In the children's clothing city in Zhili Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the wind direction of the market is changing, and some keen merchants have begun to design Nordic-style children's clothing.
Zhili Town is located in Wuxing District, Huzhou, and has been named for the prosperity of weaving since ancient times. At the end of the 1970s, the local children's clothing industry began to develop, and now it has become a veritable "children's clothing capital of China", with more than 1,4 children's clothing companies alone and an annual output value of more than 700 billion yuan.
▲In the domestic children's clothing market, Zhili is a veritable children's clothing capital.
For a long time, Ori's children's clothing has been dominated by the domestic market, with domestic sales accounting for 90%, and only some foreign trade orders will be sold to South Korea, Japan and other regions, and children's clothing styles are also more inclined to Japanese and Korean styles.
Since the beginning of this year, the pace of Zhili children's clothing going overseas has accelerated significantly, and North America, Europe, the Middle East and other regions have become new markets targeted by many local merchants. On February 2, Huzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce organized 2 Zhili children's clothing, textile and other enterprises to participate in the International Spring Consumer Goods Expo in Birmingham, UK, which fired the first shot of children's clothing to the sea.
On March 3, Pinduoduo's special team for children's clothing category of Duoduoduo's cross-border e-commerce business also came to Zhili, under the guidance of the Huzhou Bureau of Commerce, and discussed the integration plan of children's clothing to the sea with the local children's clothing office, e-commerce association, cross-border e-commerce service platform Xiangyu Group and more than 16 children's clothing enterprises, and promoted a number of children's clothing companies to go up to the cross-border platform, and also opened a new exploration of Zhili children's clothing "one-stop selling the world".
"Now it's the other way around, Koreans are also going to Ori to find explosive models"
Every day at 2 p.m., the children's clothing city in Zhili begins to be noisy, and merchants, fabric merchants, sample merchants, cloth shop owners, sample designers and delivery masters from all over the world will flock to every stall in the market, especially when the peak season comes in August, the average daily flow of people in the entire children's clothing city can reach tens of thousands.
As early as the 1970s, Ori was still a well-known backcountry in the Hangjiahu Plain, and local weavers started their businesses on a "flat dan street" covering an area of only 0.8 square kilometers, mainly sewing bedspreads, pillowcases and other fabrics, and the leftovers from the production of fabrics were processed into children's belly pockets and clothes, thus opening the children's clothing industry in Ori.
By the early 1980s, thousands of small family workshops had been produced and sold in Zhili Town, and the children's clothing industry began to take shape; In 1995, electric sewing machines replaced foot sewing machines; In 2000, the machine assembly line began to enter the factory, which also attracted more upstream and downstream industries to gather here, and gradually formed an industrial ecosystem.
▲In the Zhili children's clothing market, many young people recommend children's clothing styles for dealers around the world through mobile phone videos.
In 2011, when e-commerce was rising, the industrial chain advantages of Zhili Town also attracted e-commerce entrepreneurs from all over the country, and the annual sales of e-commerce increased geometrically. Up to now, there are more than 8000,300 active e-commerce enterprises in Zhili Town, and the annual sales of children's clothing e-commerce are close to <> billion yuan.
Up to now, "out of every 3 pieces of children's clothing in the country, 2 pieces come from Zhili", Zhili has not only been upgraded to the commercial, research and development and brand center of China's children's clothing, but also has emerged more than 30 children's clothing brands such as Tisana, Huatian Cai, boys and girls.
"When I first entered the industry ten years ago, everyone went to Korea to buy versions, and on a flight from Shanghai to Seoul, sometimes more than half of the passengers were colleagues who went to Korea to buy versions, which was very embarrassing." According to the recollection of the owner of a children's clothing brand, since 2018, the situation has been reversed, and the boss of South Korea has begun to come to Ori to find explosive models, and Ori's current version buying market, at most, more than 5000,<> people come to buy plates every day.
In the past year, due to the repeated impact of the epidemic, the sales of Ori children's clothing in China have been affected to a certain extent. "The whole franchise system is under pressure, we had eight franchised stores in a first-tier city, and closed six last year." A children's clothing owner said.
In addition, due to express delivery delays, logistics obstructions and other reasons, children's clothing e-commerce has also experienced a short-term decline. The local village of Dahe is one of the five major e-commerce villages in Ori, a small village of only 3000,1500 local villagers and at its peak with <>,<> e-commerce merchants.
"The previous Dahe e-commerce village was crowded, taxis could not enter at all, and only two-wheeled electric vehicles could be used to deliver goods." According to a taxi driver, last year's e-commerce village was a little deserted compared to the previous bustle, and the rent of some stores fell by half.
Since the beginning of this year, Zhili children's clothing has begun to rebound comprehensively in the domestic market. At the same time, under the guidance of the package of measures of the local government, many children's clothing merchants have also begun to turn their eyes overseas to seek the next growth curve for Ori children's clothing.
Launched the "reverse customization" model to help the transformation and upgrading of children's clothing factories
After returning from Birmingham, England, Ori's children's clothing merchants also began to go out spontaneously, and successively organized groups to participate in exhibitions in Vietnam, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and other regions, and some leading brand merchants also began to test the waters of foreign markets and design and develop Nordic models that are more in line with overseas consumers.
"Never touched the overseas market, what is the difference between size, style and standard? How to solve logistics and warehousing? How should cross-border e-commerce operate? A person in charge of a children's clothing factory said that many small and medium-sized businesses and manufacturing factories have no bottom in their hearts and are still on the sidelines.
