Apparel / Textiles & Accessories

The new force of international trade, the Children's Wear Capital of China, has begun to march overseas! Zhili Town is located in Wuxing District, Huzhou, and has been named for the prosperity of weaving since ancient times. In the late 1970s, the local children's wear industry began to develop, and has now become a veritable "Children's Wear Capital of China". There are over 14000 children's wear enterprises alone, with an annual output value of over 70 billion yuan.

For a long time, children's clothing in Zhili has been mainly sold in the domestic market, accounting for 90% of domestic sales. Only a portion of foreign trade orders will be sold to regions such as South Korea and Japan, and children's clothing styles are more biased towards Japanese and Korean styles. Since this year, the pace of children's clothing in weaving has significantly accelerated, and regions such as North America, Europe, and the Middle East have become new markets targeted by many local businesses. On February 2, the Huzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce organized 18 children's clothing and textile enterprises to attend the International Spring Consumer Goods Expo in Birmingham, England, marking the first shot of the year for children's clothing to go to sea.

The market is turning around, and South Koreans are also going to Zhili to find some hot items

"When we first entered the industry ten years ago, everyone went to South Korea to buy editions. On a flight from Shanghai to Seoul, sometimes more than half of the passengers were peers who went to South Korea to buy editions, which was embarrassing." According to the boss of a children's clothing brand, since 2018, this situation has reversed. South Korean bosses have started to come to Zhili to search for hot items, while in the current edition buying market, at most, more than 5000 people come to buy editions every day.

In the past year, due to the repeated impact of the epidemic, the sales of woven children's clothing in China has been affected to some extent. "Due to delays in delivery and logistics, children's clothing e-commerce has also experienced a short-term decline. The local Dahe Village is one of the five largest e-commerce villages in Zhili, a small village with only 3000 local villagers, and at most, there are 1500 e-commerce businesses.".

"The previous Dahe e-commerce village was crowded with people, and taxis simply couldn't get in, so they could only ride two wheeled electric vehicles to deliver goods." According to a taxi driver, compared to the previous bustling scene, last year's e-commerce village was slightly desolate, with rents at some stores also falling by half.

Since this year, Zhili children's clothing has rebounded comprehensively in the domestic market. At the same time, guided by a package of measures taken by the local government, many children's clothing businesses have also begun to turn their eyes to the international trade market, seeking the next growth curve for woven children's clothing.

Launch "reverse customization" mode to help transform and upgrade children's clothing factories

After returning from Birmingham, England, children's clothing merchants in Zhili have also started to spontaneously go out and have organized groups to participate in exhibitions in Vietnam, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and other regions. Some leading brand merchants have also begun to test the international trade market, designing and developing Nordic products that are more suitable for overseas consumers.

On March 16th, the special team for children's clothing under Pinduoduo's cross-border e-commerce business also came to Zhili. Under the guidance of Huzhou Bureau of Commerce, they deeply discussed the integration plan for children's clothing going overseas with the local children's clothing office, e-commerce association, cross-border e-commerce service platform Xiangyu Group, and more than 50 children's clothing enterprises.

With the promotion of the Duoduo cross-border team and the local children's wear office, more than 10 businesses and factories have successively settled in the Duoduo cross-border business, and are preparing for the upcoming hot sale of summer children's wear.

Sell globally in one stop, create a bridgehead for brands to go to sea

"In the international trade market, children's wear brands are still blank, and now is a good time for brands to go to sea." The head of the Duoduo cross-border children's wear category revealed that the platform's children's wear category is now starting to take off quickly, with best-selling single products reaching a maximum of one million orders of magnitude, and the monthly sales volume of leading merchants has also approached ten million orders of magnitude.

In the next period of time, Duoduo Cross Border will provide key support to the settled children's woven clothing. Through a package of measures such as zero commission, free warehousing, halving freight costs, and price subsidies, it will take the lead in helping local enterprises create a batch of blockbusters, and quickly create a brand reputation at minimal cost.

Since its launch in September last year, many cross-border businesses have successively landed in international trade markets such as North America, Australia, and the United Kingdom, continuing to help China's manufacturing industry sell globally in one stop. From the perspective of practitioners of children's clothing in weaving, the impact of one-stop selling globally on children's clothing in weaving and domestic industrial belts goes far beyond this.

In the domestic children's wear market, the peak season is more obvious. Compared to other domestic children's clothing industry belts, winter clothing in Zhili is the most outstanding, with its peak season also concentrated in August to December. Once the global market is opened, the off-season in the first half of the year can also be utilized, as winter clothing can be sold to the Australian market in the southern hemisphere. "Selling globally at one stop means that it is a peak season throughout the year.".

"When the cross-border business was launched, Pinduoduoduo also officially launched the '2023 Duoduo Overseas Support Plan', which aims to create 100 manufacturing overseas brands for the first time." The person in charge of the children's wear category of the cross-border business of Duoduo said that the next step will be to focus on creating a group of children's wear brands based on the R&D and design advantages of Zhili children's wear, helping Huzhou build Zhili into a bridgehead for the Chinese children's wear brand to go overseas, and continue to move towards the "World Capital of Children's Wear.".