As an exporter of medical equipment and ophthalmic instruments in China, we have established good business cooperation with numerous overseas buyers over the years and experienced the ups and downs of the market together. In the past decade, there have been significant changes in capital flows, sales models, technology transfer, and branding establishment. Although this industry updates at a slower pace than other industries or consumer goods, we and our customers, competitors, and suppliers cannot relax our vigilance on the market. In the past 10 years, we could create value by transmitting information and/or quality inspection, but this cannot become our future mode.
Our profits may have been generated by information asymmetry, quality control, the confusion between wholesale and retail, and some consumers’ fear of production companies. Of course, some executives of large companies who accept bribes have also helped us a lot. In the past five years, the way we generate profits has changed. The market area is more transparent. The entire product supply chain is under pressure, leading to a rapid decline in profit margins from accessory suppliers to factories to customers. Export companies are neither product providers nor cash providers. To maintain their position, they must create independent appearance molds, modify the factory’s original model names, or use other forms that disrupt the market price order. This eventually leads to deliberately creating certain difficulties or visual obstacles for customers. Of course, customers can also feel these obstacles and obtain the desired information by constantly changing price providers. We have also experienced a customer who bargained for a domestic shipping fee of 15 RMB. that’s a typical example of us. Although Chinese-made products in our field are no longer as shoddy as they used to be and the accuracy of the products has improved significantly, we still cannot escape the fate of using open-source code from oligopoly enterprises.
All businesses operating in this type of product will encounter the same problem. Although different countries’ exchange rates provide a natural protective barrier, with the increasing transparency of information, new competitors will join, and ultimately, it will come down to price competition rather than technological competition.
In our trader vision, selling is buying, we are more glad to build higher barrier against clients’ competition and win together.
Folks!! Let’s forge ahead together and create a better future.