Yiwu's Global Digital Trade Center, with more than 5,200 booths across emerging categories, is seeing a generational shift among its merchants: second-generation and next-generation operators now make up 52% of the total, while merchants running their own brands or IP products account for 68%.
Artificial intelligence is being woven into the trade chain. Powered by the Chinagoods platform and the "World Yiwu" commerce large model, AI is entering product design, marketing and supply-demand matching, turning the traditional face-to-face business into an online-offline global operation.
The shift goes beyond selling products: merchants are moving toward building brands, design and culture. At the Minghong creative-industry park in Suxi town, the cultural-products sector is being pushed toward high-end, digital and international development, while firms such as Keji Culture are strengthening original design, self-owned IP and Chinese-style elements to carry more locally made cultural products overseas.
The evolution is redefining the value of "small commodities," as younger, more brand-savvy operators and a full cross-border service ecosystem let even micro-enterprises participate in global trade at lower cost.
Source: China News Report (compiled from Yiwu Release, CCTV, Wen Wei Po).
