The 7th WCIFIT | Tencent Launches "New Journey for Foreign Trade Acceleration Plan" to Help Enterprises Expand Markets

"What qualifications are required to open a WeChat Store?"

"No special qualifications are needed - just a business license is enough to apply."

At the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade (WCIFIT), the launch ceremony of the "Premium Exports Homebound - Chongqing" was held simultaneously, along with centralized exhibitions of quality foreign trade items and production-sales matchmaking activities. Among them, Tencent's "New Journey for Foreign Trade Acceleration Plan" drew strong interest from many businesses.

Tencent at WCIFIT. Photograph courtesy of Tencent

Since the beginning of this year, in order to further boost consumption and help foreign trade enterprises expand into the domestic market, the Ministry of Commerce has continued to hold the "Premium Exports Homebound" activities, building platforms for foreign trade enterprises to expand domestic sales. Industry associations and leading enterprises have worked together to broaden the domestic sales space for foreign trade enterprises and "safeguard the course".

Not long ago, Tencent launched the "New Journey for Foreign Trade Acceleration Plan", providing ten measures such as green channels for store opening, incentives for new merchants, traffic support, and fee reductions, to pave the way for foreign trade enterprises to expand domestic and international markets.

Among them, WeChat Store provides fast store-opening services for foreign trade enterprises. Merchants can apply for opening a store with a business license, and realize minute-level approval through a green channel. To further reduce merchants' operating costs, WeChat Store has implemented a zero-deposit trial operation for as many as 2,691 business categories, allowing merchants to list products without paying a deposit. At the same time, WeChat Pay provides a fast channel for foreign trade merchants newly entering the WeChat ecosystem. Eligible merchants can ensure activation of the payment function on the same day.

At the WCIFIT site, the reporter saw that many foreign trade business owners stopped at Tencent's booth to communicate with staff; many others also scanned the QR codes on the display boards on site, filling in company name, product category, business region, enterprise needs, and other information, so that WeChat Store operation personnel could provide guidance.

"Currently, our order volume has returned to the previous level, but we also realized that we cannot rely only on the U.S. as a single market, and we need to diversify. The broad domestic demand market is our important rearguard, but we lack experience in operating in the domestic market, and building channels also takes time. This time we learned about Tencent's preferential support policies for foreign trade enterprises, and we also hope to establish connections with WeChat Store to quickly develop our business", said a foreign trade enterprise representative.

Zheng Liang, General Manager of Tencent Chongqing Company, said that many foreign trade enterprises' products are very competitive, but in the early stage of shifting from export to domestic sales they are prone to "not acclimatizing", especially with shortcomings in online operations. We hope to help enterprises quickly adapt to the domestic market, establish user recognition, and at the same time communicate and coordinate with foreign trade enterprises, to turn quality foreign trade items into trendy domestic goods, and expand incremental development space.

Source: New Chongqing - Chongqing Daily