Company defies export slump

While most of his fellow exporters in China are suffering from the steep drop in overseas demand as a result of the global economic downturn, Alan Guo said that his nimble company's business is thriving.

"Our sales tripled in the first half of this year and the company is growing fast," Guo said, referring to the company he co-founded - LightInTheBox.com.

LightInTheBox, based in Beijing, is an online trading company that sells consumer products made in China to overseas buyers.

The sales volume in the first half "already has exceeded the revenue the company chalked up last year", Guo said.

Although he did not disclose specific numbers, outsiders believe that company sales already have crossed the 100 million yuan mark.

While still an unfamiliar name to many online shoppers, LightInTheBox draws its experience from a host of big-name multinationals such as Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer.

Like Amazon, where Guo once worked, LightInTheBox offers universally popular products.

Unlike Amazon, LightInTheBox sources its merchandise directly from a wide network of Chinese manufacturers, which enables it to cut out the middleman and drive down costs to provide lower prices to customers.

Guo, a Stanford-educated MBA, co-founded LightInTheBox in 2007 with three partners.

The robust sales growth that LightInTheBox registered in the first half of this year is in stark contrast to the performance of China's foreign trade sector during the same period, when volume slumped 23.5 percent from a year earlier to $946.1 billion yuan.

Exports, which enjoyed double-digit growth in the past several years, dropped 21.8 percent from a year earlier to $521.5 billion, according to China Customs figures.

The economic downturn, Guo said, is not necessarily a brake on business growth and can even boost companies like his.

During an economic slowdown, people "are usually trading down or trying to find good bargains online to save money", Guo said.

LightInTheBox has hundreds of thousands of products available through its online shops.

The products it offers range from tailor-made evening dresses to hi-tech gadgets. The products are made in China and target foreign wholesalers, retailers and individual shoppers.

Guo, founder and a former chief strategist of Google China, said the key to his success is "a team of talents drawn from a wide range of industrial and cultural backgrounds."

The company, whose headcount more than doubled in the past year, has foreign staff members who help identify the latest trends in gadgets and apparel.

This allows the company to respond accurately and rapidly to changing customer tastes in other countries.

"We also have industry veterans in sourcing and supply chain and logistics management, which help us guarantee our products' quality while keeping prices competitive," Guo said.

The company reports that it only takes two to five days to ship goods from China to major destinations in North America, Europe and Australia.

Guo said the targeted marketing function that the Internet is able to provide through tools, such as Google's search-linked advertising feature, makes it possible for a start-up company like LightInTheBox to compete with established E-commerce giants to reach billions of potential customers.

(China Daily 08/31/2009 page6)