Yiwu'S Use Of AI To Enable International Trade Won The Full Page In-Depth Report Of People'S Daily

People's Daily Overseas Full page Report

At the beginning of 2025, a video of "Yiwu landlady" selling socks by AI became popular on the Internet - in the picture, the shopkeeper could quickly generate marketing videos in dozens of languages with the help of technical tools by just saying "12345", and the timbre and mouth shape could match.

These scenes, which make "laymen" marvel, have been the daily life of tens of thousands of foreign trade merchants in Yiwu and other places. With the help of AI, the whole process of foreign trade, such as production design, exhibition transaction and trade performance, has been optimized. Cross border e-commerce has constantly broken through the constraints of time and space and operating costs, and "24 hours without closing" is increasingly not a dream.

When AI enables cross-border e-commerce, what new impetus has been gained for Chinese goods to be sold globally? How do merchants, government departments, e-commerce platforms and other entities act? The reporter conducted an interview.

　　 Optimize foreign trade process: the effect is "immediate"

"I was among the first to get 'AI bonus'," Sun Lijuan, the boss of Hongsheng Toy Factory, told reporters in Zhejiang Yiwu International Trade City.

"In October 2023, as an internal tester, I was exposed to AI digital human technology," she recalled. At that time, Yiwu Mall Group released the country's first big language model in the business field, and its AI smart innovation service platform Chinatools (hereinafter referred to as "CG platform") was upgraded.

In order to test the promotion function, the staff contacted her to shoot a Chinese product introduction video, and then used AI technology to quickly generate English, Arabic, Spanish and Russian versions. "The moment I saw the video, I was shocked, My voice color and mouth shape are perfectly restored, and the effect is very realistic.

In addition to the amazing effect, Sun Lijuan was also impressed by the benefits of "instant results".

After she released these videos to the social networking platform, there was a strong response. Some videos have exceeded one million "Many customers left messages asking why I am so fluent in Arabic". There are also many users from Israel, Pakistan, Mexico, Nigeria and other countries who ask her for the list of goods. "After using AI digital human video, The turnover of my store has increased by 10-20%. ”She said.

With the continuous upgrading of the AI model, the AI functions on the CG platform of Yiwu China Commodity City are becoming more and more abundant, including AI commodity maps, AI translators, AI business cards, AI independent stations, etc.

In October 2024, in Yiwu, Zhejiang, foreign trade operators will use the "AI translator" function of the AI smart innovation service platform to chat with foreign businessmen

Today, in addition to using digital people to shoot multilingual videos, Sun Lijuan also uses AI tools to accelerate the process of product design and development. She introduced to the reporter that customers from different countries and cultural backgrounds often have different aesthetics. How to find out the preferences of overseas audiences when determining new models?

"In the past, we could only spend one or two months to make a batch of samples first, and ask customers for feedback, or to participate in international exhibitions." Sun Lijuan said, "Now with AI, adding target regions to keywords can generate corresponding design elements, which provides us with a lot of flexibility. In addition, we can directly generate pictures for customers to see, and then do it after determining the style. This greatly shortens the development time and reduces the cost. "

Sun Lijuan and her toy store are the epitome of thousands of foreign trade operators in Yiwu. With the help of AI, the development cost has been reduced, but the commodities have been more accurately connected with the market, and the brand has been more widely spread and heard.

Fu Miaoling, who deals in bamboo and wood household products, is also one of the operators who shoot videos with AI digital people. She told the reporter an interesting story: "Just this afternoon, a foreign guest suddenly came to the store to ask for my business card. He said to me, 'I saw your video, and your video is very good.'"

According to the statistics of Yiwu International Trade City, nearly 30000 business operators have regularly used various AI tools launched by the CG platform. By the end of February this year, the cumulative use and access times of relevant AI products had exceeded 1 billion person times, and the number of users had exceeded 200000 。

"We vote with our feet." Sun Lijuan said bluntly, "No matter what kind of AI tool, we can taste the dividends and see that it can be landed and realized, we naturally have the motivation to learn to use."

　　 Exploring a new mode of foreign trade: AI "manufacturing opportunities"

In addition to "improving quality and efficiency" for traditional foreign trade processes such as development and marketing, what can AI do?

At the beginning of 2025, Xu Jingqian, General Manager of OPEC Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "OPEC"), was "surprised" Win a large order of more than 20 million dollars in the Middle East market by AI This news has excited many foreign trade businesses.

At that time, a Saudi buyer wanted to buy oil-free screw air compressor. At more than 1 a.m. Beijing time, he sent a message to a dozen suppliers. Since Xu Jingqian opened the AI automatic reception function of Ali International Station, OPEC was the first to reply to the buyer and recommend its own products to the other party.

