Last week, Toolots had the pleasure of hosting representatives from the Ningbo Municipal Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs at our headquarters to discuss the present position of Toolots and CEO Jason Fu's vision for the future.
While engaging in lively discourse with these representatives, Jason spoke about how Toolots is helping small and mid-size Chinese manufacturers break into international trade. Jason created a groundbreaking model to help manufacturers sell overseas while keeping costs low for consumers with the Toolots e-commerce platform. Other e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba have tried to tap into overseas industrial equipment, but have only had success with consumer goods. Industrial equipment is highly technical, and because of the language barrier, manufacturers can't effectively communicate equipment specifications or set up a business presence in the US, making it challenging to sell on other e-commerce platforms and increasingly difficult to break into the US market. Because of this, people all over China are talking about the great things Toolots is doing for Chinese manufacturers.
Our guests from the Ningbo Municipal Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs were excited to hear that Toolots is working with manufacturers in their region to improve product quality and demand for their products. Ningbo is a harbor city in the Zhejiang province located at the fifth largest port in the world, the Ningbo-Zhoushan port. In 2013, Ningbo's exports totaled $65.7 billion, ranking second in economic performance in the Zhejiang province. Some of Ningbo's key exports to the US include metals, papers, plastics and agricultural products. Ningbo hits home for Jason because he was born and raised in this city. He has great rapport with the business owners in the area, and because of this, most of Toolots' Chinese vendors are from his hometown.
Jason also discussed several goals he has for Toolots with the Ningbo Municipal Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs representatives.
"Our goal for this year is to onboard 300 merchants from China by October," said Jason. "We are also in the process of seeking series A funding."
Because Toolots is growing so rapidly, we have encountered challenges in product specifications and shipment. We are currently working with vendors to alleviate these problems and ensure that their products meet US standards.
"We all learn from our mistakes," Jason said. "Each mistake is a learning experience, and we will continue to grow this way."
