Hello ,
The Next Big Thing
Greetings from Yiwu, China.
Last week I was telling you about Spiders & VIP's you can read it here.
This week I'm in China visiting old suppliers, checking what's new and looking for the NBT.. the Next Big Thing..
There has to be an NBT.. but what is it? It's always hard to spot, especially if you want to be in early, by the time you spot a band-wagon (the saying goes) it's up and gone without you.
Some NBT come from no-where are a mad craze and burn-out as quickly as they came, fidget spinners for example. Others creep up on you, things that have been around for years and suddenly come in vogue, and you go wow!.. where that come from.. Salt Lamps for example, which are still going strong. Some kind of evolve into a thing and take off big style.. Soap Flowers.. we sold the small packs for years - then some Japanese designer took them up market and posh.. the rest is history. We still can't get enough stock.
I think back over the years to old NBT's (we have been trading wholesale for coming up 22 years) I remember Crystal Blocks were huge, then Angel or Fairies laser etched into crystal balls, circa 2003. I put my back out unloading a container load.
Then there was towel gifts, (we still sell a few popular models) they ran and ran for a few years 2012 ish.. cotton towels folded to look like cute dogs, or sandwiches or stuff..
Then there is the perennial NBT.. the one that comes and just gets bigger and bigger.. Bath Bombs of course.. but within that product group, we have to keep reinventing things a bit.
So there I am wondering about Yiwu's massive trading market. 80.000 plus showrooms, somewhere here must be the NBT.. if it jumped up and bit me would I know?
Well you can see which showrooms have a buzz, where the action is.. this can give you a clue I think.. anything house plant related seems to be a thing. I seen lots of glass bowls (test tube style often) in frames, stands, clocks - you name it. Of course cactus mania is part of this.. We have the Molten Glass Bowls on wood from Indonesia already that fit this trend, looking to be a big thing.. in China - it's all a bit confusing.
So please let me know if you have an inside track on the NBT.. if you do and we go for it - you will be generously rewarded with deep discounts, brownie points and heaps of karma enough to take you to nirvana and back :)
So... just do it! Click reply and tell me what your vision of the NBT is..
Today, we made a trip to a newish section of the market they have built on the outskirts of the city.. it's called. "The International Market for the Means of Production" - I call it :The Machine Market. Like everything in Yiwu, it's huge, several large sections on five levels. There is a vast area that just sells sewing machines of every possible kind. Another sells catering equipment and everything a hotel might need. So if you plan to open a hotel, there a one stop place for anything you will need. Then there is the packaging market, the printers market, machines the size of your hand for foil printing tiny bottles, to plant equipment the size of your house, for bottling cans of pop.
Because we make soaps and bath bombs, and do lots of packaging - we can find the means of production here at a fraction of the cost of in Europe.. in fact we can find things that don't exist in Europe. But hey that's the beauty of global trade right.
You walk past these massive showrooms with every beast of a machine just sitting there.. erm.. can I ask.. what does this one actually do? Some helpful chap or lady, will pull out a smart phone and show you the said machine in action.. Oh yes.. now I understand..
So it's all go in Yiwu... I'm working hard.
But do let me know your thoughts.
More news next week.
Take care.
David
