A fabric company grew 30% every year for the last 20 years

I'm Billy Ann, the CEO of Jinotex Company. Jinotex Company is a fabric trading company established back in 2000 that supplies fabric materials to fabric manufacturers all over the globe. It is headquartered in Seoul, Korea, and has another factory branch in Xiaoxing, China. In recent years, it has focused on seasonal collections and fabric production services as well as special promotions to fashion companies and fabric suppliers.

When did you start selling on Alibaba.com?

The company was founded in 2000, and we joined Alibaba.com in 2002. We have used many B2B ecommerce platforms, but most of our return buyers found us on Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com deals with buyers from everywhere, and the number of businesses buying on the platform seems almost immeasurable.

Why did you start selling on Alibaba.com?

As soon as our company was established in 2000, I was promoting it on several B2B sites, and then I found out about Alibaba.com. After struggling to find new buyers on other B2B platforms, I was amazed at how quickly and regularly I was able to connect with serious buyers on Alibaba.com. Our sales increased 50% by the end of the first year we used Alibaba.com, growing from US $2,000,000 in existing exports to US $3,000,000. With impressive results like that, we have continued our membership on Alibaba.com ever since.

What marketing or buyer communication strategies do you use on Alibaba.com?

Due to the nature of the global B2B trade, there are always MOQs to make sure orders are worth the time needed to process and fulfill them. This means that even if you can only get one new buyer per month, the size of the order makes the effort worth it. Therefore, your primary goal is to find more buyers. To do that, you must make your products easy for them to find. As a fabric company, we are continuously trying to get more exposure by offering a wide variety of products. By continuously posting new items year after year, we now have a product selection of about 650 high-quality options.

Another thing we are constantly trying to improve is our response rate. Because there is a time difference when communicating with international buyers, we try to respond to all inquiries right away while the buyers are still really interested. Usually, initial responses are handled by a chatbot tool on the platform, but once we know they are serious, we answer specific questions about products directly through e-mail or instant messaging apps. These efforts are really paying off. When new buyers first connect with us, I know that having a 20-year track record of selling on Alibaba is a strong selling point that sets us apart from the competition. It makes closing the sale a lot easier.

What kinds of results have you seen after using Alibaba.com?

It is not an exaggeration to say that the company has grown dramatically while using Alibaba.com. In the early days after joining, we received an average of about 20 buyer inquiries per month, but we communicate with an average of 60 buyers per month now. That is a three-fold increase over these last few decades. Sales have been affected by COVID-19, but at one point, we saw a 30% growth in sales year-on-year for about five years. By continuing to use the new and diverse functions on Alibaba.com, we expect to see even more progress in the years to come.

What do you think is the greatest part of Alibaba.com?

Alibaba.com has focused on providing valuable data and reliable service, and as a result, it has grown to the point where there really isn’t any competitor for them. I’d say that would have to be the greatest value of Alibaba.com: just about everyone is there.