Is Contract Manufacturing Dead? Foreign Trade Bosses Are Secretly Doing This

Mr. Zhang recently noticed a strange phenomenon at the Canton Fair: for the same ceramic cup, the quote for OEM was $5, while the factory providing "live agent" services dared to ask for $8. What surprised him even more was that there was a long queue of European and American purchasers in front of the latter's booth. "Isn't this just a fancy term for high - level contract manufacturing?" It was not until he personally experienced the service process that he suddenly realized - there was such a new track hidden in the foreign trade track.

Different from traditional OEM contract manufacturing, live agent processing requires factories to be deeply involved in the entire product life cycle. Ms. Li, a foreign trade consultant from Zhongshitong, explained it this way: "When a German customer wants to launch a smart gardening tool, we not only take charge of production but also provide localized design suggestions, patent avoidance plans, and even assist in planning the crowdfunding page."

• Design stage: Provide material solutions that meet the standards of the target country
• Production stage: Share real - time quality inspection video streams
• Logistics stage: Self - developed traceable packaging system

More and more buyers are choosing the live agent service providers over Vietnamese contract factories, and there are three core reasons:

First, implicit cost transfer. A certain Nordic home furnishing brand calculated an account: if they choose ordinary contract manufacturing, they need to hire an additional 3 QC personnel to be stationed in the factory, while the live agent model already includes on - site inspection services.

Second, risk - sharing mechanism. Adopting the "installment payment + quality insurance" plan developed by Zhongshitong, when goods are seized by customs due to certification issues, the factory will bear 30% of the losses.

Most importantly, data asset precipitation. Through the consumer market analysis report provided by the factory, a certain French mother - and - baby brand successfully increased its hit rate from 17% to 41%.

Ms. Wang, who is engaged in the export of bathroom hardware, shared her transformation experience: "After investing 2 million yuan to build a digital sample room, now customers can directly adjust product details in a VR environment, and the modification cost has decreased by 70%." It is worth noting that such upgrades do not have to be achieved in one step:

• Primary stage: First, open the live - streaming function of the production process
• Intermediate stage: Establish an elastic supply chain response system
• Advanced stage: Develop SaaS tools for vertical industries

As the traffic dividend of cross - border e - commerce gradually fades, live agent processing is reconstructing the foreign trade value chain. A certain industry report shows that for enterprises adopting this model, the average order - receiving cycle is shortened by 22 days, and the customer renewal rate is increased to 83%.

Have you ever encountered such a dilemma: obviously, your product quality is better, but you are always trapped in the quagmire of price wars? Perhaps it's time to rethink the positioning of the factory - from a silent contract manufacturer to an active partner. Welcome to share your transformation stories in the comment section. We will select three readers to get the White Paper on Live Agent Service Standards for free.