Chen Dapeng: The Garment Industry Is Speeding Up To "High-End"

In the first three quarters, affected by the complex and severe domestic and foreign situation and multiple factors beyond expectations, the overall growth rate of China's clothing industry showed a slowing down trend, and the pressure on enterprises to make profits was more prominent. At the high-end Innovation Summit of 2022 China Fashion Forum recently held, Chen Dapeng, vice president of China Textile Industry Federation, President of China clothing association and chairman of China clothing forum, said that in the first three quarters, China's clothing industry achieved rapid and stable growth in fixed assets investment, which showed that the industry was speeding up the pace of technological progress, transformation and upgrading, through strengthening the chain and supplementing the chain Optimize the industrial layout and other ways to promote the high-quality development of the industry.

　　 Domestic sales are getting better

On November 21, the four-day 2022 Jiangxi textile and garment week came to an end, during which 22 enterprises signed 5.125 billion yuan orders.

Domestic sales are getting better, which has become an important force in the recovery of the clothing industry. In particular, since June, governments at all levels have effectively coordinated the prevention and control of epidemic situation and economic and social development, and promoted the consumption policy to make remarkable effect. The domestic sales of clothing showed a trend of improvement and recovery, and the decline rate continued to narrow. According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, from January to September, the retail sales of clothing goods of units above the designated size in China totaled 656.21 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.0% and a decrease of 3.0 percentage points compared with the first half of the year.

From January to September, online retail sales of wearing goods increased by 4.7% year-on-year, 2.3 percentage points faster than that in the first half of the year. Gao Shuli, chairman of Gaotian fashion group, introduced that the company is riding the tide of the country, finding the market gap, locking in the high-end business women's wear track, ushering in rapid growth.

Offline clothing business continued to improve. With the continuous expansion of consumption scenarios and increasing consumer demand, physical stores began to warm up. According to the statistics of China's national business information center, from January to September, the retail sales of clothing goods of key large-scale retail enterprises decreased by 9.5% year-on-year, 3.1 percentage points lower than that in the first half of the year. According to the financial report of the third quarter of 2022 released by major clothing brands, offline consumption recovered briefly in July and August, and the operation of some offline stores was limited by the epidemic in September.

From the perspective of clothing category, the sports outdoor clothing maintained a high prosperity, while the medium and high-end and public leisure clothing remained stable. "There are obvious signs of recovery in women's wear." Yuan Qiong, vice president of winner fashion group, said that the recovery of global women's wear consumer market accelerated significantly, leading the rise of global clothing market. Under the influence of "she" power, new fashion, new concept and new technology, women's wear consumption presents a diversified style.

At the same time, the downward pressure on exports has intensified, affecting the whole industry. In the first three quarters, affected by the recovery of international market demand and the rising cost, China's clothing export continued to maintain a good growth on the basis of the high base in 2021, and the export amount reached a new record. However, in August, the growth rate of clothing exports slowed down significantly, and in September, clothing exports turned to negative growth.

　　 Building brand matrix

At the recent 20th anniversary press conference of the brand, Hailan house officially released the brand new value concept - "create a vibrant clothing service for everyone's glory". Zhou lichen, chairman of Hailan group, said that at present, people's pursuit of clothing has changed from seeking public value in the past to satisfying personalized self-expression. In order to achieve brand innovation, Hailan home will carry out zero generation difference interaction with consumers, firmly focus on the strategy of "multi brand, multi category and collectivization", deepen the digital and intelligent supply chain system, and establish a long-term close connection with consumers.

From the perspectives of brand, product, experience and communication, Hailan home is making a new breakthrough. The brand upgrade of Hailan home is a miniature of the upward trend of China's clothing brands. How to take the road of branding, establish brand image and enhance brand value has become the most concerned topic of clothing enterprises.

Brand power can bring new growth has become a consensus in the industry. Sun pan, chief executive officer of designer brand mashama, said that the company began to polish products from the beginning of design, striving to present differentiation and meet everyone's pursuit of a better life.

Brand matrix needs to be built in an all-round way. Chen Xianshu, production director of anzheng Fashion Group Co., Ltd., believes that the lifestyle and consumption attributes of consumers are changing, and it is necessary to expand new categories and seek new growth points on the basis of main brands. Yao Feng, general manager of sanluo brand of Jiangsu Huajia silk Co., Ltd., believes that millennials, their parents and silver haired people are representatives of diversified demands. Brands should not blindly follow market demands, but seek suitable consumer groups.

At the 2022 China clothing forum held earlier, the president of the International Federation of textile manufacturers Sun Ruizhe, President of China Textile Industry Federation, explained the connotation of the brand in depth "The essence of consumption upgrading is to pursue high-quality life. The evolution of modern civilization is bringing profound changes in life style, cultural form, aesthetic ability and other dimensions. It is hoped that garment enterprises can sharpen their courage and insight in the risk challenges, forge ahead in the turbulent clouds, sharpen the brand in a needle and line, and create miracles in the heart and morality."

　　 Promote quality and efficiency improvement

At present, more than 6000 international brands have come to China. In the next three to five years, no less than 2000 high-end niche customized brands, designer brands and luxury brands will enter China through e-commerce platforms. The number of domestic garment enterprises has increased rapidly in the past 10 years. Tianyan survey data show that there are more than 22.585 million garment related enterprises in China. Among them, more than 5 million new registered enterprises will be registered in 2021.

The rapid expansion of the supply side has intensified the competition in China's clothing market. However, China's clothing industry is also ushering in a new round of industrial reform and consumption upgrading. According to a report recently released by McKinsey & company, China's GDP per capita has increased significantly, which has made China the largest consumer market for shoes and clothing. The research shows that the scale of China's shoes and clothing consumption market will reach 427 billion US dollars in 2021.

The party's report proposes that we should adhere to the theme of promoting high-quality development and organically combine the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening the structural reform of the supply side. This provides guidelines for the clothing industry to consolidate the leading position of the dominant industry and deeply integrate into the new pattern of dual cycle development.

"The next development direction of the clothing industry is" a new journey of fashion, towards high-end and top-notch. " Chen Dapeng said. What is the "high-end" of clothing industry? "High" represents the R & D intensity of enterprises, "fine" refers to the original innovation with independent intellectual property rights, and "sharp" refers to the international technology frontier that can lead the development direction of the industry.

More and more clothing enterprises are relying on innovation to improve quality and efficiency, and achieve growth against the trend. Dai Jianguo, executive assistant and digital operation director of bosden International Holding Co., Ltd., said that the company put the construction of garment intelligent manufacturing industrial Internet platform in the first place. At present, the degree of factory automation has been improved to about 32%, and the accuracy rate of intelligent equipment and intelligent robot warehousing and stacking is as high as 99.9%. According to Pei Yuxiong, general manager of Maoren group brand center, the company's sales data growth relies on the integration of high-quality supply chain of the whole industry and strong control of product quality.

"In the new development period of the clothing industry, we should take the realization of fashion power as the goal, climb the highest peak of the world fashion industry. Enterprises should be professional, refined, special and new, and build a world-class enterprise." Chen Dapeng said that the industry should build the internal ability and external strength to realize "high-end, top-notch", truly internalize "science and technology, fashion and green" into enterprise operation and management, and deeply root lean management, collaborative innovation and craftsmanship spirit into the enterprise development concept.

(source: Economic Daily)