On a Monday morning, Li Hangyan hurried through the doors of her shop, just as she does every day. Lately, however, the pace of work has picked up as a growing stream of customers arrives with questions about orders ahead of the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

In Yiwu, a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province about 300km (186 miles) from Shanghai and home to the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities, foreign buyers from across the globe are once again gathering to source goods.

At Li’s shop in the Yiwu International Trade Market – the world’s largest wholesale complex for small goods – shelves spill over with World Cup merchandise, from officially licensed souvenirs to rows of brightly coloured kits.

Among them, keychains of goats dressed in Argentina jerseys catch the eye – a playful nod to global football superstar Lionel Messi and the GOAT acronym, meaning “greatest of all time” – as do pillows with Messi’s image.

Li first turned her attention to World Cup merchandise after seeing the profits generated during the 2018 tournament in Russia and began exporting related products during the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

“In fact, a lot of us here started preparing and taking orders for the 2026 World Cup as early as the middle of last year,” she said. “From what I’ve seen, sales are pretty strong – definitely higher than the last tournament.”

She added that tariffs and geopolitical tensions have had little impact so far, partly due to relatively favourable tariff policies for sports goods exports.