Chinese man's English skills boost cross-border online sales

Workers produce lightboxes at the factory of Guangzhou LC Sign Co., Ltd. located in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. (Photo/Tan Zhafeng)

Zhu Yu, a young employee of an export company in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, has become a sensation online thanks to his capability to mimic different accents when speaking English, which has boosted cross-border online sales of the company's products.

Zhu, 25, has garnered 1.4 million followers on overseas social media platforms. This has helped his employer, Guangzhou LC Sign Co., Ltd., bring in many overseas orders.

The company mainly produces and sells LED light boards and lightboxes. "We found that the cost of customer acquisition for traditional e-commerce gradually increased," said Liu Ping, the company's foreign trade manager. In 2021, Liu decided to establish a social media team, with Zhu becoming a member of the team thanks to his fluent spoken English.

In the first six months, the videos the company posted barely made an impact, like small stones dropped into the ocean. The new media team then traveled to places like Shenzhen and Guangzhou to attend training courses on cross-border e-commerce and short-video marketing.

Zhu Yu (L) is featured in an English short video at the factory of Guangzhou LC Sign Co., Ltd. located in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. (Photo/Tan Zhafeng)

Learning and improving as they went, Zhu began appearing in videos to promote products. "To make a viral video, it can't be too plain and rigid; it needs to be funny, engaging, and have a bit of a buzz," Zhu said. "I often watched language programs when learning English, and one day it occurred to me—why not try imitating various accents during filming?"

He acted on the idea, and soon Zhu Yu became a sensation on overseas short-video platforms. What surprised international viewers was not only that this Chinese young man could speak fluent English, but also that he could smoothly switch between accents from the U.S., UK, France, India, and other countries, which they found amusing.

Zhu's strategy paid off. One success story involves a Kazakhstan client who, after watching Zhu's videos of promoting lightboxes, ordered a sample LED lightbox in September 2023. Impressed by its attractive design and high cost performance, the client placed an order worth $48,000, and continues to be a regular customer this year, Liu said.

The company's new media division where Zhu works generated $819,000 in cross-border e-commerce sales last year, and has already raked in $1.87 million since the beginning of this year.

"Our production lines are running at full capacity, with standard products shipping within two days of order placement," Liu said.