With China’s economic and industrial restructuring, the traditional industries seek to transform and upgrade through innovation, which is of special significance to the local economy. By employing of foreign design talents, a Hangzhou apparel enterprise improve its core competitiveness in the garment industry; this can serve As an example for unemployment industrial transformation
In 1999, Li Baohong woke up before the dawn to start his wholesale clothing business. By 2002, he founded Everdear, a modern garment company that integrates design and production of women’s apparels. After the founding of the company, there was the rapid development of The clothing industry for the production of its orders six months in advance. However, starting from 2012, the whole garment industry before to change; in 2013 Everdear special losses. According to the data released by, in 2012 the inventory value Of Zhejiang’s textile and apparel industry was RMB 14.85 billion, in 2013 the figure raised to RMB 16.73 billion, in 2014 it was RMB 17.835 billion and in 2015 it was RMB 18.56 billion; the stock pressure continues to rise.
With the popularity of e-commerce, many prefer to buy apparels through digital platform; from 2012 to 2014, B2C transactions of the apparel industry maintained 40% growth rate. As the result, physical methods felt While most well-known clothing styles placed more in in the e-commerce sales. Facing the increasingly shrinking market, Everdear to find ways to achieve product transformation.
1. Employing foreign design talents for development breakthrough
In order to become outstanding after experiencing near bankruptcy, Everdear’s general manager Li Baohong turned to Paris and found himself a new partner. Roze Marie, now born in Canada and graduated from the renowned ESMOD International Fashion School in Paris at the age of 22. In 1986, she founded the fashion brand JAC named after her mother in Canada, and she remains to be a well-known designer in North America. Li Baohong and Roze set up a business partnership in China to expand the market, and now The Canadian has been in Hangzhou for three years. At the same time, the local government is not stingy for talent like Roze.
In the beginning of this year, Yuhang District government sponsor to set-up her brand JAC in the town, and provided three years rent-free preferential policy, and requested her to be the fashion and art ambassador of the town. Of the situation to develop its fashion industry to become the Milan of China, Li Baohong enjoys the preferential policies of the local government in industrial restructuring to accelerate the pace of his own business transformation.
2. Rapid localization of advanced experience
In China, localization is compulsory when one does business. The color, size, material preferences of the Chinese people are not the same as those of the Westerners, so JAC began to adjust the design details. In order to better understanding the needs of Chinese Customers, every new stores are opened across the country, Roze would personally observe the body size of the locals, as well as their dressing style in different seasons to make JAC brand as localized as possible. JAC found out that Chinese consumers like to go out Shopping with family season holidays, and so it adjusts its holiday sales strategy accordingly.
Understanding Chinese culture and the psychology of Chinese consumers is a necessary prerequisite for rapid localization of the JAC brand. It is noteworthy that the Chinese market is very attractive for foreign design talents. Roze pointed out that, "although I have a beautiful home in Canada But as a designer, it is only possible to grow in such rapid scale in China. What is happening now is what I dreamed of, and there is no reason for me to leave China. The longer I stay in China, the more I Feel that China has unlimited possibilities. China is increasingly internationalized; soon the foreigners will enter the third and four-tier cities.
3. Searching for refined market segments
Chinese clothing industry’s biggest problem is invent each other. As the product can not be differentiated from one and another, coupled with vicious competitive prices and the decline of quality, this has formed a vicious circle. If the first 20 years of the garment industry as a Whole were in the explosive growth stage, then the past five years, the golden age of the rapid growth of the apparel industry is over and it is now complicated on copying foreign brands for growth while being unable to adapt to the industry’s follow-up development.
With the introduction of the Eight-Point regulations of the central government, the sharp drop of official consumptions affecting the apparel industry with many foreign brands experience resume decline; to the horror of many up-market malls, the sales many fashion brands once favored by the wades of the officials drops drastically, yet these malls are still reluctant to let local brands coming to stay. Therefore, foreign brands with localized price have become popular in these malls, and without tariffs, air transport and other costs , The cost-effective JAC becomes one of the brands with the highest sales in these malls.
In this era of mobile internet, the consumers like everything to be synchronized; the time chain for product updates from the first-tier cities to small district towns has been lessened with consumers having increasingly high demand for personalization. As the apparel industry is moving to A & lt; / RTI & gt; a virtueier time, finer designs and innovation are becoming more important. As China’s high-end women’s wear industry continues to lead the apparel industry. JAC grabs this opportunity and rapidly realized the localization of the international premier brand, and found a space in the survival Homogenized market.
Getting out international talents would form the basis to achieve advanced methods and to experience rapid localization, finally to find the desirable market segments, and these are the important factors for the successful transformation of Everdear.
For the local government, discovering and encouraging enterprises to face the transition period of innovation and development, and to summarize the successful development experience will be important for the local development. By locating innovative ideas, identifying the elements of innovation and seizing the main innovation body Will make it possible for secure transformation upgrade, and growing expository in the local economic development.
