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Business-to-Business (B2B) online trading in China is gathering pace, but in a country where commerce is rooted in face-to-face relationships, Websites are going offline to promote their services in more traditional ways.
US-based MFG.com, which targets buyers and sellers in the manufacturing realm, held a trade fair in Shanghai last month to give Website users some of the personal contact that develops into business trust. Alibaba.com, China's highest-profile e-commerce company, will hold its third Net Goods Trade Fair this weekend in Sichuan Province, after a successful offline fair in Hangzhou in September.
"Offline trade fair events provide additional services for buyers and help more suppliers to meet potential business contacts," said Wang Fang, an analyst with iResearch, a Shanghai-based Internet consultancy.
China's B2B market was valued at 171 million yuan (US$25 million) at the end of the third quarter, and its momentum is expected to continue.
"More and more small and medium-sized companies will continue to gravitate toward in e-commerce as they realize the importance and high efficiency of online business," iResearch wrote in a separate report.
Offline fairs attract people like Su Junhong, a salesman from a stainless steel casting factory for valves and machinery spare parts about 150 kilometers from Shanghai.
He said his company, Cixi Jubaopeng Metal Production Factory, registered on the MFG Website about six months ago and has received one order from a Chinese buyer. He didn't specify how big the order is. The company is intrigued by the prospects.
"This kind of offline meeting can raise our efficiency and help us target offers more specifically to buyers' needs," he said. "We can make actual quotations to buyers on the platform."
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