"Overseas markets will definitely have to do it, but I haven't figured out how to do it." A children's clothing brand owner also said that although he visited many foreign markets and was ready to deploy overseas, the added value of distribution channels was too low, and the cost of building a self-built brand was very high, and he was also hesitant.
▲On March 3, the event site of Duoduo's cross-border business attracted more than 16 Ori children's clothing merchants.
On March 3, the special team of children's clothing category of Duoduo cross-border e-commerce business came to Zhili, visited local businesses and factories in depth, and answered the difficulties of children's clothing going overseas. This is undoubtedly timely for local businesses, with more than 16 children's clothing companies pouring into the event site alone.
"From the preliminary research, Ori children's clothing has great advantages in going overseas, and the quality and style are far ahead of foreign countries." The person in charge of the cross-border children's clothing category said that everyone thinks good when they mention foreign things, but in fact, it is not quite true, Chinese mothers are more exquisite in the choice of children's clothing, and the children's clothing fabrics in the weaving are mainly cotton, and foreign mothers can also accept polyester products.
In terms of children's clothing styles, the advantages of weaving are more obvious. Foreign children's clothing styles are very slow to update, the current bestsellers are 3 to 5 years old models, while Ori brand merchants can launch 500 to 1000,<> new models in a new season.
For the size of children's clothing that merchants and factories are concerned about, the person in charge also said that unlike adult clothing, the size of children's clothing is relatively consistent around the world, and the standards are slightly different. "The size and version of children's clothing at home and abroad are similar, but the sleeve length of foreign children is slightly longer, and the most feedback from our buyers in the format is that the sleeve length is not enough."
After entering the Duoduo cross-border platform, the platform adopts a unified standard for domestic children's clothing merchants, merchants and factories only need to produce according to the national standard size, and the platform is responsible for transcoding for different countries, further reducing the threshold for children's clothing to go overseas.
In the process of investigation, many local children's clothing manufacturing factories also expressed the urgent need for transformation and upgrading, but they were often trapped in the first step due to the lack of cross-border e-commerce operation experience.
"Duoduo cross-border backstage supports one-click translation of Chinese into global languages, automatic generation of model photos, etc., and small white businesses can easily get started." The person in charge of the cross-border children's clothing category said that for factories and merchants who lack cross-border e-commerce experience, the platform supports one-on-one door-to-door training by special personnel until the factory can operate independently and can catch the traffic in the station.
In order to promote the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing plants, Duoduo Cross-border also uses digital technology to launch a "reverse customization" model. Under this model, the Duoduo cross-border platform provides real-time feedback to the factory side of overseas consumers' needs, and the factory produces accurately on demand, which can greatly reduce production loss and inventory pressure.
In addition, Duoduo cross-border back-end also supports access to the factory's ERP system, enabling back-end production, sales and inventory in real time, further improving the factory's digital capabilities.
At present, this model has been applied to the children's clothing manufacturing factory in Foshan, Guangdong. Before the Spring Festival last year, the platform's sales of traditional Chinese clothing such as Hanfu and Tang clothing continued to rise, and the platform accurately fed back market demand to a Foshan factory, according to which the factory implemented customized production, selling 4000,80 pieces per day, becoming the main product category of the factory, accounting for <>% of the overall output.
One stop to sell the world, to create a brand to the sea bridgehead
Driven by the Duoduo cross-border team and the local children's clothing office, Zhili's children's clothing merchants have gradually dispelled their doubts about going overseas, and more than 10 merchants and factories have settled in Duoduo's cross-border business, and have begun to prepare for the upcoming summer children's clothing.
"In the overseas market, children's wear brands are still blank, and now is a good time for brands to go overseas." The person in charge of the cross-border children's clothing category revealed that the children's clothing category on the platform is now in rapid volume, with best-selling single models reaching the highest order of millions, and the monthly sales of top merchants have also approached 10 million.
▲Driven by Duoduo's cross-border business, Ori's children's clothing factory began to take the first step overseas.
The owner of the children's clothing brand mentioned above said, "The reason why I hesitated before was because the distribution channel could not directly reach consumers, which was the biggest difficulty in being a brand." Now Duoduo cross-border provides a direct channel for overseas consumers, which provides a lot of room for shaping IP. ”
In the next period, Duoduo Cross-border will focus on supporting the settled Zhili children's clothing, and take the lead in helping local enterprises to hit a batch of explosive models through a package of measures such as zero commission, free warehousing, halving of freight, and price subsidies, and quickly build up the brand voice at the lowest cost.
Since its launch in September last year, Duoduo's cross-border business has successively landed in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom, continuing to help China's manufacturing industry sell globally as a stop. In the eyes of practitioners of Ori children's clothing, the impact of one-stop selling on Ori children's clothing and the domestic industrial belt is far more than that.
In the domestic children's clothing market, the off-peak season is more obvious. Compared with other children's clothing industry belts in China, Ori's winter clothing is the most outstanding, and its peak season is also concentrated from August to December. Once the global market is opened, the off-season in the first half of the year can also be used, because winter clothing can be sold to the Australian market in the southern hemisphere, "one-stop selling the world means that the peak season is all year round".
"When the cross-border business was launched, Pinduoduo also officially launched the '2023 Duoduo Overseas Support Plan', the first phase to build 100 manufacturing brands going overseas." The person in charge of the children's wear category of Duoduo's cross-border business said that the platform will combine the R&D and design advantages of Zhili children's clothing to focus on creating a number of children's clothing brands, helping Huzhou to build Zhili into a bridgehead for Chinese children's wear brands to go overseas and continue to move towards the "world children's wear capital".