“Build Another Yiwu in Guangzhou!”
On October 9, MU Group held its Guangzhou Market Sourcing Agency Business Advancement Meeting, with participants joining from Guangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu, and Shantou. Tom Tang, President of MU Group, and Group leaders Jeff Luo, Henry Xu, Eric Zhuang, William Wang, Jessie Lai, and Ellen Xiang, together with heads of relevant business divisions, operations, and finance departments, attended the meeting.
At the meeting, heads and representatives of Guangzhou-based localization business divisions shared their experiences, discussing the current state of market sourcing agency services in Guangzhou, the challenges they face, and their development plans.
A representative speaking on behalf of Alfredo Lin, General Manager of AMERICA DIVISION OF NINGBO TOPWIN CO.,LTD. noted that the Guangzhou office is located next to the Canton Fair Complex, providing export sales colleagues with more opportunities to engage with customers, become familiar with products, and build supplier networks. Leveraging Guangzhou’s strengths in apparel manufacturing and its fabric and accessories markets, the team plans to explore a small apparel showroom targeting Latin American customers, gradually building product resources and developing a more targeted competitive advantage. Drawing on her experience serving Spanish-speaking customers, Eva Shao proposed leveraging Guangzhou’s strengths across apparel design, fabrics, sampling, and production to extend the business beyond market purchasing toward product development and supply chain integration.
Rex Xu, General Manager of HOUSEWARE DIVISION OF MARKET UNION CO.,LTD. emphasized the importance of enabling customer resources to move across regions. Localizing Guangzhou operations requires not only an existing business foundation but also appropriate talent and financial support. Building on current operations, the Group should accelerate its local presence and explore customer referrals and business collaboration between Yiwu and Guangzhou. Given the uncertainties facing the market, the key is to embrace change proactively. Ivy Mo introduced the team’s staffing, business foundations, and development plans in Guangzhou. With a focus on Latin American markets, the team plans to leverage existing customer relationships and the Group’s online channels, including social media and Made-in-China.com (MIC), alongside the Canton Fair and showrooms, to expand business. Team development will be closely aligned with business growth.Drawing on practical business experience, Edovia Xu analyzed several current challenges, including fragmented orders from small and medium-sized customers, homogeneous supply chains, and insufficient capabilities in pricing and delivery management. He proposed establishing a local sample library in Guangzhou, strengthening the integration of ready-stock supply chain resources, and capitalizing on opportunities created by the development of Guangzhou International Commercial Port to enhance one-stop service capabilities.
Victor Zhang, General Manager of SOUTH AMERICA DIVISION OF NINGBO TOPWIN CO.,LTD., shared insights from procurement activities at Guangzhou’s Liuhua Garment Market, Baiyun Leather City, and Nanfang Building. He noted that although Guangzhou offers broad market demand, there is still room to improve response times, order execution, and profitability within the existing purchasing agency model. Gradually building a local Guangzhou team would bring procurement and export sales closer to the market, improving execution efficiency and customer service quality. Claudia Xu further discussed practical issues arising from front-line operations, including market resource integration, supplier relationship management, and order execution, offering specific ideas for advancing localization in Guangzhou.
Hanson Hong, General Manager of BIG WINNER CO.,LTD., pointed out that Guangzhou is home to abundant specialized wholesale markets, while surrounding areas and the Greater Bay Area also offer strong apparel manufacturing, small-scale production, and industrial support capabilities. Dolphin plans to accelerate the formation of a local Guangzhou team focused on Latin American markets, progressively recruiting Spanish-speaking and other foreign-language talent, as well as local procurement professionals. The aim is to integrate market procurement agency services with the resources of surrounding industrial clusters. Tina Wang observed that, unlike Yiwu’s broad range of general merchandise, many Guangzhou markets specialize in individual product categories. The team can begin with key categories, integrate and share information on market stalls, and strengthen supplier relationships through continuous orders. Although the team is still becoming familiar with Guangzhou’s markets, customers already know them well. Localized export sales teams are therefore essential to helping the Group better understand and serve its customers.
Representatives from business divisions with significant procurement and sales activity in Guangzhou then exchanged views on customer demand, product category characteristics, supplier cooperation, procurement services, and local team development.
Jim Chen, General Manager of NINGBO DEALER WELL CO., LTD., explained that the Group’s early presence in Guangzhou gave the team a head start in competition. Although considerable time was initially required to refine supplier coordination, the resulting supply chain capabilities have now become core advantages in quality, delivery, and service, enabling the team to better serve its target markets. He proposed gradually reducing reliance on market intermediaries by using wholesale markets primarily for product selection and sample display, while placing larger-volume orders directly with factories to improve profitability. In the longer term, relocating market-facing colleagues closer to Guangzhou’s specialized wholesale markets could further improve operational efficiency.
