China’s Yiwu merchants leverage AI innovations including DeepSeek to help reshape e-commerce

In Yiwu city, the heart of China's small commodities trading hub, located in coastal Zhejiang Province, merchants are now at the forefront of an AI-driven business model innovation that is powered by DeepSeek.

Sun Lijuan, head of Yiwu Hongsheng Toy Co, is among the first batch of merchants to use the AI platform installed at the trading hub.

Since the Yiwu market adopted DeepSeek's latest AI model earlier this year, Sun's business has flourished, thanks to AI-generated multilingual videos that serve as a powerful marketing tool.

Sun shared with the Global Times three video clips generated by AI technology, in English, Spanish, and Arabic versions, respectively. According to Sun, the AI-generated videos not only assist her in content creation but are also available in different languages. Moreover, the efficiency of AI allows her to update her videos on a daily basis.

"The effect of AI-generated videos is remarkable. Many people leave messages on my Douyin account inquiring about the products. What impressed me most was that at the start of the year, a customer from Iraq, attracted by my social media videos, placed an order worth nearly 500,000 yuan ($68,645)," Sun told the Global Times on Sunday.

Fu Jiangyan, a 20-year veteran engaging in the sock business, has also leveraged the latest AI technology to grow her business.

For the past 7 years, Fu has consistently made videos to promote her socks to businessmen worldwide. In addition to domestic sales, she has received customers from the Middle East, South America, and South Africa.

Fu told the Global Times that, in the past, promoting products on international social media platforms was a time-consuming and energy-intensive task for her. There were language barriers and other difficulties in content creation. However, with the continuous progress of AI technology, she has observed that the latest AI inference models are becoming significantly smarter and more sophisticated.

Now, by simply speaking a few words or typing the keywords, Fu can create high-quality product videos in 36 languages in minutes. The videos, accompanied by market-specific music, have gained significant traction on TikTok. One of her videos garnered over 54,000 views, leading foreign customers to believe she "is multilingual."

The experiences of Sun Lijuan and Fu Jiangyan epitomize an ongoing marketing trend, as Yiwu merchants embrace AI-generated solutions. The rapid rise of DeepSeek in China is fuelling broader AI adoption and driving local economic growth in Zhejiang and other provinces in the country.

China's foreign trade sector is being reshaped, powered by AI innovations. Small commodities trade represented by Yiwu, through the application of AI in product promotion and customer communication, has broken through language and cultural barriers, significantly ramping up trade efficiency and business competitiveness.

In Yiwu, approximately 30,000 merchants now use AI tools daily, with local AI apps developed by the market seeing over 1 billion cumulative uses, according to data released by Zhejiang China Commodities City Group on February 21.

Yiwu merchants' speedy adoption of AI technology is largely due to local support. Chen Chaojun, the product manager at the Yiwu market AI product line, told the Global Times that, since October 2023, the Yiwu International Trade Market has introduced varied AI innovation service platforms and rolled out a barrage of AI applications.

At the beginning of this year, Yiwu International Trade Market decided to integrate DeepSeek models into its own AI service platform, offering merchants a powerful tool for video creation.

"We aim to empower all merchants by leveraging AI technology, creating more convenient products, and helping them effectively adapt to AI solutions. Our vision is to transition the entire market from traditional e-commerce to an AI-driven e-commerce model," said Chen.

Yiwu also provides free one-on-one guidance for merchants and regularly hosts AI-related training sessions. "In these courses, we provide detailed insights on how to leverage AI technology and the specific advantages it can bring to doing businesses. For example, some courses focus on how to utilize the latest DeepSeek models to optimize business operation," Chen explained.