By Zhao Yu
On the morning of the 26th, more than 200 foreign trade business owners gathered for the "Brand Globalization Accelerator" Ningbo Cross-Border E-commerce Summit.
The keynote speaker was Qiu Yuxi — a manager in his twenties who oversees the Foreign Trade Department for the Ningbo team at Anji Ansheng Medical Dressing Co., Ltd.
"In 2021, I tried my hand at cross-border e-commerce during school breaks, and I quickly found out losing money was the only thing I could count on," he said, drawing knowing laughter from the audience.
Behind the laughter is a harsher truth: as cross-border e-commerce moves into more competitive waters, relying on platform traffic and waiting for orders has become a dead end.
In Ningbo — a long-standing stronghold of China's import and export trade — a new cohort of entrepreneurs is emerging. Among them are seasoned exporters reinventing their business models, second-generation family operators, and a wave of twenty-something entrepreneurs crisscrossing the city's industrial parks.
20-Something's Aesthetic Medicine Breakthrough
"Cross-border e-commerce in Ningbo has long moved from being an emerging model to becoming the new normal," said Xie Shangwei, Secretary-General of the Ningbo Cross-Border E-commerce Association.
The Ningbo Cross-Border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone is now home to more than 20,000 e-commerce import and export companies.
After returning from overseas studies in 2024, Qiu took over his uncle's medical dressing factory and made an aggressive bet: he invested 600,000 yuan in Alibaba.com's four-star guaranteed-results package.
The payoff was immediate. With guaranteed traffic, his cost per click fell from 25 yuan during his early trial runs to 2.62 yuan. Brand certification further boosted credibility, lifting the share of repeat buyers. One overseas client alone placed 60 repeat orders, generating a total of $900,000 in revenue.
AI has become central to Qiu's strategy. By using data-analysis tools to review 30,000 overseas customer comments, he spotted a 180% year-on-year surge in searches for "medical bandage" coupled with "cosmetic cold compress". Within a week he identified a potential blockbuster product. He went on to obtain the EU's CE marking in 15 days and shifted production into the fast-growing aesthetic medicine market.
The results followed quickly: Qiu earned $1 million in profit in 2024. By November 2025, revenue had climbed to $2.5 million — a 150% increase.
Homemaker Revitalizes 27-Year-Old Factory
When An Di, sales director at Ningbo Kaicheng Electric Co., Ltd., stepped onto the stage, some attendees were already whispering as they scanned the program: a longtime full-time homemaker diving into cross-border e-commerce?
She smiled as she introduced herself. "I've now taken over our family's 27-year-old ice-maker OEM factory."
At the time, the business was stuck in a difficult spot: no sales platform, no sales team, and total reliance on OEM production. Less than 10% of sales came from exports — all of it secondary orders passed along by trading companies.
"Relying on OEM work meant we had no control over the market," An said. "We were constantly squeezed on pricing, and margins kept getting thinner."
She set out to overhaul the business, taking charge of sales, launching the factory onto B2B platforms, and building up a brand reputation for it.
At the same time, she restructured the customer base. When a Middle Eastern buyer from a seemingly unrelated industry placed an inquiry, her team sent free samples and offered discounts. The effort paid off: the client confirmed a $120,000 initial order within two weeks.
In just 11 months, the factory completed a dramatic turnaround. The share of export sales surged to 50% of total sales, and the company entered the top 10 in its category on cross-border e-commerce platforms.
More Ningbo manufacturers are making similar shifts — moving from small OEM workshops to brand-driven exporters, and showing growing resilience and momentum in the global market.
Scoring Huge Cable Deals Without Speaking English
When Gao Liang, general manager of Tiantai Cable (Ningbo) Co., Ltd., took the microphone, the first thing he said was, "My English is limited to ‘OK' and ‘Bye', but AI helps me negotiate million-dollar orders." The room broke into laughter.
A veteran of domestic e-commerce on Taobao 1688, Gao made the jump to Alibaba.com in 2019 with no prior export trade background. "The operating system is the same, the backend is in Chinese, and AI handles the translation. It couldn't be more convenient," he said.
With decades of experience in cable manufacturing, Gao knew that breaking into overseas markets required meeting safety and technical standards. Within just a few years, the company secured U.S. UL, Europe's VDE, and the British Standards Institution's certifications.
Building trust is central to his customer outreach. Gao recalled one particularly memorable case involving a buyer in India in 2024. Pressed for time, the customer requested a virtual factory inspection. Gao and his team livestreamed the entire production line, from raw materials to final products. The buyer placed a $30,000 order that same day and has since become a loyal repeat customer, despite never visiting the factory in person.
Exports now account for nearly 20% of the company's business, with annual overseas sales reaching 20 million yuan. "The next step," Gao said, "is scaling up investment, boosting traffic, and improving conversion."