According to the past rhythm, there are still two months before Christmas. In Yiwu, Zhejiang, the world’s largest Christmas supplies distribution center, orders have basically ended. However, as of November this year, there are still overseas customers placing orders.

Lin Tao, a Yiwu merchant who sells Christmas, Spring Festival and other products, said to us that before the epidemic, generally speaking, overseas customers placed orders in March to June every year, delivered goods in July to September, and the order was basically completed in October. But so far this year, there are still orders.
Nowadays, the sales cycle of Christmas products is prolonged, mainly due to the instability of the epidemic.
This summer, the social control during the epidemic in Yiwu blocked the local supply chain, and production and logistics had to slow down. “After the epidemic in August, we started to speed up the shipment. South America, North America and Europe basically shipped according to the order of order, and Southeast Asia and South Korea are also shipping.” Lin Tao said.
Merchants, including Lin Tao, now receive orders from countries around Asia. “The uncertainty caused by the epidemic has made customers delay ordering, and after the development of logistics, it is timely to receive orders now. As long as there is stock, or the factory has not encountered epidemic, power failure and other situations, it is enough time to ship to the surrounding countries.”
In addition, there are also orders for customers to prepare for next Christmas.
“These customers usually have no pursuit of style, and they are basically basic models that do not follow the trend.” Lin Tao said that placing an order in advance is also to prevent risks such as delayed delivery and increased freight for intensive delivery caused by the epidemic next year.
80% of the world’s Christmas goods come from China, while 80% of China’s Christmas goods come from Yiwu. Although the Christmas supplies orders in Yiwu have been impacted since the outbreak, they are now recovering gradually.
Lin Tao told us that, as far as the overall order volume of his company is concerned, “in 2020, the number of orders was less than half at the worst time. Last year, it was gradually recovering, and this year, it slowly recovered to about 70% in 2019 before the outbreak of the epidemic.”
The improvement of Lintao’s business is also a microcosm of the recovery of Yiwu’s foreign trade Christmas products industry.
Cai Qinliang, secretary-general of Yiwu Christmas Articles Industry Association, said that in the first year of the epidemic in 2020, the overall overseas orders of Yiwu Christmas articles fell by about 50%. The market will be difficult to climb in 2021. It will probably recover to 70% or 80% before the epidemic, and will have recovered by 2022.
According to the data of the China Economic Market Research Center, from January to August 2022, the export value of China’s Christmas products was 57.435 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 94.70%, of which the export value of Zhejiang Province was 7.589 billion yuan, accounting for 13.21% of the total export value.
The data from Yiwu Customs also shows that from January to July 2022, Yiwu’s export of Christmas products will reach 1.75 billion yuan, an increase of 88.5% year on year; Among them, the export value in July was 850 million yuan, up 85.6% year on year and 75.8% month on month.
In the opinion of Wang Jianjun, the general manager of Yiwu Purchase Platform, the recovery of Christmas business is mainly related to the loosening of restrictions on overseas epidemics. Since the first half of this year, many overseas countries have begun to gradually lift the gathering restrictions brought about by the epidemic and restrict cross-border travel. With the loosening of these restrictions, people flow and gather more frequently. Both businesses and individuals have gradually recovered their demand for the atmosphere of the Christmas holiday before the outbreak of the epidemic, which has led to the improvement of Yiwu’s Christmas business.
In addition, according to the data provided to us by Wang Jianjun, up to now, orders on the Yiwu shopping platform, including Christmas products, have increased by 20% year on year. In the past week, the search volume of the Yiwu shopping index on “Christmas” rose, reaching 200% month on month from October 24 to October 25.
“In fact, Yiwu has been searching for new customers online over the years, and the onset of the epidemic has accelerated the process of network access.” Wang Jianjun said that, as far as the whole Yiwu market is concerned, 90% of customers purchase online to reduce the impact of the epidemic.
In Yiwu International Trade City, where Lin Tao is located, there are also many merchants who open live broadcasts on online platforms such as Yiwu Shopping and Yicai Treasure to introduce their products. Since 2020, foreign customers have been used to watching online videos. After having a certain understanding of the manufacturer’s production capacity, process characteristics and prices, they will place a small number of orders first, and continue to add until the market is ready.
In addition, in order to stabilize customers, Lin Tao and his peers have made many efforts, including keeping up with the demand of people for Christmas under the epidemic and the trend, mainly in product categories, product portfolio and cost performance.
In the Christmas of 2020, people are more willing to spend the holiday at home. Small Christmas trees of 60 cm and 90 cm are popular in overseas orders that year. Lin Tao said that at that time, they also followed up in time. This year, “there is no such obvious hot sales data of small Christmas trees”, but they returned to the normal state before the epidemic.
This requires merchants to update according to the trend trends on foreign social platforms.
“For example, this year’s chessboard print element is popular, and the Christmas tree decorations have also absorbed this element; more festivals and gatherings are held in restaurants, and the decorations around the dining area and table also tend to return to their pre epidemic popularity.” Lin Tao said that in addition, the price range of the products will also be widened to meet the needs of different consumers. “The price of Christmas elk ornaments ranges from 0.5 yuan to 5 yuan.”
Yiwu Encyclopedia

Yiwu, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Zhejiang Province, is managed by Jinhua City, which was called “Wushang” in ancient times. Jinhua Yiwu (central Zhejiang), Hangzhou (northern Zhejiang), Ningbo (eastern Zhejiang) and Wenzhou (southern Zhejiang) are the four regional central cities in Zhejiang; It is located in the middle of Zhejiang Province, in the east of Jinqu Basin, surrounded by mountains in the east, south and north. It is 58.15 kilometers long from north to south, 44.41 kilometers wide from east to west, and covers an area of 1105.46 square kilometers. According to the data of the seventh population census, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, Yiwu has a permanent resident population of 1.85,939 million, which is a large city of type II.
Yiwu has successively produced such historical celebrities as Luo Binwang, one of the “four heroes in the early Tang Dynasty”, Zongze, a famous general in the Song Dynasty, Zhu Danxi, one of the four famous doctors in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Chen Wangdao, a modern educator, Feng Xuefeng, a literary theorist, and Wu Han, a historian.
Yiwu City is a national comprehensive reform pilot area, a national civilized city, a national health city, a national environmental protection model city, an excellent tourist city in China, a national garden city, a national forest city, a civilized demonstration city in Zhejiang Province, and a pilot area of a high-quality development and construction demonstration area for common prosperity in Zhejiang Province. Yiwu is one of the richest regions in China and the largest small commodity distribution center in the world. It has been identified as the world’s largest market by the United Nations, the World Bank and other international authorities, and has been listed as the first batch of national comprehensive pilot areas for new urbanization; Yiwu International Trade City has been awarded the first AAAA shopping tourist area in China by China National Tourism Administration.
In 2021, Yiwu will achieve a gross regional product (GDP) of 173.016 billion yuan, an increase of 11.6% year on year; Ranked 10th in the list of top ten counties in China’s GDP in 2021.