Looking at the evolution of Chinese enterprises going overseas, it is not difficult to find that their strategic connotation and value focus have undergone profound changes. Decades ago, Chinese companies relied on cost advantages to conquer the international market in the process of internationalization. Today, this strategic focus has shifted significantly to focus on original technology capabilities based on consumer needs and broad coverage and deep integration of ecosystem partners' technology enablements. The shift from relying on first-class competition to focusing on innovation leadership and ecosystem construction marks the characteristics of the new era for Chinese enterprises to go overseas.
In the field of fashion, SHEIN, as one of the representative enterprises of fashion going overseas, must have its own name and position. In China, the deep first-chain foundation is like a strong cornerstone, ensuring that SHEIN can produce on a large scale, meet the needs of the rapidly expanding global market, and maintain the stability and quality of brand output. The brand building of SHEIN has brought the possibility and space of brand recognition and premium to the domestic industry without a brand.
It is conceivable that when SHEIN is highly sought after in traditional fashion powers such as Europe and the United States, the international market's perception of Made in China has also undergone profound changes. They are gradually flourishing and maturing with the growth of the domestic garment industry, and then gaining due influence and status in the world.
In the era of mobile Internet, the popularization of smart phones has profoundly changed the way information interacts with people, and has become a key source of business model innovation. In this context, manpower-intensive industries such as the apparel industry are ushering in new opportunities for globalization with the help of digital transformation, and SHEIN is a typical representative. The basis for its success lies in the fact that China's first-class chain system has been highly mature and perfect after decades of development, occupying a significant share of the world's advanced manufacturing plants, and has a synergistic and integrated industrial chain formed by many industrial cluster bases.
Small and medium-sized enterprises have limited development space when they are fighting alone, but by cooperating with a first-class chain integrator like SHEIN, they can effectively broaden the boundaries of growth. SHEIN uses mobile Internet and digital technology to realize the synchronization and information flow of the whole chain and the whole process, thereby greatly improving efficiency, effectively solving the problem of high inventory faced by the traditional garment industry for a long time, and further promoting the upgrading and going overseas process of the entire industry.
According to reports, when SHEIN needs a T-shirt product, SHEIN places orders to various factories through the digital platform every afternoon, and after the factory business department calculates the completion of the book, it places an order with a specialized fabric supplier through SHEIN's digital tools, and the whole process from design to production can be completed in 7 days at the earliest, while ZARA needs at least 2-3 weeks to complete this process.
This is the efficiency that can only be tempered under digital manufacturing, and now through the global SHEIN, users around the world have used products from China's efficient ** chain.
Thanks to more than ten years of overseas sales network, mature marketing experience and innovative first-chain system, SHEIN began to attract third-party merchants to settle in the platform many years ago, and gradually established a dual-engine development model of "self-operated brand + platform".
In 2023, SHEIN will launch the National 500 Cities Industrial Belt Overseas Plan, which is expected to penetrate into the national 500 city industrial belt within three years. Through the 500 city industrial belt plan, SHEIN's on-demand production of flexible chain model will be extended and spilled over from the garment industry to more industries, which will not only help the industrial belt to go up to cross-border e-commerce to go to sea, but also help more industries to achieve production according to market and user needs through the upgrading of the digital flexible chain, which can not only reduce waste, but also help the long-term development of the industry and improve market competitiveness.
It can be said that the characteristics of the new era of Chinese enterprises going overseas are being vividly demonstrated by companies like SHEIN, which through innovation, cooperation and sharing, outline a magnificent picture of the common growth of the industrial chain and a win-win global market, injecting new vitality and possibilities into the world stage for Chinese enterprises.