Accompanying the journey of China’s reform and opening up, the plush toy industry in Rongcheng has spanned over 30 years, evolving into the largest plush toy industrial belt in Northern China. The rise of the e-commerce industry has propelled Rongcheng’s production and sales volume to account for 80% of the domestic market, a figure that continues to grow annually.
On the occasion of the second anniversary of the establishment of the Xiong’an New Area, reporters visited the largest plush toy market in Northern China—the Xiong’an Northern Plush Toy City.
Shi Pengfei, 43, a native of Pingwang Village in Rongcheng County, ran a small snack shop for many years before entering the plush toy e-commerce business. In 2015, a chance encounter with the industry led him to open an online store. Today, his shop sells an average of 300 plush toys per day. Combined with orders from long-term clients, his annual sales exceed 2 million RMB, with a profit of over 100,000 RMB, allowing him to lead a very comfortable life.
“During university, I studied Taobao on my own. I opened an online shop back then, and I would be incredibly happy whenever I made an occasional sale,” said Zhang Longyue, another online distributor in the toy city. After graduating, he started his own e-commerce business selling plush toys. Within just three months of opening, he earned his “first bucket of gold.”
“To date, we have developed over a thousand e-commerce entities, with an average daily shipment volume exceeding 100,000 orders,” Zhang Qingli, President of the Rongcheng Plush Toy Association, told reporters. With the rise of e-commerce, practitioners in Rongcheng are no longer confined to traditional sales channels and have begun utilizing the internet to open up larger markets. Against the backdrop of “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” and “Internet+,” Rongcheng’s plush toy e-commerce has blossomed everywhere.
It is understood that Rongcheng County possesses more than 2,800 plush toy production enterprises and processing households, providing employment for nearly 20,000 people locally. Currently, most of the production and processing links have been transferred outside of Rongcheng to surrounding areas of the Xiong’an New Area, such as Tang County, Fuping, and Quyang, as well as to Xingtai, Hengshui, and Handan, driving employment for over 70,000 additional people.
The internet presents a major opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. However, successful cases of such transformations are few and far between. Why has the Rongcheng plush toy industry stood out? President Zhang Qingli revealed the secret.
“Since 2012, based on the characteristics of Rongcheng’s industry, we began providing services such as free e-commerce training, rent exemptions, and startup capital support. We offer these services to processing enterprises and local young entrepreneurs who lack e-commerce operational capabilities,” Zhang Qingli said. By establishing the Rongcheng branch of Taobao University, university student entrepreneurship training bases, the Rongcheng County Rural E-commerce Service Center, and authorized product supply halls, the association provides training rooms, practice areas, and incubation zones. This has influenced plush toy enterprises and rural youth, cultivating a vast number of online stores and e-commerce businesses. In recent years, with government support and the internal drive of enterprises, the integration of markets and e-commerce has been vigorously promoted, developing an e-commerce operation system with unique Rongcheng characteristics.
To effectively solve the problem of “selling products out,” Zhang Qingli explained that 16 courier companies and three network operators have moved in to provide specialized services. In the 2018 list of “Taobao Villages” released by the Alibaba Research Institute, Rongcheng County had already formed five Taobao Villages. “Internet+” has not only given wings to the plush toy industry to soar but has also solved employment issues for the rural youth.
The establishment of the Xiong’an New Area is a new opportunity bestowed by the times upon traditional industries. Regarding the future of the plush toy industry, Zhang Qingli has his own reflections. For Rongcheng’s plush toy industry to follow a sustainable development path, it requires a comprehensive transformation and upgrade. This involves not only expanding local employment in Xiong’an but also integrating into a high-starting-point creative industry cluster to create a brand-new industrial and value chain.
“We will increase our research and development efforts and integrate creative design concepts into the entire process of the industry’s transformation and upgrading. We will lead development through creativity and push the entire industry to a higher level through high-quality design. Next, we will actively develop more characteristic products featuring ‘Xiong’an elements,’ imbuing plush toys with rich cultural connotations while enhancing the popularity and influence of Xiong’an plush toys,” Zhang Qingli stated.
The future of Xiong’an will aim to build an industrial ecosystem led by “smart plush toys.” By establishing product R&D centers, e-commerce academies, “fairytale worlds,” parent-child experience zones, leisure and entertainment facilities, film and television bases, and a world toy culture museum, the area will create a “Smart Toy Town” that integrates living, production, and ecological functions.