This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on December 6, 2023.
By Yinting Hou; edited by Liu Jingfeng.
China's cross-border ecommerce sector was accelerating in 2023. According to data cited from 100ec.cn, China's domestic cross-border ecommerce market reached RMB 8.2 trillion in the first half of 2023, up 15.49% year on year, compared with 2.1% growth in overall foreign-trade imports and exports over the same period.
Amazon Business has become one of the channels through which Chinese sellers move from factory export models toward direct international brand-building. Amazon Global Selling China launched its "industrial belt" support plan on August 8, 2023, and the article cited a forecast that 80% of global B2B transactions would move online by 2025.
This case focuses on HARDURA, a Zhejiang-based commercial kitchen equipment manufacturer that grew from an OEM export factory into a major North American supplier, then began selling its own brand through Amazon Business.
In 2003, a U.S. kitchen-equipment importer wanted to source sink work tables from China. HARDURA founder He Shanzhu took the order and spent more than a year looking across Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu for suitable suppliers.
Many factories made sink work tables, but Chinese and U.S. requirements differed sharply. Materials, formats, specifications, quality expectations, and safety standards did not line up.
He later decided to build a factory dedicated to commercial kitchen equipment for the North American market. In 2005, he set up the first production base near Ningbo Lishe Airport with a few old machines and a dozen employees.
The technical differences were material:
HARDURA spent about a year learning product specifications, material requirements, polishing standards, and certification expectations from customers and outside advisors. It eventually achieved standardized production and NSF certification.
From an initial order of more than ten containers, HARDURA gradually opened the North American market. In 2005, it could produce one container per month; by 2015, it could ship 50 containers per month.
The article frames commercial kitchen equipment as a category supported by foodservice, hotels, restaurants, institutions, and the expansion of delivery-based dining models.
It cited Statista research forecasting the global foodservice market to grow to USD 4.43 trillion by 2028. It also cited Mordor Intelligence data estimating the commercial kitchen appliances market would grow from USD 80.76 billion in 2023 to USD 115.47 billion in 2028, at a 7.41% CAGR during 2023-2028.
China is one of the major production bases for commercial kitchen equipment. The article describes three main Chinese industrial clusters: East China centered on Zhejiang, South China centered on Guangdong, and North China centered on Shandong.
HARDURA's first decade followed a traditional OEM export model: produce against customer orders and drawings, then expand capacity to meet demand.
The process was not smooth. He recalled periods when product quality failed to meet expectations, customers stopped ordering for months, production paused, or containers were rejected and returned, creating financial losses.
The company also faced limitations in equipment, worker experience, and manufacturing technique. For sink work tables, for example, achieving a flat, scratch-free surface required multiple processes and better production equipment.
Around 2015, after capacity had reached a more stable level, HARDURA began building an internal R&D team, R&D lab, testing lab, and product-testing capabilities. It moved from basic stainless-steel and sheet-metal products into more complex cooking equipment such as gas fryers, steam tables, ranges, and other products involving electricity or gas.
He said the R&D team had grown to several dozen people and covered multiple product lines. HARDURA's gas fryer and steam table series had been selling in North America for several years and were described as stable in quality and competitive in value.
The company still saw after-sales service and safety-sensitive products as areas requiring continued investment. For gas and electric cooking equipment, buyers are more cautious, and local North American manufacturers remain strong.
HARDURA argued that its advantage came from lower production costs while maintaining comparable quality, including the use of internationally known components. The article says production costs could be 30%-40% lower under comparable quality conditions.
By the time of publication, HARDURA was described as a leading North American commercial kitchen supplier working with nearly 60 brand customers. The company had four subsidiaries, overseas branches, and nearly 1,500 employees.
Under the traditional OEM model, HARDURA's products sat behind importers and brand owners. He said the company could make high-quality, cost-effective products, but the market and end customers did not know the manufacturer.
HARDURA had previously sold under its own brand only passively, when some North American customers lacked a brand and wanted to use HARDURA's. That did not create a sustained brand strategy.
The company wanted to promote its own brand, but lacked direct experience in channels, marketing, sales, warehousing, and after-sales service. Cross-border ecommerce, especially Amazon, became the opening it was waiting for.
HARDURA formed a cross-border ecommerce team at the end of 2022. Its Amazon store went live at the end of May 2023, with support from Amazon's team. Because commercial kitchen equipment has a B2B nature, the store targeted Amazon Business customers.
In October 2023, HARDURA's Amazon store reached USD 60,000 in sales, up 153% month on month from September. From early June to early November 2023, sales rose 900%, according to HARDURA cross-border ecommerce lead Wang Yazhen.
Moving from OEM export to ecommerce required changes in both production and sales logic.
Product selection became a new discipline. HARDURA had to choose ecommerce-suitable items from thousands of SKUs, with different requirements for style, model, dimensions, and packaging. Packaging needed to be strong and dimensionally efficient, because small changes could materially affect logistics cost.
The production model also shifted from container-scale orders to smaller, faster batches. In the traditional OEM model, production usually started at one container, and the fastest order-to-shipment cycle was about one and a half months; slower cycles took three months.
For ecommerce, HARDURA learned to replenish according to sales performance, producing 100-200 units at a time and shortening the production cycle to about three weeks.
The Amazon store initially selected more than 30 SKUs using digital product-selection tools and Amazon's recommendations. Products included hand sinks, work tables, bun pan racks, wall shelves, equipment stands, over shelves, and commercial sinks.
The team also optimized product listings, including scenario images and short videos using foreign models. Wang said many stores in the category still had basic listings because sellers were transitioning from traditional foreign-trade manufacturing.
The article positions Amazon Business as a DTB, or Direct To Buyer, model for B2B export. Instead of selling only to importers, wholesalers, or distributors, sellers can transact directly with end-purchasing businesses.
Wang said restaurants, workshops, studios, and other business customers would buy three to five units at a time for their own operations. One business customer bought every style in HARDURA's store to equip a full setup; another bought a work table for 3D-printing equipment and posted a positive review with photos.
HARDURA uploaded business credentials such as NSF certification and used Amazon Business tiered discounts, including thresholds such as five, eight, and 15 units.
At publication, business buyers accounted for 25% of HARDURA's Amazon store customers. HARDURA was also developing bundled product sets for restaurant and enterprise scenarios.
He described commercial kitchen equipment for North America as a relatively narrow Chinese export category. Only several dozen domestic factories may serve the North American market, and even fewer operate their own brands.
He said Guangdong entered commercial kitchen equipment earlier, mainly serving China's domestic market; Binzhou in Shandong had lower-cost traditional processing for domestic hotel kitchens; and Zhejiang-Shanghai had more mid-to-high-end factories emphasizing quality and service. Overall, fewer Chinese factories focus on European and American markets because production barriers are higher and competition is intense.
For HARDURA, the next goal was to make the brand more established in North America, improve recognition and reputation, and express the brand's value through products. He also said that, based on Amazon's recommendation, the company planned to build another higher-end brand and operate a dual-brand strategy for different product forms and a larger market share.
He described factory overseas expansion as a trend because traditional foreign trade had reached a bottleneck in market access and return on investment. For HARDURA, Amazon Business offered a way for end business customers to recognize Chinese manufacturers and brands directly.
Note: Market forecasts, 2025 online B2B expectations, future brand plans, and ecommerce sales figures are historical statements from the December 6, 2023 source article.