The TV series "Flowers" made the Yellow River Road popular, but behind its plot is the dilemma and transformation of China's manufacturing industry, especially the textile and garment industry in the 90s: from the prosperous appearance of the Yellow River Road to the social reality of the laid-off tide of textile workers, and then to the strategic choice of technological upgrading and brand building. After decades, China's garment industry once again ushered in a critical period of transformation, in the face of the status quo of "big but not strong" and "complete but not refined", the national level issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation and Upgrading of Traditional Manufacturing Industry", advocating the quality change, efficiency change and power change of the manufacturing industry.
Among them, digital empowerment and brand upgrading have become the core strategies for the rebirth of traditional industries. In this context, SHEIN, as a typical representative of the successful breakthrough of Chinese clothing brands, has successfully ranked among the world's four major fashion brands with advanced digital technology and efficient chain management, showing the world that China can not only manufacture, but also lead the international fashion trend, thus setting a new benchmark for the transformation and upgrading of China's traditional clothing industry and other manufacturing industries.
How can a Chinese company with a short development history be able to achieve stronger chain management capabilities than European and American giants? In addition to the successful application of digital technology, SHEIN's uniqueness lies in the large number of small and medium-sized businesses behind it.
Unlike other large enterprises that often build their own production capacity or choose large-scale foundries, SHEIN does not like to fight alone, but chooses to establish a mutually beneficial and win-win synergistic relationship with a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, and deeply help them improve their comprehensive capabilities. Under the flexible ** chain, each SKU of SHEIN is often initially ordered at 100-200 pieces, and small and medium-sized ** merchants are undoubtedly the most advantageous model for SHEIN. And this model of SHEIN is the model that China's traditional garment manufacturing industry needs the most.
The small scale and low industry concentration of a single enterprise are still the characteristics of many traditional manufacturing industries in China, and they are also the biggest obstacle to their transformation. Shaxi Town, Zhongshan City, is a famous casual clothing capital in China, and there are 110,000 clothing market entities, but the small workshop model has led to low bargaining power and insufficient innovation of these enterprises, and it has always been difficult to give birth to well-known clothing brands. The dynamism of small business owners also provides the most jobs for society and is an integral part of China's economy.
How to help these enterprises transform and upgrade? SHEIN has given a comprehensive empowerment of the best suppliers to continue to provide them with flexible on-demand production, management training, factory construction and public welfare services, which is one of SHEIN's biggest features. In 2023, SHEIN announced that it would invest 500 million yuan in 5 years to continue to deepen the empowerment of ** business, and established the first garment manufacturing innovation center to continue to output flexible ** chain standards.
In Guangzhou, SHEIN has a garment manufacturing innovation research center covering an area of 60,000 square meters, and has carried out more than 620 trainings in 2023 alone, providing training for first-chain enterprises in all aspects such as operation management, planning and development, production scheduling, operation stocking, and quality management. The prescription provided by SHEIN greatly enhances the comprehensive ability of the company, from manufacturing to process to quality control.
A single flower is not spring, and the garden is full of purple and red spring. In the past few years, the rapid development of unicorn enterprises has long been the main theme of China's economy, and how new technologies can drive the overall transformation and upgrading of the traditional manufacturing industry is the biggest proposition of this era. In 2023, SHEIN will officially expand the platform model, and the opening of all categories around fashion and lifestyle, such as beauty, home furnishing, shoes, bags, accessories, etc., will allow more brands and merchants to see the opportunity to go overseas.
Now, in the context of the deep innovation of the global manufacturing industry, SHEIN has won the fourth place in the 2023 Morning Consult "Top 10 Fastest Growing Brands in the United States" by virtue of its outstanding achievements in overseas markets, and is the only Chinese brand on the list, which is warmly welcomed and highly recognized by young consumers around the world, especially millennials. This extraordinary achievement strongly demonstrates the ambition and strength of China's apparel industry to successfully counterattack through technological innovation and brand strategy in the face of the challenge of building an internationally renowned brand.
To sum up, "Flowers" not only outlines the elegance of the Yellow River Road, but also reveals the countless bright flowers that have bloomed in the stage of innovation and transformation of China's manufacturing industry. The successful case of SHEIN is not only the inheritance and development of the spirit of the times of "Flowers", but also a powerful interpretation of the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry, indicating that a new era is coming, and a spring of "a hundred flowers blooming and thousands of purples and thousands of reds" led by Made in China is blooming warmly around the world.