Recently, domestic art toys have experienced a surge in popularity in overseas markets, with many international consumers appearing in both offline stores and online livestreams. To assist Dongguan’s art toy companies in expanding their overseas markets, Dongguan held the Pinduoduo TEMU art toy industry matchmaking meeting. This event aimed to support the growth and strengthening of Dongguan’s art toy industry and to enhance the city’s reputation as a hub of trendy culture.
As the “Capital of Art Toys,” Dongguan currently boasts over 4,000 toy manufacturing enterprises and nearly 1,500 supporting upstream and downstream enterprises, making it the largest toy export base in the country. Dongguan produces one-fourth of the world’s anime derivatives and nearly 85% of China’s art toys.
From the overall market development perspective, the growth potential for art toy brands expanding overseas remains substantial. Besides Europe, the United States, and Japan, Southeast Asian consumers are increasingly embracing the art toy market. Dongguan’s art toy companies have recognized this market potential, but many still face certain challenges in expanding their brands internationally.
“We produce high-end products, and their large sizes make shipping costs very high for overseas consumers,” said Manager Mai, head of a art toy company in Shipai Town. The company lacks overseas agents and warehouses, so when international customers purchase products, they encounter high shipping costs, which is a significant obstacle for expanding their overseas market. “For instance, if my product sells for 5,000 yuan, the shipping cost could be 5,000 to 7,000 yuan.”
The issues faced by Manager Mai’s company can be addressed by the Pinduoduo TEMU platform. TEMU’s Director of Business Development, Bo Yi, explained that the platform offers both fully managed and semi-managed models. The fully managed model simplifies the process of going international, lowering the barriers to foreign trade, and more importantly, broadens the order channels for the industrial base, providing opportunities for growth. Under the semi-managed model, merchants have the autonomy to make their own decisions. They can flexibly find warehouse logistics service providers based on their capabilities and fulfill orders locally through overseas warehouses, thereby shortening the fulfillment time. Consumers can generally receive their orders within 2-7 business days.
Bo Yi noted that Manager Mai’s products would benefit significantly from the semi-managed model. “Due to the large size of the products, air shipping would increase the final price. However, if merchants can directly ship from overseas warehouses, it would further highlight the ‘Dongguan art toys’ products’ advantage of good quality and competitive pricing.”
Cross-border e-commerce, as a new model of foreign trade, differs from traditional foreign trade in that it lowers the barriers to international trade, directly connects with overseas consumers, and uses innovations in technology and business models to solve current trade and logistics difficulties and bottlenecks, ultimately enhancing the quality and efficiency of cross-border trade for enterprises. “We currently have over 400 million overseas consumers on the TEMU platform, and they are all high-quality users. For Dongguan brands looking to expand internationally, this pool of overseas consumers is incredibly beneficial.”
Directly connecting with overseas consumers not only means a large volume of orders but also allows merchants to independently create products that suit consumer preferences as their international presence grows. This implies that merchants who deeply understand the needs of overseas consumers and provide high-quality products and services will have the opportunity to establish and strengthen their brand during this wave of expansion.
