From 'Selling Products' to 'Linking the Globe': Yiwu's Digital Market Rides AI as Second-Generation Merchants Hit 52%

Yiwu's Global Digital Trade Center is buzzing with young faces - second-generation and new-generation operators make up 52% of merchants and 68% run their own brands or IP products, CCTV reported on November 2. Relying on the Chinagoods platform and the "World Yiwu" commerce large model, artificial intelligence is entering product selection, marketing and supply-demand matching, turning the traditional face-to-face business into an online-offline coordinated global trade. In the first three quarters the city's GDP rose 7.9%, with high-tech manufacturing up 57.4%. The cross-border e-commerce association, founded in 2023, now has over 360 member units with annual sales above 100 billion yuan, while the Yiwu International Land Port e-commerce city clusters more than 900 upstream and downstream firms. Logistics firm Tengxin has deployed 12 domestic consolidation warehouses, with 2026 volume up over 30%. The shift is rewriting the traditional small-commodity playbook from selling products to building brands, design and culture.

Source: CCTV.com / Sohu, Nov 2, 2026 | 2026-11-02