array of commodities, many were the "high - tech" gadgets seen in TV dramas. Even a cursory tour from Area 2 to Area 1 would take half an hour.
After growing up, Pumpkin further confirmed the advancement of Yiwu. Once when she went to Japan for research, she found that many local small commodities had the same counterparts in China. The difference was that the Japanese paid great attention to originality and knew how to "turn stones into gold": "They would make an ordinary commodity radiate more energy through design or storytelling. This is relatively scarce in the Yiwu market."
02 Demystifying Yiwu is Just the First Step
Many young people have demystified souvenirs from all over the world after coming to Yiwu. But Pumpkin believes that "demystifying" is just the first step. More importantly, one should combine their own ideas with the goods sources in Yiwu to bring forth the new through the old.
Looking back, Pumpkin's work experience in Hangzhou was almost tailor - made for starting a business: travel self - media editor, advertising planner for a mother - and - baby company, Internet content marketer... In Pumpkin's own words, "the jobs were not in vain."
(Photo/ "Twenty - Something")
When she was laid off, her side - business income was already equal to her main - job income, so changing careers became a natural thing. Pumpkin believes that this kind of relaxed feeling of "achieving success by accident" may come from her never having the so - called "life - or - death" determination for starting a business. She thinks that the more one wants to fight a desperate battle, the more pressure they will put on themselves. So most of the time, she just goes with the flow and is never "fragile - hearted".
Walking live - streaming is also a path she accidentally explored. This business model was first applied in the gold market in Shenzhen's Shuibei. Sellers would purchase gold on behalf of online customers through live - streaming. Later, it became popular in Yiwu and was regarded by young people as the first choice for "zero - threshold entrepreneurship". Now in the Yiwu International Trade City, you can hear broadcasters from all over the world promoting products here. Languages such as Chinese, English, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean are floating in every corner.
The most popular place among broadcasters is the East Expansion Market of Area 1, where the minimum order quantity is relatively low, which is widely pursued by Internet users. For example, the recent hottest "doll clothes" of LABUBU. A member of Pumpkin's study tour group who specializes in the Middle East market had a huge number of orders just from this product. Relying on e - commerce, this member's side - business income has now reached 1 million yuan.
In Pumpkin's view, walking live - streaming is indeed the fastest option for beginners. You only need to get the consent of the shop owner to start the live - stream in the store. You don't need to spend time arranging the goods or spend money on inventory. Even a mobile phone chain can be "directly shipped by the merchant", which is very suitable for entrepreneurs in the "from 0 to 1" stage.
(Photo/ "Young Pi")
Moreover, in Yiwu, no one cares whether an entrepreneur graduated from a prestigious university or has a glorious resume. Every down - to - earth ordinary person has an equal chance to stand out.
Pumpkin's first walking live - stream was in an official Sanrio store. She just wanted to give it a try, but unexpectedly, she tasted the sweetness on the spot. Some people even placed orders for more than a dozen products at once. During the Mid - Autumn Festival last year, a live - stream about acetate hairpins made her popularity reach the first place on the platform's homeware list. She sold more than 1,000 products in 5 hours. She completely forgot to eat, and later, she was still packing products until two or three o'clock in the morning and hadn't finished shipping the goods. These products had a relatively high unit price after being exported to France, but they only cost about 20 yuan here and were very popular.
But after really starting walking live - streaming, Pumpkin believes that the threshold is not as low as expected: "According to the platform requirements, a live - stream of about 3 hours is basically considered an effective one. If a broadcaster doesn't have many fans but can talk continuously in front of the camera for 3 hours and can persevere for one or two months, that in itself is a pretty remarkable thing."
Pumpkin is doing a live - stream in a stall in the Yiwu International Trade City. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)
According to Pumpkin's observation, most of the young people who flocked to Yiwu for walking live - streaming last year have left, and the practitioners of walking live - streaming have almost been replaced by a new group of people.
Pumpkin herself has also experienced embarrassing moments - she struggled to talk for a long time, but the number of people in the live - stream room was always in the single digits, and she "wanted to turn off the live - stream and run away immediately". Later, she thought from a different perspective and imagined the live - stream room as a shop opened on the Internet, and since there were always people visiting this shop, she felt relieved.
03 One in Every Two People in Yiwu is a Boss
In Yiwu, "competing fiercely" may be a survival rule because the information changes extremely fast, and opportunities always pass by like shooting stars.
For Pumpkin, the real breakthrough point was the study tour group. Since last year, she noticed that more and more young people wanted to explore the "path to being a boss" in Yiwu, and many friends wanted her to be their guide to get familiar with the Yiwu market. She keenly sensed the common demand and decided to organize study tour groups every weekend. "Hot products and opportunities come very quickly. You must always be ready to seize possible opportunities."
When planning the first study tour group, Pumpkin was very nervous, worried that no one would sign up. But after the post was posted, the number of applicants far exceeded her expectations. The profiles of the trainees were also very diverse, including laid - off employees from large companies, white - collar workers eager to do side - businesses, cross - border e - commerce entrepreneurs investigating the supply chain, freelancers looking for inspiration, and businessmen from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.
In addition to the regular groups, Pumpkin also planned some groups with different themes. For example, she recently organized a "crystal healing group" because she noticed that more and more healing products (such as singing bowls, incense sticks, and aromatherapy) had become popular. She also invited a professional healer to share. At the end, the trainees were reluctant to leave and had a dinner together and talked until late at night.
(Photo/Provided by the interviewee)
Some parents wanted to cultivate their children's financial intelligence, so Pumpkin planned a parent - child group. For example, she prepared 800 yuan for the children to see how they would purchase goods and spend money in Yiwu and then take the goods to the school flea market to sell. Organizing study tour groups gave Pumpkin a great sense of achievement because currently, forty or fifty customers have started their own small businesses.
The density of entrepreneurship in Yiwu is really astonishing. As early as 2023, Yiwu became the first county - level city in Zhejiang with over 1 million market entities. According to the permanent population of 1.888 million in Yiwu at the end of 2022, approximately one in every two people in Yiwu is a boss.
What Pumpkin admires most are the "boss ladies" rooted in Yiwu. "As mothers, they already have a lot to do. They not only have to raise their children and cook for their families but also run businesses. However, they are in a high - energy state from morning till night and are very enthusiastic about every customer. They won't ignore you just because you are a small customer."
In Yiwu, many shops are supported by women. They are responsible for the whole process of communication, reception, and order completion and have a strong presence. Embracing the new era seems to be their instinct. Many boss ladies gather in the atrium of the Yiwu International Trade City every morning to learn English and read aloud. A considerable number of boss ladies are also proficient in using AI technology and can generate lip - syncing videos in various languages around the world with one click and directly promote them on overseas social media to attract traffic.
Pumpkin's mother is the same. Not long ago, the stall that her family had run for many years closed, and her mother retired accordingly. But she didn't idle around. She still actively embraced the Internet, paid for a Xiaohongshu operation course, and her account has accumulated tens of thousands of fans. "She even wants to learn live - streaming from me!" Pumpkin said with a smile.
(Photo/ "Young Pi 2")
Right after graduating from college, Pumpkin wanted to escape from the city where she was born because she thought it was a bit too "down - to - earth". But now, she