The launch ceremony of the Zhongshan Small Appliances Industry Cluster and Alibaba Tiantian Factory Digital Upgrade Strategy was organized on June 27 in Nantou Town. [Photo by Wen Bo]

Presently, e-commerce giants are actively introducing C2M, a new industrial internet e-commerce business model. Major industrial belts have also become the first choice for these companies to develop the C2M model.

On June 27, the Zhongshan Bureau of Industry and Information Technology and Alibaba Tiantian Special Sale jointly hosted the Zhongshan Small Appliances Industry Cluster and Alibaba Tiantian Factory Digital Upgrade Strategy Launch Ceremony, aiming to explore the C2M model in Zhongshan's 100-billion yuan household appliance industry cluster.

Tiantian Special Sale (TSS) is one of Alibaba's three major hundred-billion-yuan level marketing platforms, and the pioneer and leading platform for domestic C2M (customer to manufacturer) ecological services. According to Tang Song, General Manager of TSS, efforts will be made with regards to cooperation with some small household appliance companies with experience in Tmall and Taobao on Alibaba's "cloud platform". This is a bid to apply technology such as Internet of Things and big data to the production and marketing of more small- and medium-sized home appliance enterprises.

Zhongshan Benmai Electric Appliance Co Ltd, located in Nantou Town, is one of the first factories to carry out cooperation with TSS in the C2M model. Shao Zengmin, General Manager of Benmai, has been doing business in Nantou for more than 10 years, and made his fortune by helping the OEM of big brands.

In April 2018, TSS sought C2M cooperation with Benmai, and used the big data marketing in the background to help the company customize their products. They launched their "hot cake" in September, and sold 500,000 products within 4 months.

In order to solve the short supply problem, Benmai digitally synchronized transformation in the production process. Up to 80% of the company's sales presently come from the e-commerce terminal, with the company's annual revenue growth rate soaring to 80%.

The Zhongshan household appliance industry cluster is the second Chinese industrial cluster to join the "C2M production cluster plan" of TSS, and the first in Guangdong. The first four licensed companies in this cooperation are all the leading companies in the small household appliance industry in Zhongshan.

According to Tang Song, the industrial belt should be promoted gradually. The C2M model, involving products, services, infrastructure, etc, covers the digitization of the internal management system of the company, and the datalization of the production process and online sales.

Therefore, TSS will create some samples by giving priority to cooperation with key companies in order to help the factories in the industry belt to raise their awareness on digitalization, and hence transform more companies. In the future, resources such as logistics, finance, talents, and technology will be linked so as to meet companies' needs.