Later, AI held five or six rounds of dialogue with customers, not only asking the buyer about the purpose of purchasing equipment, logistics receiving place and other information, but also asking the buyer whether the purchase is for regular maintenance, emergency replacement or specific projects. It is like a foreign trade salesman who has been involved in the mechanical equipment industry for many years, very "hot". Even the Saudi buyer did not know that it was the AI assistant who could "automatically receive" so skillfully talking with him.

After seizing the opportunity, Xu Jingqian found that the client was highly likely to clinch a deal with the help of the platform "AI Business Assistant". He immediately took the initiative to invite the other team to visit the factory. This big order was firmly held by him.

　　 Why can AI provide "substitute class" customer service and "create business opportunities" for merchants?

According to the person in charge of Alibaba International Station, with the help of the big model, "AI business assistant" can quickly complete in-depth reasoning and make precise recommendations based on store product information and buyer behavior. After the upgrade, AI can even achieve "automatic order", that is, automatically call the interface to obtain logistics information, confirm information with buyers, and draft orders.

Not satisfied with replacing labor in a single link, Ali International Station is still building a "full process AI foreign trade experience" from simple distribution, operation and trusteeship, to intelligent marketing of analysis stores, to risk early warning and automatic processing, so that trade can be "closed 24 hours a day".

It is understood that at present, more than 100000 enterprises in the world use Ali International Station AI tools for foreign trade. Data shows that the conversion rate of AI optimized products has increased by 52%, and the response rate of customers received by AI has increased by 36%.

Zhang Kuo, president of Ali International Station, believes that with self-learning and continuous evolution, the ability of AI business assistants is rapidly improving, which provides opportunities for many SMEs to participate in the global economy. In the future, "one-man shop" and "mom and pop shop" can also have the digital operation capability of multinational enterprises.

"We hope to make AI that can really help people do business," said Zhang Kuo. "At that time, no matter how small an enterprise or team is, it can also have top level foreign trade workers."

　　 Strengthen application training: let AI tools "really land"

When the capability of the big model is constantly upgraded, how can we avoid formalism and let AI tools really land in cross-border e-commerce scenarios and become the right assistant of merchants?

The experience of Yiwu is: Training AI application talents based on the actual needs of merchants 。

On March 11, Yiwu announced the launch of the "Smart 230 Training Plan" to comprehensively carry out the training of AI application talents in the e-commerce field in the mode of "government building, enterprise empowerment, and college linkage". It plans to train more than 300000 people for free in two years, and the training content covers AI practical skills such as product selection, customer service, and design.

On March 7, Yiwu market operators carefully recorded the methods of AI practice at the AI training site.

Sun Lijuan, Fu Miaoling and other business operators benefited from this. Sun Lijuan told reporters that she had taken her team to participate in the training organized by Yiwu Mall Group for four consecutive nights.

"We are usually very busy opening stores, and sometimes we don't know what new tools have come out. Teachers find useful functions through repeated tests, and directly teach us practical operations." Sun Lijuan told reporters, "There are many tools that have been heard before, but after listening to the training, we know how to land and realize."

The training content was practical and useful, and was warmly welcomed by merchants.

　　“ Arrive 5 minutes late and was blocked by the crowd , even the entrance gap is hard to find. Just because AI is hot, everyone is looking forward to learning and making progress in this technological wave. " This is the sigh of a Yiwu foreign trader in the circle of WeChat friends.

On March 7, Yiwu organized an AI training course, and the on-site operators were enthusiastic about learning

What is it that AI tools can be really implemented after development?

Lou Qinfeng, Technical Director of Yiwu China Commodity City Big Data Co., Ltd., introduced to reporters:“ All kinds of AI tools launched by us are free for business operators in the Trade City . If you have any problems in use, you can directly feedback to us face to face. " There are more and more real business transaction data, and the service level is also constantly improving.

At the same time, the Group will regularly invite merchants with successful experience to share. "Those who receive many orders through AI tools will often spread the word to others. Everyone is more and more enthusiastic about learning AI," Lou Qinfeng said.

When more and more operators learn how to use AI as a foreign trade assistant, they are also thinking about how to better cooperate with AI and how to play their own value?

First, the importance of product innovation is further highlighted. Under the current global economic background, operators especially need to make good use of AI tools and dig deep into market demand. "AI enables me to better understand the market dynamics, and my sense of crisis is stronger. I am increasingly aware that if you do not innovate your products, you will be eliminated from the market. " Sun Lijuan sighed to reporters.

At the same time, many merchants also found that although AI can provide some assistance as a tool, the ultimate success of business depends on people, including the executive power after perceived market fluctuations, the emotional value provided when communicating with customers, the after-sales service mechanism of products, and the reputation accumulated over the years. These core competitiveness AI cannot be completely replaced.

"AI is a tool that everyone can use. The key is to find the right way to use it." Sun Lijuan said.

(Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition)