Luggage provider learns from experience

Since 2011, luggage provider Newcomer Group has been a regular to the Canton Fair, with its exhibition pavilion showing up in a noticeable position.

The company's products on display attract visitors' attention for their technological features, such as a trolley suitcase with an intelligent weighing function and a luggage capable of doubling as a USB charger.

At the Newcomer's exhibition pavilion, the company's advertising slogan says "Smart travel enables a better life." That slogan came from general manager Zhao Shengmei.

Zhao is grateful to the fair, the platform that launched her foreign trade career and ushered in Newcomer's overseas journey. "Without the Canton Fair, my career and Newcomer Group's history would be totally different," she said.

Zhao's first visit to the fair took place in 1998 when Newcomer was a small plant with scores of workers. A green hand in foreign trade, she even forgot to prepare a price quotation sheet. She still managed to secure an order, though it came as a complete surprise.

Without knowledge of how to market her products on her first trip, she had given up expecting an order at the fair. Then she found an elderly foreigner who looked exhausted as he walked with the assistance of a cane. Out of sympathy, she moved a chair for him and asked him to take a rest.

When his assistant came up, the foreign businessman told them to place an order with her for two containers of denim-covered suitcases.

Zhao said that even now she still has no idea of what prompted his decision to place the order, but she learned that business opportunities can always be found at the Canton Fair.

Since then, she participated in every session of the fair. The fair has put her company on a fast track and helped it to grow. In addition to market changes from businesspeople from around the world, Zhao said she also learned about users' needs at the fair.

As the fair's only senior partner in the luggage industry, Newcomer has exported its products to more than 30 countries and regions, including the US, Europe, Japan and Russia.