Felix Cao, General Manager of HOUSEWARE DIVISION OF NINGBO TOPWIN CO.,LTD., noted that Guangzhou’s market procurement agency business is characterized by a high proportion of pure agency orders, with customers often maintaining direct relationships with individual market stalls. Supplier-customer relationships are therefore much stronger than in Yiwu’s general merchandise model. The team is working to transfer orders and consolidate product categories, progressively shifting pure agency orders to its own supplier network to improve business profitability.
Raquel Song, Senior Manager of AMERICA DIVISION OF MARKET UNION CO.,LTD., identified three major challenges in advancing localization in Guangzhou: customers’ greater familiarity with the local market, limited bargaining power within the supply chain, and difficulties in inspection and quality control. The team should develop its own Guangzhou supply chain, screen high-quality suppliers suited to Latin American customers, and reduce dependence on customers’ existing market stalls. A supplier grading system should also be introduced, with particular attention to suppliers associated with recurring quality and intellectual property infringement issues. She added that Guangzhou’s abundant styles, rapid product launches, and concentrated supply chains are well suited to the needs of Latin American customers and complement Yiwu’s strengths. Luna Wang further emphasized the importance of customer development and aggregation. Business teams should enhance service quality throughout the entire process, deepen cooperation with core suppliers, activate existing customer relationships, develop benchmark success cases, and use social media to amplify their reach and attract more customers to Guangzhou’s localized procurement agency services.
Iris Zhao, Dep. Manager of LATIN AMERICA DIVISION OF NINGBO TOPWIN CO.,LTD., drew on business experience in categories such as fashion accessories and electronics. The team should make better use of the Canton Fair and local trade exhibitions while recruiting export sales professionals with strong foreign-language skills, Cantonese proficiency, and familiarity with Guangzhou’s merchants to provide front-end purchasing assistance. She also recommended establishing dedicated quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) teams. By integrating product recommendations, accompanied purchasing, quality control, and financial support into a comprehensive service offering, the Group can differentiate itself and strengthen customer relationships.
During the procurement-focused discussion, Conan Wu, Deputy Political Commissar of the Guangzhou Operations Center, noted that departments already engaged in Guangzhou market procurement should further expand their efforts, while those not yet involved should explore local resources and business opportunities relevant to their product categories. Guangzhou can initially undertake purchasing, order follow-up, and supplier communication on behalf of business units, providing localized support that allows sales teams to concentrate more fully on customer development while reducing upfront investment.
Sandy Lu from the Guangzhou Procurement Team of NINGBO TOPWIN CO.,LTD. shared that the team had continued to advance localization over the past two years, building a dedicated Spanish-speaking export sales team and recruiting apparel order-follow-up and furniture procurement professionals to support business growth. At the same time, growing business volumes have placed higher demands on procurement execution, inspection, quotation response, and staffing. The team should continue refining its staffing structure in line with business growth and consider adding specialized QC and inspection personnel to further strengthen procurement services.
In the concluding remarks, Tom Tang, President of MU Group, emphasized that international trade is undergoing profound changes, with disintermediation emerging as one of the clearest trends. Both end customers and suppliers increasingly want to reduce intermediaries. The traditional model of “product–purchasing agent–supplier” involves a long chain and slow responses, often resulting in repeated product searches, supplier searches, factory visits, and price comparisons. He argued that this should be replaced by a more streamlined “product–supplier” model, supported by centralized price verification, quotation, and purchasing. Likewise, the traditional “product–sales team–customer” model should evolve toward a more direct “product–customer” model, particularly when serving small and medium-sized customers. Accompanied purchasing should also progressively transition from one-to-one, staff-assisted services toward unaccompanied purchasing. These changes, he noted, reflect the direction in which the industry is moving.
The Group must establish Guangzhou’s leading market sourcing agency service brand and significantly expand social media promotion. MU Youxuan represents another major strategic initiative following the launch of MU Academy in 2013 and the introduction of the Dual-Strategy Supplier initiative in 2019. He also stressed the importance of developing Guangzhou’s shipment and product sample showroom, strengthening the sharing of Guangzhou supply chain resources, and having the Finance Department publish monthly performance statistics and hold regular meetings on the localization of financial and payment processes in Guangzhou.
Reflecting on Yiwu’s localization journey since 2005, President Tang observed that business operations that failed to localize tended to contract and decline, while localized operations continued to flourish.
Localization is an irreversible trend, independent of individual preferences. Advancing localization in Guangzhou is now an urgent priority.