International Trade Companies' Supply Chain Management Based Customer-Oriented Operation Mode

The Environment for international trade companies changed a lot after China's entry to the WTO. This article analyzes the competitive environment and its changes for Chinese international trade companies, then brings forward the supply chain management based customer-oriented operation mode for Chinese international trade companies, which is to focus on the demand of downstream customers, select, organize and coordinate products and services providers to fulfill the customers' demand according to the arrangement of the international trade company involved. Li & Fung is a Hong Kong Based international trade company with more than 100 years' history. This article takes Li & Fung as a case to analyze the processes of its operation mode transformation and brings forward some valuable experiences for Chinese international trade companies to transform from trade brokers to supply chain organizers and coordinators and complete the transformation to the supply chain management based customers-oriented operation mode. In the end, this article brings forward some strategies for Chinese international trade companies to fulfill the operation mode transformation.