Customer-to-manufactory business model set for rapid growth

China's customer-to-manufactory (C2M) model is this year expected to grow rapidly, bringing new growth points for the retail and manufacturing industries, market insiders said.

Zhao Ping, director of the international trade research department of the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (ACCPIT), said:

"The C2M model enables retail enterprises to take advantage of consumer data and pass consumers' precise demands to upstream manufacturing enterprises, so that they can produce products that better satisfy market demands.

"In this way, the C2M model offers new opportunities for retail enterprises to develop their own brands, and points toward a model of innovation for the whole industry."

Jiang Zengwei, former head of ACCPIT, agreed: "In the past, retail enterprises kept the traditional manufacturer-based business mode, and rarely had proprietary products.

"In order to increase the competitiveness of retail enterprises, we have been encouraging them to develop their own brands."

ACCPIT said the C2M model addresses industry pain points and promotes the development and transformation of industry. It helps enterprises better identify market demands in order to realize product innovation and industry transformation.

Many e-commerce enterprises are now adopting C2M practices.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has partnered with many manufacturers in various fields, such as computers, mobile phones, home appliances, fast-moving consumer goods and living services, to pass consumers' needs to manufacturers to develop these goods.

According to ACCPIT, the C2M model promotes the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.

"The traditional manufacturing industry contains numerous links along the supply chain, and usually takes more than 18 months to develop a new product. The C2M model passes consumer data to upstream manufacturers at the very first instance, and each link can function synchronically.

"Therefore products are developed in a much shorter time, and the efficiency of the manufacturing industry is increased," Zhao said.

Promising as the future is, Zhao said that enterprises should follow the C2M innovation direction and pay attention to consumer privacy protection, while government should offer policy support to create a better business climate.