Businesses online spark township's economy

By China Daily | China Daily | Updated: 2016-05-27 07:40

Zhang Sheng, an online trader in the township of Chuanjiang in Nantong, Jiangsu province, finalized deals worth 26,800 yuan ($4,090) and dispatched 316 parcels to customers on a single day in late December.

More than 10,000 businesspeople like Zhang are active on the internet in the township, which is home to Nantong Home Textile City, one of the country's largest wholesale markets of its kind.

The market houses about 2,300 fabric traders, has links to at least 2,800 home textile companies and generates more than 50 billion yuan in annual sales.

Shao Aijun, Party chief of the township, said: "We encourage local companies to explore new business opportunities based on innovations and call for more startups to increase jobs for locals."

Among the businesses that have online ventures is Mildly, a textile company based in Nantong that targets newlyweds.

In addition to expanding its businesses under franchise to more than 200 cities across the country, Mildly opened a promotional account on WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform, in September, which attracted more than 2,000 business partners during the following three months.

Gong Yifeng has also benefited from the internet. The Cozzy brand owner is from a family of textile sellers, but didn't follow his father's example of conventional marketing.

Instead, after graduating from university, Gong recruited more than 10 other college graduates and started his own business. With an e-commerce team that now has about 40 members, he has opened shops on major sales portals including Tmall and JD.com, and the brand's online sales surpassed 200 million yuan in the first 11 months of 2015. Gong's bustling business employs at least 500 people to receive orders and ship goods.

Another online textile dealer, Gu Shengjian, has an e-commerce team of more than 30 people, which deals with an average of 3,000 orders daily. To meet growing demand, he rented a 1,500-square-meter plant at an industrial park in Chuanjiang and hired more than 50 workers to conduct quality inspections, documentation, packaging and consignments.

Gu lives in the village of Sanhekou in Chuanjiang. Named a provincial e-commerce model unit, the village is home to 377 online shop owners and has more than 10,000 people involved in the industrial chain.

Gu's flourishing online business has also created jobs for his fellow villagers.

Chuanjiang highly values the role of business incubation platforms and has attracted more than 70 e-commerce service providers. Scores of delivery service companies are also riding high on the internet boom in the township.

"Approximately 10,000 residents in Nantong Home Textile City have started up businesses on the internet, with combined annual sales surpassing 12 billion yuan," said Chen Qian, director of the market's service development section. "Their startups have created jobs for another 30,000 people."

The success story of developing an e-commerce-based home textiles industry has won wide acclaim from experts and industry insiders and was recently praised by the State Council, China's cabinet.