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the first e-commerce expert in xiqianbo village, suning county, cangzhou city

chen lei: i sold my fishing rods overseas

“come on, friends, let me give you a treat. look at the fishing rod in my hand…” on september 19, as night fell, in front of the live broadcast mobile phone, the villagers of xiqianbo village in suning county, cangzhou city, china's "taobao village" "transformed" into anchors and showed their fishing rods in front of the camera.

"short videos have become popular in the past two years, and every household has started live streaming. sometimes a live broadcast can earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan." 60-year-old chen lei watched his own anchor shouting on his mobile phone. in less than 10 minutes, he sold hundreds of fishing rods.

in everyone's eyes, chen lei, who loves to "make trouble", has advanced ideas. in 2012, he was the first person in the village to open an online store, and now he leads everyone to sell goods through live broadcasts.

on september 19, chen lei was tidying up the shelves. photo by yu zaiyang, a reporter from zonglan news

"i loved to tinker around when i was young," said chen lei. in the 1980s, when the spring breeze of reform and opening up came, he decided to venture out into the world after graduating from high school. "i've done everything from selling fruit to selling garlic to doing wholesale. later, i saw that e-commerce was profitable, so i switched to e-commerce."

one day in 2012, his son chen rujia talked about the convenience of online shopping: "just move your fingers at home, and daily necessities will be delivered to your home. it's so convenient." chen lei suddenly had an idea: there are several factories in the town that produce fishing rods and fishing gear. the quality is good, but the sales are not very good. can we also sell them online? with a try-it-out mentality, the 48-year-old chen lei, who is completely an outsider, began to think about how to sell goods online. "it was really difficult at the beginning. i didn't know how to upload photos, i didn't understand store packaging, and i couldn't even answer customer service questions... it was a complete mess." chen lei said.

in this way, after more than half a month of stumbling, the business gradually improved. from selling one fishing rod a day to more than ten fishing rods, the turnover in the first month exceeded 50,000 yuan.

"but the villagers didn't believe such a good thing could happen." in 2014, chen lei became the village party secretary. with the responsibility, he began to think about how to make all the villagers rich. but for farmers who are used to going to the big market, selling goods through the invisible network is too unreal. chen lei held village representative meetings and training courses many times, but there were more people listening than doing.

"just at this time, my son told me that he wanted to buy a car, which reminded me. i said directly, buy a mercedes-benz!" chen lei's idea at the time was very simple: he had to let the villagers see that he could make money by running an online store.

after the mercedes-benz was brought back to the village, it really worked! many people came to his house to ask how to sell goods online. teaching one by one was too slow, so chen lei held training classes one after another. a month later, more than 60 households in the village had opened online stores, and more than 130 stores were registered. now, xiqianbo village has become lively.

in 2016, the village's taobao sales exceeded 10 million yuan, making it china's "taobao village." since 2020, the village's sales of fishing rods and fishing gear have exceeded 100 million yuan each year. today, xiqianbo village has more than 70 original fishing rod brands, and tens of thousands of fishing rods are shipped from here to all parts of the world every day.

how has the internet changed a small village? new farmers like chen lei are giving the best answers. (reporters yang jiawei and li chunwei from zonglan news)

digital link

hebei province ranks fifth in the country in terms of the number of taobao villages

nowadays, rural e-commerce has become a strong driving force for promoting the high-quality development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" and rural revitalization. according to data released by the ministry of commerce on july 19, in the first half of the year, "digital commerce to promote agriculture" led to a 21.7% year-on-year increase in online retail sales of agricultural products. in recent years, hebei province has actively promoted e-commerce in rural areas by implementing the "digital commerce to promote agriculture" project, and took the lead in achieving full coverage of rural e-commerce in the country, with a coverage rate of 100% for the three-level logistics distribution system at the county, township and village levels. so far, there are 284 taobao towns and 734 taobao villages in hebei province, ranking third and fifth in the country.

the "14th five-year plan for the development of e-commerce in hebei province" proposes to further implement the "village live broadcast plan" to guide counties (cities, districts) to carry out different forms of online live broadcast activities, strengthen online live broadcast training for specific groups such as returning migrant workers, college students, retired soldiers, and entrepreneurial farmers, and help "mobile phones become new agricultural tools" and "live broadcasting become a new agricultural activity." (compiled by zhao shaofu, an intern reporter of zonglan news)